Chapter 10: America's Economic Revolution
#55: TocqueviUe Describes America Attitude About Work
9.1: The Harbinger, Female Workers of Lowell (VI)
9.2: Mary Paul, Letters Home (VI)
Marching With "General Ludd": Machine Breaking in the Industrial
Revolution, Bill of Rights in Action
John Stuart Mill and Individual Liberty, Bill of Rights in Action (24:4)
2009
TocqueviUe Describes American Attitudes About Work
271
TocqueviUe
Describes American
Attitudes About
Work (1840)
In 183 i the French government sent young Alexis de
Toccjueville to the United States to study the American
prison system. While in America Toccjueville jound
that his interest was captured by jar more than just
the prisons. He was especially impressed by the Ameri
can spirit of democracy, with its twin promises of
equality and freedom. Toccjueville noted that one of
the ways in which the Americans demonstrated this
democratic spirit was in their attitudes about work.
In the following excerpts from his book Democracy
in America, Toccjueville discusses his observations
on this topic. As you read the selection, note the
way in which the Americans and the Europeans differ
in their attitudes toward work.
Amongst a democratic people, where there is no
JLJL hereditary wealth, every man works to earn
a living, or has worked, or is born of parents who
have worked. The notion of labour is therefore pre
sented to the mind on every side as the necessary,
natural, and honest condition of human existence.
Not only is labour not dishonourable amongst such
a people, but it is held in honour: the prejudice is
not against it, but in its favour. In the United States
a wealthy man thinks that he owes it to public opinion
to devote his leisure to some kind of industrial or
commercial pursuit, or to public business. He would
think himself in bad repute if he employed his life
solely in living. It is for the purpose of escaping
this obligation to work that <;o manv rirh Americans
From Democracy in
America by Alexis de
TocqueviUe.
272 EyetPitnesses and Others: Readings in American History, Volume 1
come to Europe, where they find some scattered
remains of aristocratic society, amongst which idle
ness is still held in honour.
Equality of conditions not only ennobles the
notion of labour in men's estimation, but it raises
the notion of labour as a source of profit. . . .
No profession exists in which men do not work
for money,- and the remuneration [pay] which is
common to them all gives them all an air of resem
blance. This serves to explain the opinions which
the Americans entertain with respect to different
callings. In America no one is degraded because he
works, for everyone about him works also, nor is
anyone humiliated by the notion of receiving pay,
for the President of the United States also works
for pay. He is paid for commanding, other men
for obeying orders. In the United States professions
are more or less laborious, more or less profitable,-
but they are never either high or low: every honest
calling is honourable. . . .
The United States of America have only been
emancipated for half a century from the state of
colonial dependence in which they stood to Great
Britain: the number of large fortunes there is small,
and capital is still scarce. Yet no people in the world
has made such rapid progress in trade and manufac
tures as the Americans, they constitute at the present
day the second maritime nation in the world,- and
although their manufactures have to struggle with
almost insurmountable natural impediments [obsta
cles], they are not prevented from making great and
daily advances. In the United States the greatest
undertakings and speculations are executed without
difficulty, because the whole population is engaged
in productive industry, and because the poorest as
well as the most opulent [wealthy] members of the
commonwealth are ready to combine their efforts
for these purposes. The consequence is, that a
stranger is constantly amazed by the immense public
works executed by a nation which contains, so to
TocqueviUe Describes American Attitudes About Work
273
speak, no rich men. The Americans arrived but as
yesterday on the territory which they inhabit, and
they have already changed the whole order of nature
for their own advantage. They have joined the Hud
son [River] to the Mississippi, and made the Atlantic
Ocean communicate with the Gulf of Mexico, across
a continent of more than five hundred leagues [about
2,000 miles] in extent which separates the two seas.
