Time Traveling to the Industrial Revolution: A Journey to Change History

The immense grandfather clock had startled me out of deep thought, yet I did not move a muscle. I let my motionless body lie there in the chair, continuing to staring at the fire. My mind traveled through what we had learned in my history class today. I was lost and confused. London is known to be the amazing city of Britain. The city with outstanding sites, great people to meet, and as we all know a place that people love to go shopping.

London is the type of place people would never expect to undergo such a historically horrifying time, a time known as the Industrial Revolution. The revolution first took place in Britain (Nardo 8). Knowing the history and the effects of the revolution on Britain, I wished of some way that I could travel to London in the 1700's and make a difference. Would it be difficult to build a time travel machine? One which would take me to any date and place I wanted? All a person needs is to find some hefty bolts and screws, put it together with some technical wires and one would be set right? What would be even easier is if a strange green alien creature could come down and hand me a secret time machine.

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Then I would be able to go back in time and help make a difference in people's lives, specifically in the children's. However, I know that nothing would be able to take me back in time, not even a green alien, or so I thought.

I took a few minutes to stand back on my feet. As soon as I did I plopped right back down on the cold tiles. I lifted my head up to see a hideous purple creature standing in front of me. The alien had one eye and antennas with three arms and a leg. I honestly did not know how to respond to the fact that I had an alien creature in my living room. I had tried talking to the creature. All it did was point to a sign that said, "Janelle, open this door and I will take you anywhere you want to go." I thought I was going insane. When I looked back to ask how the machine worked or if I could actually is it, the alien had vanished. I spent the next six hours pushing buttons and figuring out how the machine works. After all the hard, monotonous work, I finally figured it out. All one had to do was punch in the date, place, and event in the key pad, turn a switch, and go. It would send one to where ever one wanted to go. After a few times of practice, and going around the world, I packed everything that I would need to spend the next week in Britain. When I was ready, I punched the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain, 1785. Closing the door, my heart skipped beats of curiosity. Automatically, the force pulled me against the wall of the time machine because it was moving at the speed of light. Next, I knew I landed in London. My time machine that I named Steve must have been parked behind an old house made out of mud and straw (Tierncy 13). As soon as I stepped out of my time inches of sewage, probably because the neighborhood I landed in was the neighborhood of the less fortunate. It instantly soaked the raggedy dress I was in. I remembered in class my professor explaining how people back in this time could not afford water or toilets (Child Labor & the Industrial Revolution). The smell of the waste nearly killed me. The fact over half of Britain's population created a home in London and became over crowded did not help (Child labor & the Industrial Revolution). Few hours had passed as I wondered the town. I began to notice that I did not see many rich neighborhoods around. Those who did live in luxury though lived in great country houses (Lambert). They had outstanding gardens and nice furniture, all of which the poor did not have. I also noticed that London lacked religious appeal. I saw a few churches that said they were open on Sundays. I could tell that during this time, religious views were not that great. When I had the chance to sit down and chat with Ashley, one of the friends I made she explained that a child did not attend the Church of England; they were not accepted in most schools (Lambert). This, I thought, was strange. Why should a child have to worry about religious views and have to attend a certain church to gain their education? It stated that Unitarianism was the main religious view, [Unitarianism is an optimistic belief that had faith and benefits of knowledge] (Mokyr 1) At first, I did not understand this, but the more I thought about what it means the more I understood how their religion works. I remembered a few months ago, in class, learning about how Unitarianism is a Christian belief, believing that God is one person. Even though I was able to make the connection between their religion and ours, I was still confused. They believed in a religion which benefits knowledge, but would not allow children to go to school because they do not attend a special church. Children have it hard enough. Ever sense the Industrial Revolution took place, children were forced to work (Tierncy 24). Children worked what was said to be twelve hours a day this caused their maturity level to rise (24). Not only were children forced to work long hours, but they were sent more than forty miles away from their parents (50). Listed are a few reasons why children had it rough back in the eighteenth century. Something that caught my eyes, as I walked down the street was how these children were disciplined. Being whipped and pinched hard enough on the ear till the nail pieced the flesh were minor examples of punishments. (42). This did not even have to be a part of discipline. People would do this to the children to keep them awake so they would keep working. Children had a rough life. The first night of being in London passed. One day made me realize how lucky I am to be in the generation that I am. These people lived off of bread and potatoes. Meat was something that the poor had rarely eaten (Lambert). They only ate it for special occasions. Not all of the people had a life of luxury. Most of the people actually had a life of nothing but work. Starting at young ages, this was their lives were based off of. After we ate, everyone went to bed knowing that they had another long day of work ahead of them. The next morning, we woke up around eight in the morning, ate our break and potatoes and headed off to work, well my friends were. I was headed off to explore more of London, and by my side to show me around, was my friend Kathy. The first place that we headed was to a cotton factory. As soon as we stepped inside, I noticed that most of the machines were small. "People had children working in industries of many sizes. Industries were based on any work that was done at home (Mantoux 66). Not only were children working at industries, but they were working in factories and mines (5). Many children were injured in mines. This caused many people to be unhappy with child labor. Yet even though people were not happy with it, they continued to put children through this because child labor was "cheaper". In fact, labor was cheap enough that they would pull orphans out of the street to work (Mokyr 483)," my friend Kathy told me. As I saw in this factory, the majority of the workers were female. Seeing women in cotton or wool factories was common though (Griffin 83). I then stepped into a mine. I had discovered the dangers of working here. The children were drilling, holding ropes, to open doors to the mines, and being put in a situation in which one (accident and the child would be dead.) I remembered