US & GB Option 1

The working conditions were not very good in either country, however America seemed to have it a bit better.  For example, American mills let their workers have breakfast and longer breaks.  Also American workers had break for supper while in Great Britain they had to eat while they worked.  This is coming from the schedules of William Cooper in Great Britain, and Emily Nutter in Lowell, MA.  The workers in America got more breaks and more free time than the ones in Great Britain and this led to difficult working conditions in Britain.  Also, Charles Dickens write from Document A, "I solemnly declare I cannot recall... one young face that gave me a painful impression; not one young girl... I would have removed from those works if I had had the power."  He is saying that all of the workers look happy unlike the workers back in England.  A lot of the bad working conditions in the mills had to do with safety, especially in Great Britain.  There was a lot more peasants in Britain who needed work so workers were considered expendable, and because of this they didn't really try to increase the safety of the machines.  A lot of accidents would happen, for example peoples hair would get caught in the belts and they would get scalped, or their limbs would get stuck and crushed in a machine.  In the "Factory Accidents" reading it said that a lot of times the muscle and skin would be stripped down to the bone or fingers or limbs were lost.  There were safety issues in America too, but the fact that Britain saw the workers as expendable made it worse there.