Manchester Case

Manchester was the center of manufacturing leading in textile and mechanized industrializations. As a result from this, the population in Manchester grew. The issues raised by the increase in population included filthy and grim living conditions, horrible working conditions, and an overall lack of happiness in its residents.

One of the issues raised by the growth in population of Manchester was that the living conditions became grim and somewhat filthy. Edwin Chadwick, a public health reformer, once said "The annual loss of life from filth and bad ventilation is greater that the loss from death or wounds in modern wars" (Document 6). To restate this, the living conditions and filth of Manchester is so bad that more people become sick die from that than wounds from wars. The fact that more people die from the filth shows just how bad the living conditions actually are, which raised form the increase of populations. A picture shown in "The Graphic" in, 1870 shows just how physically bad the living conditions and filth was in the 19th century. It depicts heavy smoke coming from the ventilation pipes, sewage spilling out into the river, and trash pilling on the side of building "(Document 11). The picture presents the depth of how bad the filth had gotten and was getting.

Another issue to arise from the population growth was the bad working conditions provided to the laboring class. Flora Tristan, a French socialist, said "they spend from twelve to fourteen hours each day shut up in low ceilinged rooms where every breath of foul air they absorb fibers of cotton, wool or flax, or particles of copper, lead or iron" (Document 7). This means that working conditions were very bad and cramped that one could be breathing in toxins just from working. Later on William Alexander Abram, a journalist in 1868 said "The conditions of the factory laborers has been vastly improved within the last quarter of a century" (Document 10). Although this shows improvement