The longest railroads which have been constructed
up to the present times are in America. But what
most astonishes me in the United States, is not so
much the marvellous grandeur of some undertakings,
as the innumerable multitude of small ones. Almost
all the farmers of the United States combine some
trade with agriculture,- most of them make agriculture
itself a trade. It seldom happens that an American
farmer settles for good upon the land which he occu
pies: especially in the districts of the far West he
brings land into tillage in order to sell it again, and
not to farm it: he builds a farmhouse on the specula
tion that, as the state of the country will soon be
changed by the increase of population, a good price
will be gotten for it. Every year a swarm of the
inhabitants of the North arrive in the Southern States,
and settle in the parts where the cotton-plant and
the sugar-cane grow. These men cultivate the soil
in order to make it produce in a few years enough
to enrich them,- and they already look forward to
Alexis de Toccjueville
was a French statesman
who observed American
democracy at work dur
ing a visit to the United
States and wrote favor
ably about it when he
returned home.
274 Eyewitnesses and Others: Readings in American History, Volume 1
the time when they may return home to enjoy the
competency [money] thus acquired. Thus the Ameri
cans carry their business-like qualities into agricul
ture,- and their trading passions are displayed in that
as in their other pursuits.
The Americans make immense progress in pro
ductive industry, because they all devote themselves
to it at once,- and for this same reason they are
exposed to very unexpected and formidable embar
rassments. As they are all engaged in commerce,
their commercial affairs are affected by such various
and complex causes that it is impossible to foresee
what difficulties may arise. As they are all more or
less engaged in productive industry, at the least shock
given to business [such as a recession] all private
fortunes are put in jeopardy at the same time, and
the State is shaken. I believe that the return of these
commercial panics is an endemic [native] disease
of the democratic nations of our age. It may be
rendered less dangerous, but it cannot be cured,because it does not originate in accidental circum
stances, but in the temperament of these nations.
REVIEWING THE READING
1. According to TocqueviUe, how do
wealthy Americans view work? How does
this view differ from the view of wealthy
Europeans?
2. Give two examples from the selection that
illustrate Tocqueville's observation that
the Americans had changed the order of
nature for their own advantage.
3. Using Your Historical Imagination. What
do you think TocqueviUe meant by his
statement that commercial panics origi
nate "in the temperament" of democratic
nations?
The Harbinger, Female Workers of Lowell
(1836)
Thefollowing is aselectionfrom a magazine report investigating the textile mills ofNew
England. Textile millsformed the backbone ofthe rapidly industrializing north while other
industrial operations expanding during the period included paper mills (primarily in
Philadelphia), iron and metalworking, refineries, and shoemaking (again, like textiles, prima
rily in Nrw England). In 1836 Lowell had 17,000 inhabitants, and women composed nearly
70 percent ofthe laboring population. In addition to providing relatively cheap and dependable
labor, itwas hoped that theyoung unmarried women would keep thefactories clean, Christian,
and productive.*
We have lately visited the cities ofLowell [Mass.] and Manchester [N.H.] and have
had an opportunity ofexamining the factory system more closely than before.
We had distrusted the accounts which we had heard from persons engaged in the labor
reform now beginning to agitate New England. We could scarcely credit the state
ments made in relation to the exhausting nature of the labor in the mills, and to the
manner in which the young women—the operatives—lived in their boardinghouses,
six sleeping in a room, poorly ventilated.
We went through many of the mills, talked particularly to a large number of the
operatives, and ate at their boardinghouses, on purpose to ascertain by personal
inspection the facts ofthe case. We assure our readers that very little information is
possessed, and no correct judgments formed, by the public at large, ofour factory sys
tem, which is the first germ ofthe industrial orcommercial feudalism that is to spread
over our land....
In Lowell live between seven and eight thousand young women, who are generally
daughters offarmers ofthe different states ofNew England. Some ofthem are members
of families that were rich in the generation before....
*From The Harbinger, Nov. 14, 1836.
