Before the Industrial Revolution

Before the Industrial Revolution

Chapter 2

Multiple Choice

How did the Industrial Revolution change the social life of people in Europe?

• People moved to the country to be away from the factories.
• The working conditions were excellent.
• Women and child were NOT allowed to work.
• People moved from the country to the cities in order to work in factories.

Multiple Choice

Before 1750 Britain was an agricultural society

• True

• False

Multiple Choice

Which statement is true?

• Children were not allowed to work in the mines during the Industrial Revolution
• Work conditions were closely regulated
• There were no labor laws that prevented children from working
• Children were allowed to work but they were treated fairly. 

Multiple Choice

This machine allowed factories to be built anywhere, powered by coal.

• flying shuttle

• steam engine

• spinning jenny

• cotton gin

Multiple Choice

In which country did the Industrial Revolution begin?

• The United States

• England

• France

• Germany

Learning Objectives

• Understand the living and working conditions that existed prior to the Industrial Revolution

• Recognize the challenges that poor people faced in pre-industrial times

Chapter 2 Vocabulary

• Serfdom (n): An agricultural system in which people (serfs) were not free, but were required to stay and work for a landowner as the owner demanded

• Serf (n): a peasant who is not free; a person living on a feudal estate who was required to work for the lord of the manor

• Landlord (n): a person who owns property that other people pay to use or live in

Chapter 2 Vocabulary

• Yeoman (n): a person who owns and works on a small farm

• Gentry (n): people who own land and have high social standing but no titles of nobility

• Poach (n): to hunt or fish illegally

• Malnutrition (n): a state of poor health due to not having enough healthy food

The Old Ways

• Serfdom died out in the 1400s after the Peasant's Revolt in 1381

• Serfs became villager and were not tied to the land like serfs were

• Villagers would rent land and were free to move if a different landlord offered better terms

• Some villagers became yeoman farmers

The Old Ways

• Some villagers were accepted as gentry (landholding elite)

• Most rural English people were very poor

• Almost all English people worked sunrise to sunset in fields near their village or town

• Windmills and waterwheels helped grind grain or pump water out of flooded fields

The Old Ways

• Oxen would be used to help plow fields

• However, poorer people had to do this on their own

• Everyone faced the same problem: producing enough food to survive

• A lot depends on weather, the rest depends on hard work

The Old Ways

• Grew wheat, rye, barley, and oats

• Grains would then be taken to a mill to grind it into flour

• Flour was then used to bake bread or eaten as mush or porridge

• If there was enough grain, it would be used to feed livestock

• People would also grow vegetables and herbs in personal gardens

• Might get eggs from their chickens, ducks, or geese

• Some were lucky enough to have apple or pear trees or to find wild berries

Multiple Choice

Before 1750 Britain was an agricultural society

• True

• False

The Old Ways

• Some might be able to catch fish in a nearby pond or river

• Yeoman farmers might make cheese from goats' or cows' milk

• Might make yarn from their sheep's wool

• Any extras could be sold or traded at the market

• Every village/town had at least one market every week during the warm months

• Could buy goods at the market that they could not make themselves (salt, spices, other goods)

The Seasons

• In winter, poor villagers would have to slaughter their pigs, sheep, ducks, geese, and chickens

• Could not afford to feed them until next year's grain could be harvested

The Seasons

• In Spring, poor villagers could trade something they made for a piglet, lamb, baby ducks, geese, and chicks

• Farmworkers had to plow the fields

• very hard work, especially if you couldn't afford oxen

The Seasons

• Seed was precious and could not be wasted

• If spring rain didn't come at the right time, the seedlings died in the fields (no crops that year)

• Crows, rats, and mice were pests (eat the seeds)

• Foxes preyed on the farm animals

• Villagers were NOT allowed to hunt deer or rabbits that would eat their crops

• Hunting was only allowed for the Lord and his family; villagers would be punished for poaching the Manor Lord's game

Open Ended

Why might some farmers and villagers hunt game, even thorugh this was not allowed?

The Harvest

• Men would harvest the fields

• Used sickles and scythes to cut down the grains

• Then had to dry out the stalks and then thresh (beat) until the edible grain was freed from the husks

• Had to save some seed grain for next year's crop

• Most worried that the food would not last through the winter

Rural Life

• Governed by the seasons

• Everything depended on the success of the harvest

• Starvation might have been rare but malnutrition was common

• Malnutrition = body is more vulnerable to sickness and diseases

• Diseases we don't consider fatal now were back then (measles, whooping cough, chickenpox, etc.)

Daily Life

• Houses had one large room with a low ceiling, dirt floor, open hole in the roof, very little furniture

• Most homes had a rough table and benches, beds made out of straw

• Whole family would often sleep in the same area or bed to stay warm

• Toilet = hole in the ground outside

• Some had barrels near the hut to collect water but most had to go to the village well or a nearby stream/pond for water

Daily Life

• No schools or hospitals

• Almost no one could read or write

• Priest was usually the only educated person in the village

• Largest building in town was the church

• local lord or yeoman would hire villagers as dayworkers to help

• Poor folks took whatever work they could

• Being born poor usually meant dying poor

Powerless Poor

• Typically had no say in government

• No power to change their lives in a peaceable way

• Protests were put down with force

• Life often felt dreary and painful

• Life did not change for centuries until new technologies were created in the 1600s, 1700s, and beyond

Open Ended

What was rural life like for ordinary people before the Industrial Revolution?