City Inspector

Brianne Abrams

History 10

9/16/14

For this assignment we were told to pretend to be a city inspector and go around and read reports about the factories. While reading the reports we had to pick out the positives and negatives of each industry.

This report dated September 15th, 1846 has been provided for the urban planning committees of various cities in England. My name is Brianne Abrams, and as a mid-level city inspector i trust that you will use the information within to determine appropriate needs in urban planning for your municipalities. My report has been through as I have made use of all the sources available to me and have worked to guide you through my own analysis and critical thinking to a full description of the issues facing our cities.

There were not too many positives views about life and work during industrialization in the nineteenth century. Reading through all the document I found only one industry the had absolutely no negatives at all, and that was document B. Document B talked highly about the cotton industry. The workers claimed it to be a very friendly environment saying that they can get along with the owners very well, calling them their friends. The cotton factory was also stated to be clean and “glorious.”This industry was played off to be too good to be true. With that being document E was the only other document to list positives, but this document came off as a little strange to me. It seems as though the inspector as lying about the conditions in this document. The inspector wrote that the factory had no smoke, no accidents, and time to rest. Overall this factory had good conditions. I feel as though the factory new about the inspection and picked the place up just before the inspector came or the inspector was paid off.

The negative views of the impact of the industrialization on life and work in the cities over powered the positive. During industrialization many of the rivers were dyed purple due to cotton dying or dyed black due to oil. (doc. A and D) Causing the drinking water to no longer be drinkable. Document D revealed the worst working conditions compared to the other factories. The workers ears were piercing due to the extremely loud noises that the machines made. The factory also had a very noticeable stench to it. Besides the smell and the noises the unsafe working conditions caused many to get hurt. It also caused the children working in the factory to grow up with defects. The other factories had similar conditions just not all in the same factory. All of the factories had contributed to incredible amounts of pollution due to the amounts of smoke being let out through the chimneys and into the air.

In conclusion if I had to lean more to the positive or negative side I have to side with the negative. There are just too many negatives that over power the positives, yes there are friendly bosses, but there is child labor causing children to grow up with defects. People are having limbs fall off, and unsanitary drinking water. So many people are negatively affected and they are extreme to just say well one factory had a friendly environment so life during industrialization was positive.