114
V-Yi k)\ Bl'|[.din(, and Xatk >NAI.ISM
1 15
The operatives work thirteen hours a day in the summer time, and from daylight to
dark in the winter. At halfpast four in the morning the factor)' bell rings, and at five the
girls must be in the mills. A clerk, placed as a watch, observes those who are a few min
utes behind the time, and effectual means are taken to stimulate to punctuality. This is
the morningcommencement of the industrial discipline (should we not rather sayindus
trial tyranny?) which is established in these associations of this moral and Christian
community.
Atseven the girls are allowed thirty minutes for breakfast, and at noon thirty minutes
more for dinner, exceptduring the first quarter of the year, when the time is extended to
forty-five minutes. But within this time thev must hurrv to their boardinghouses and
return to the factory, and that through the hot sun or the rain or the cold. A meal eaten
under such circumstances must be quite unfavorable to digestion and health, as any
medical man will inform us. After seven o'clock in the evening the factory bell sounds
the close of the day's work.
Thus thirteen hours per day of close attention and monotonous labor are extract
ed from the young women in these manufactories....So fatigued—we should say,
exhausted and worn out, but we wish to speak of the system in the simplest language
—are numbers of girls that they go to bed soon after their evening meal, and endeav
or bv a comparatively long sleep to resuscitate their weakened frames for the toil of
the coming day.
When capital has got thirteen hours of labor daily out of a being, it can get nothing
more. It would be a poor speculation in an industrial point of view to own the operative;
for the trouble and expense of providing for times of sickness and old age would more
than counterbalance the difference between the price of wages and the expenses of
board and clothing. The far greater number of fortunes accumulated by the North in
comparison with the South shows that hireling labor is more profitable for capital than
slave labor.
Now let us examine the nature of the labor itself, and the conditions under which it
is performed. Enter with us into the large rooms, when the looms are at work. The
largest that we saw is in the Amoskeag Mills at Manchester... .The din and clatter of
these five hundred looms, under full operation, struck us on first entering as something
frightful and infernal, for itseemed such an atrocious violation of one ofthe faculties of
the human soul, the sense ofhearing. After a while we became somewhat used to it, and
by speaking quite close to the ear ofan operative and quite loud, we could hold a con
versation and make the inquiries we wished.
The girls attended upon an average three looms; many attended four, but this
requires avery active person, and the most unremitting care. However, agreat many do
it. Attention to two is as much as should be demanded of an operative. This gives us
some idea of the application required during the thirteen hours of daily labor. The
atmosphere of such a room cannot of course be pure; on the contrary, it is charged
with cotton filaments and dust, which, we are told, are very injurious to the lungs.
On entering the room, although the day was warm, we remarked that the windows
were down. V\ e asked the reason, and a young woman answered very naively, and with
out seeming to be in the least aware that this privation offresh air was anything else than
116
V( )ices ()F America Past and Present
perfectly natural, that "when the wind blew, the threads did not work well." After we had
been in the room for fifteen or twenty minutes, we found ourselves, as did the persons
who accompanied us, in quite a perspiration, produced by a certain moisture which we
observed in the air, as well as by the heat....
The young women sleep upon an average six in a room, three beds to a room. There
is no privacy7, no retirement, here. It is almost impossible to read or write alone, as the
parlor is full and so many sleep in the same chamber. A young woman remarked to us
that if she had a letter to write, she did it on the head of a bandbox, sitting on a trunk,
as there was no space for a table.
So live and toil the young women of our country in the boardinghouses and manu
factories which the rich and influential of our land have built for them.
Document Analysis
1. Why did industrialists prefer to hire unmarried women for work in factories and
mills like those in Lowell?
2. Why would thousands of young women go to work in places like the Lowell mills
in this era? What was life like for them in the mill and in their living quarters?
