We all know about the Industrial Revolution: the development of society from a mostly farming one, with goods being produced by individual craftsmen who own their homes and workshops (a system in place by ancient Romans) to one of urbanized factory production.  Technological advancements, such as the use of “new basic materials, chiefly iron and steel…new energy sources such as coal, the steam engine, electricity…[and] the invention of new machines” created the possibility of the production of goods within a factory owned by one or more people, but not by the person performing the labor (Britannica).  The factory system, in addition to causing mass concentration of “workers in cities and towns, because the new factories had to be located near waterpower and transportation (alongside waterways, roads, or railways),” it also created greater stratification of the distribution of wealth that persists today as labor and capital were divided, as those who own capital gain wealth at a disproportionate rate than those employed for a wage (Britannica).  Thus, it wiped away the feudal system of wealth (yet many of the archaic values and attitudes persisted), and created the socially mobile bourgeoisie; it conversely created more poor, and a push for reform, which lead to the Poor Acts of Oliver Twist’s time, occurring at the tail end of the revolution.  Oliver, born a “juvenile offender” (debtor) was nearly employed as a chimney sweep, a dangerous profession that exploited small boys for their labor (and sometimes girls) since they could fit into chimneys, with little regard for their health and safety.  The sweep Mr. Gamfield who has “bruised three or four boys to death already,” begs for Oliver to be apprenticed to him, and the board nearly send Oliver with him (merely planning to dock a hundred pounds from Gamfield’s payment at taking Oliver) (Dickens 21).  His next opportunity is also afforded to him by the Industrial Revolution.  Oliver goes to work for the parish undertaker, whose services are a high cost to the workhouse because so many poor sent there are slowly starved to death.  Next, Oliver is forced to take up company with thieves and pickpockets after his legal options expire.  All three of these “jobs” are a result of the First Industrial Revolution and the reform that arose from it.   

Dickens, Charles. Oliver Twist.  Amazon KIndle ed.

Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Industrial Revolution". Encyclopedia Britannica, 20 Dec. 2020, https://www.britannica.com/event/Industrial-Revolution. Accessed 19 February 2021.   

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