Mary Paul, Letters Home
(1845, 1846)
Thefollowing documents are lettersfrom Mary Paul, an operative at the Lowell ?nills, to her
father in Claremont, New Hampshire. Maty wasfifteen years old, and typical ofmany ofthe
young women who worked in Lowell and similar mill towns. Mill work offered women like
Maty the possibility ofindependence—Mary herselfworked awayfrom homefor twelveyears
before her marriage. And, like Mary Paul, most women did not make a permanent commit
ment to factory work. Because ofthis and otherfactors, rural women proved only to be a tem
porary fix to the needs ofindustrialization, and by the 1840s and 1850s they were replaced by
immigrant, largely Irish, labor. *
Saturday Sept. 13th 1845
Dear Father
...I want vou to consent to let me go to Lowell if you can. I think it would be much
better for me than to stay about here. I could earn more to begin with than I can any
where about here. I am in need of clothes which I cannot get if I stay about here and
for that reason I want to go to Lowell or some other place. We all think if I could go
with some steady tfirl that I might do well. I want vou to think of it and make up your
mind....
Marv
• From "The Letters of Man* Paul. 1845-1849," in I'cnnont History 48, ed. Thomas Dublin, (Montpelier,
\T: Vermont Historical Society, 1980). Reprinted with permission ofVermont Historical Society.
II
118
V( )K:es (>f Americ :a Past and Present
Woodstock Nov 8 1845
Dear Father
As you wanted me to let you know when I am going to start for Lowell, I improve this
opportunity to write you. Next Thursday the 13th of this month is the day set or the
Thursday afternoon. I should like to have you come down. If you come bring Henry if
you can for I should like to see him before I go....
Man7
Lowell Nov 20th 1845
Dear Father
...Went to a boarding house and staid until Monday night. On Saturday after I got
here Luthera Griffith went round with me to find a place but we were unsuccessful.
On xMonday we started again and were more successful. We found a place in a spin
ning room and the next morning I went to work. I like very well have 50 cts first pay
ment increasing even' payment as I get along in work have a first rate overseer and a
very good boarding place....It cost me S3.25 to come. Stage fare was S3.00 and lodg
ing at Windsor, 25 cts. Had to pay only 25 cts for board for 9 days after I got here
before I went into the mill. Had 2.50 left with which I got a bonnet and some other
small articles....
excuse bad writing and mistakes
This from your own daughter
Man-
Lowell Dec 21st 1845
Dear Father
...I am well which is one comfort. My life and health are spared while others are cut off.
Last Thursday one girl fell down and broke her neck which caused instant death. She
was truing in or coming outof the mill and slipped down it being very icy. The same day
aman was killed by the [railroad] cars. Another had nearly all ofhis ribs broken. Another
was nearly killed by foiling down and having a bale ofcotton fall on him. Last Tuesday
we were paid. In all I had six dollars and sixty cents paid $4.68 for board. With the rest
Igot me apair of rubbers and apair of 50 cts shoes. Next payment I am to have adol
lar aweek beside my board....Perhaps you would like something about our regulations
about going in and coming out of the mill. At 5o'clock in the morning the bell rings for
the folks to get up and get breakfast. At half past six it rings for the girls to get up and at
X VI U )\ Bl/ILDIN(. AND XaTK )\ALISM
11l)
seven they are called into the mill. At half past 12 we have dinner are called back again
at one and stay till half past seven. I get along very* well with my work....
This from
Man- S. Paul
Lowell April 12th 1846
Dear Father
...The overseer tells me that he never had a girl get along better than I do and that he
will do the best he can by me. I stand it well, though they tell me that I am growing very
poor. I was paid nine shillings a week last payment and am to have more this one though
we have been out considerable for backwater which will take off a good deal.* The
Agent promises to pay us nearly as much as we should have made but I do not think that
he will....I have a very good boarding place have enough to eat and that which is good
enough. The girls are all kind and obliging. The girls that I room with are all from
Vermont and good girls too....
Document Analysis
1. How does Marv Paul characterize her life and work in Lowell? Do you think she's
being totally honest with her father about her situation?
*Marv quoted her wages in English currency, but she was almost certainly paid in American money. Nine
shillings would he equal to Si.50. Alan* was referring to her wages exclusive ofroom and board charges.
"Backwater" was caused by heavy run-off from rains and melting snow. The high water levels caused water
to back up and block the watenvheel.
Marching With
General Ludd":
Vlachine
breaking In the
Industrial
devolution
In the early 1800s, machines
began to radically change the
lives of many English cloth
workers. Skilled and proud of
their
handmade
products,
many workers revolted by
smashing the machines that
threatened their way of life.
Lacking a central leader, the
workers
claimed
to
follow
a
mythical figure called "General
Ludd," apparently named after
an apprentice named Ned Ludd
Workers attacka mechanical loom during England's Industrial Revolution.
(Bettmann/CORBIS)
who once smashed a mechani
cal loom. Today, the term
"Luddite" is still used to refer to people resisting
technological change.
For centuries, English women worked at home with
spinning wheels to make wool and cotton yarn.
Men wove the yarn into cloth on hand looms at home
or in small village shops. Finishers, called "croppers,"
wielded heavy shears to remove the nap, or
fuzz, on the woven cloth. Others worked by
hand to make articles of clothing such as knit
ted stockings for both men and women.
machines powered by water or steam in large factories.
Machines could do the work of many craftsmen and
could be tended by relatively few workers, even wom
en and children.
*n%ines of Mischief
TheseEngines ofmischiefwere sentenced to die
By unanimousvote ofthe Trade.
And Ludd who can all opposition defy
Was the Grand executioner made.
—from a Luddite song
)
During the early 1800s, several conditions
threatened the livelihood of English cloth
workers. Bad harvests increased food prices.
War with Napoleon in Europe and with the
United States in America disrupted trade, cut
ting the demand for cloth overseas. Falling
wages, unemployment, and hunger added to
the miseiy of many workers and their families.
1
To keep their businesses alive, employers start
ed cutting costs. Instead of paying craftsmen to
make cloth and clothing by hand in their homes
and small shops, employers increasingly
turned to machines. At first, they shifted to
machines that
homes,
but
workers could
gradually
they
use
in their
switched
to
In the county of Nottinghamshire, employers rented
out hand-operated machine looms, called stocking,
frames, to workers in small shops. Workers used the
stocking frame to knit stockings, hats, gloves, scarves,
and other small articles of clothing. The employers
paid these workers by the pieces of work they complet
ed. The employers encouraged unskilled apprentices,
usually teenage boys, to take up the stocking-frame
trade. Production soared because of these machines,
but worker wages sank, and the quality of goods
declined. Anger mounted, especially among the tradi
tional hand knitters, who couldn't compete with the
stocking-frame workers.
To the north, Yorkshire was the center for wool-cloth
finishing. This involved cleaning, stretching, pressing,
(Continued on next page)
and cropping. Croppers cut
off the nap on the cloth, using
"The Hero otf
Nottinghamshire"
shears that were four feet long
and weighed 40 pounds.
Experienced and
skilled,
Croppers took great pride in
their work. But increasingly,
unskilled workers were doing
Chantno moreyour old rhyme
about hold Robin Hood,
His feats I but little admire.
I will sing the Achievements of
General Ludd,
Now the Hero of
Nottinghamshire.
the same kind of work with
machines called gig mills and
shearing frames. One cropper
wrote, "now gigs and shear
ing frames are like to become
general, if they are allowed to
go on many hundreds of us
ing-frame breaking erupted in
Nottinghamshire, where the
legendary Robin Mood lived.
will be out of bread."
Since trade unions were ille
—from a Luddite song
In 1811, food riots and stock
gal, workers formed secret,
underground groups that sent
threatening letters to employ
For a long time, neighboring
Lancashire was the major
region in England for hand
spinning and weaving. By
ers and local officials. The let
ters were usually signed by the
mysterious "Ned Ludd."
1790, factories with machines
powered by water or steam
engines began to appear in
Lancashire and other cloth-
r
making counties. Lancashire
workers who still spun and
Technological changes brought on by the Industrial
Revolution disrupted village andfamily life,forcing many
into squalid conditions in rapidly growing cities.
(Bettmann/CORBIS)
wove cotton cloth by hand
gradually saw their wages go down and their jobs
disappear.
Soon the Luddites were arm
ing themselves, training in
secret, and marching on night
time raids against shops and
factories where they smashed
the hated stocking frames. By the end of 1811, they had
destroyed about 1,000 frames.
Shifting the workplace from the home and village shop
to large factories radically disrupted family and com
munity life. Unskilled women and children tended the
factory machines. They often worked 12 hours or more
a day behind locked doors. Factory workers could be
fined for talking on the job. Heat, noise, cotton dust,
and machine accidents constantly threatened their
The English government responded by planting spies,
offering rewards to informers, and sending several
thousand troops into the troubled area. But the authori
ties had little success in cracking the Luddite code of
secrecy. Seven Luddites, aged 16 to 22, were put on tri
al, convicted, and sent to the prison colony of
health.
Nottinghamshire finally ended in the spring of 1812
when Parliament passed a law that made machine
breaking a death-penalty offense.
Factory owners and employers who rented stocking
frames and other machines to men still working at
home or in small shops sought ever-increasing produc
tion and profit. Most employers supported a laissez
faire economy—one with no government interference
in how they ran their enterprises or treated their work
ers.
In
1899, a
laissez
faire-minded
Parliament
repealed worker protections going back to the days of
Queen Elizabeth. Parliament also rejected worker
pleas for a minimum-wage law and made trade unions
illegal. The times were ripe for a worker rebellion.
•
Australia.
Luddite
raids
and
other
activities
in
The scene then shifted northward to Yorkshire and
Lancashire. As in Nottinghamshire, secret bands
marched at night under the banner of "General Ludd."
They sought out and destroyed gig mills, shearing
frames, power looms, and other machines. This time,
though, the Luddite raiders met armed resistance.
"¥3fth (Hatchet, Plko, and Sun"
Food riots and machine breaking spread to neighboring
Andnight by night whenall is still,
Lancashire. A dozen more Luddites were killed. The
And the moon is hid behind the hill,
widespread violence in the three counties produced a
growing fear ofa general rebellion. Even so, Parliament
still refused to address the grievances and suffering of
Weforward march to do our will
With hatchet, pike, and gun.
—from a Luddite song
The most famous Luddite raid took place in 1812
against a factory in Yorkshire owned by William
Cartwright. Cartwright's factory contained 50 waterpowered shearing frames, each doing the work of four
or five croppers with their heavy cutting shears.
the workers and their families.
Soever Lay ©own Arms"
We will never lay down Arms [until] The House of
Commons passes an Act to put down all Machinery
hurtful to [the common people], and repeal that [law]
to hang Frame Breakers.
Cartwrightwas determined to protect his property from
—from a letter to the government
signed by "Ned Ludd"
the Luddite machine breakers. He and 10 of his work
men, all armed with muskets, remained inside the facto
ry at night to defend it in case ofattack.
Shortly after midnight on April 11, 1812, local Luddite
leader George Mellor, a 24-year-old cropper, marched
with about 150 other workers to Cartwright's factory.
Armed with hatchets, pikes (similar to spears), and
guns, the Luddites swarmed in front of the four-story
factory. Some began to throw stones at the windows.
Others began to strike its heavy main door with sledge
The English government decided to use fear and force
to destroy the Luddite movement. The government sent
more than 10,000 British troops into Nottinghamshire,
Yorkshire, and Lancashire. The authorities also offered
pardons to those who renounced their oath to "General
Ludd." Paid informers and spies reported the names of
local Luddite leaders and testified against them in court.
Soldiers broke up Luddite meetings, made arrests, and
forced confessions.
hammers.
vFrom inside the building, Cartwright and his men began
shootingat the Luddite attackers, the first time this had
ever happened. Cartwright also ordered one of his men
to ring the factory bell to alert a troop of cavalry sta
tioned nearby. The surprised Luddites began shooting
back into the factory, and an exchange of gunfire took
place for about 20 minutes.
Mellor encouraged his men who were still pounding
away at the factory door. "Bang up my lads," he cried.
"In with you. Kill every one of them!" But the solid
door held.
Fearing the arrival of cavalry, Mellor ordered his men
to retreat. The Luddites left two of their men dead in
front ofthe factory. Several others died later ofgunshot
wounds. Among the factory defenders, only Cartwright
was wounded. He became an instant hero to factory
owners and government authorities, who redoubled
their efforts to crush the Luddite threat.
The violence was not over. About two weeks after the
battle at Cartwright's factory, another factory owner,
William Horsfall, was ambushed and shot to death.
Horsfall had taunted that he wished he could ride
through streets filled with Luddite blood.
George Mellor, the leader of the Cartwright factory
raid, and two other Luddite leaders were tried for the
murder of factory owner William Horsfall. Convicted
largelyon the testimony of an informer, Mellor and the
others refused to break the Luddite code of silence.
They were hanged in January 1813.A short time later,
14 other Yorkshire Luddites were tried and hanged for
attacks on factories and machine breaking. Another 10
were executed after trials in Lancashire.
Scatteredattacks against machines and factories contin
ued for a few more years, but the Luddite movement
was finished. Thousands of machines and even entire
factories had been destroyed. But the defeat of"General
Ludd" brought on by military force, trials, and hangings
cleared the way for England's Industrial Revolution.
By the 1830s, the factory system had just about
replaced most of England's hand spinners, weavers,
and croppers. Laissez-faireeconomics and the machine
ruled the lives ofmost English workers.
UaddlBtea Today
Although the Luddite movement died long ago, the
term "Luddite" survives. It means a person who resists
technological change. It is commonly used as an insult.
It can be applied to a person who favors a typewriter
(Continued on nextpage)
over a computer or who has never learned to drive a car.
This insult, fair or not, may be hurled at anyone who
objects to the useof a newtechnology. Theseindividuals
nclude environmental activists, those who object to
humancloning,opponents ofnuclearpowerand radiated
food as well as workers whose jobs are threatened by
automation and computers. As the pace of technological
innovation increases, it is likely that many people will
resist some aspects of new technology. It is also likely
that their opponents will call them "Luddites."
For (DBscussdon and WrfltOmg
1. Howdid the factory system radically change the way
oflife ofEnglish workers in the early 1800s?
2. Think of yourselfas a self-employed cropper, living
in Yorkshire, England, in 1812. Why would you be
angryat factory owners like William Cartwright?
3. Do you agree or disagree with the methods used by
the English government to put down the Luddite
C
T
8
The Consequences of Technology
Like the Luddites, we live in an age of rapid changes in
technology. At the beginning of the 20th century, most
people used horses for transportation, read books and
went to live theater for entertainment, and could only
send messages long distance by mail or telegraph. Bythe
end of the century, all this had changed and much more.
The technological changes—in medicine, communica
tions, transportation, entertainment, warfare, and most
other areas—have been staggering. In this activity, stu
dentsevaluatethe significance of these changes.
A. As a class, brainstorm and make a list of the most
important technological breakthroughs in the 20th
century.
B. Following the brainstorm, form small groups. Each
group should should discuss and answer the follow
ing questions:
revolt? Why?
4. What kinds of technology today do people find
threatening? Do you believe their fears are justified?
1. What do you think was the single most significant
technological breakthrough in the 20th century?
Why?
Explain.
for Further (Reading
2. What consequences did this breakthrough have
^arfit, Michael. "For a While, the Luddites Had a
on society?
Smashing Success." Smithsonian. April 1993:140-154.
3. Which ofthe consequences were positive? Why?
Sale, Kirkpatrick. Rebels Against the Future, The
4. Which ofthe consequences were negative? Why?
Luddites and Their War on the Industrial Revolution.
5. What do you think can be done to increase the
Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1995.
positive consequences and decrease the negative
consequences ofthis technology?
C. Each group should prepare to report its answers to
the class.
D. Have each group report and hold a class discussion.
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