learning how easy being crushed in the mines was. I know that not only children were working at this time. They had women and men working also, but children were better because they could fit into places that the adults could not fit into. People would rather have a child's life at risk instead of educating them, so they could advance in technology to help them become even more advanced in the work that was needed to make these materials to help advance London. Even though I only spent about two days in London, I remembered that, that in about fifty years from now, new laws would be made based on the child labor. One of the laws that were passed was the "Then Hour Movement." This states that children under eighteen could not work more than twelve hours and could not work under the age of nine (Parliament. UK). These laws were to help protect the children of young ages and make people feel safer and happier about child labor. The education in the eighteenth century was charity schools (Lamberto. Unlike schools in the twenty first century students were children from the wealth (Lambert). Unlike schools in the twenty first century, where they have children learning about math, science, English, they had children learning about art or something music related (Lambert). The day before I left to come to London my professor stated that the worst sin a man could suffer from was to be illiterate (Tierncy 58). Again this made no sense to me because if people were smarter could they not advance in their machinery causing the work to go faster? Common sense back then was not something that was often used. Around noon I started my tour of London again. I stopped by another factory. Noticing once again, most of the workers were children. Because of the money saved children were more common to work. Since they had child employees it helped London's trade market. Any country that influenced with the London trading market was a part of the Britain trade (Moffit 147). London had a great trading market, one that out grew Paris when it came to the English Trade (Mantoux 135). The market out grew them by the size and number of inhabitants (135). Slave trade was included. This trade had "discouraged the competition of British colonist with British manufactures" (Tierncy 48). The slaves became helpful and were needed in industries (48). Moving on with the day we came across a petition. People were not happy because the economy changed and the number of family budgets turned into the cost of living (Griffin 150). Any extra wealth went towards and even came from the poop (Griffin 149). "At this time the British government expanded the patent system that it had established in the prior century. A patent is a government grant giving an investor sold right to his or her idea or device and any monies it might generate" (Nardo 11). I came across this one of the cardboard boxes people were using to protest and go on strike. Not knowing what this meant I asked Kathy who was more than glad to explain it to me. Another word a patent is saying the others cannot use, make, or sell an invention. "Moreover, the early workers had many other problems to deal with besides low wages. They received no sick pay or old age pensions for example" (Nardo 63), Kathy explained another reason why people were no longer happy. Because of the Industrial Revolution there have been dramatic changes in Britain. Rather they are changes in the economy, people's lives, and the laws that were created. Even though the revolution had a great impact on Britain, it declined quickly (Nardo 83). Many reason follow to why it declined so quickly. One of the reason is because people failed to get used to the newer technology (83). The failure of education had a tremendous effect on the decline of the British Industry (85). Children should be required to go to school and not have to worry about working. I thought to myself. Too bad there is no law stating that a child must go to school. I kept thinking and thinking. All of a sudden I remembered that I have Steve and he can take me back to 2011 so I can grab the print tout that I left on my desk of the Massachusetts Compulsory Attendance Statutes. About two months ago in my Law Related Ed class we received a copy of this law which states "every person who shall have any child under his control between the ages of eight and fourteen years shall send such child to some public school within the town or city in which he resides, during at least twelve weeks" (MHLA). This is the perfect way to help these children because it was first received in Massachusetts in 1852. So there is no way that London would have this law. As soon as I thought of this, I scampered back to where I left Steve, my time machine. I punched in 2011, my house, two months after Law Related Ed. As my body lathered up against the stone wall of the time machine I could not help but smile. I finally found a way to help people. Five minutes had passed and I was home. I booked it to my desk and right on top of everything was the papers on the Attendance Statutes. Grasping the papers tightly between my sweaty palms I skip back into Steve and slam down the gold button that said return. This automatically took me right back to where I was a few seconds ago. Ecstatic and ready to change history, I forgot about everything I have been through the past couple of days. As soon as I stepped out of the time machine I immediately sunk. I still was not over the fact that mostly everywhere you went you were stepping in someone else's waste. Not caring, I jolted to find Kathy so she could show me my way to where the British Prime Minister lived. When I finally found Kathy, I told her my plan about going to the Prime Minister and handing him the Massachusetts Compulsory Attendance Statutes, she tilted her head and stared at me with blank eyes, like one of those puppies when they hear something new. I explained that it was a law saying that children had to attend school. At first, she did not know how to reply, but a few seconds passed, and she nearly knocked the air out of me. She hugged me like a bear, abrasive and squeezing with all her might. She exclaimed that this was the best law that could ever happen to Britain. I was glad to know that someone thought I was smart and had a good idea. I only hope that the Prime Minister would agree with Kathy. If he did not agree then my plan would fail, and my one and only goal would be defeated. After about an hour of planning with Kathy we finally decided how we were going to personally hand this letter over to the Prime Minister. I felt that it would be best for me to meet him and hand the document over face to face that way I could explain what is going on and how this will benefit his country. The only problem is, I do knot think that Kathy knows exactly where he lives. I was sure that we would figure it out though. All we had to do is ask around till someone told us where he lived. I mean, London is highly crowded so at least one person was bound to know. We searched around town for a few hours, with no luck. I had no idea that it was going to be that hard to find the Prime Minister's house. We decided to go for one more ty to locate him, and after about twenty minutes, we found someone who was able to give us directions. When we made it to his house, we had to pass four security guards to even enter the gates. Even though Kathy and I are just normal people of the lower class we managed to work through lies to make it inside. when we clanked the door knocker, the maid had retrieved the door for George Aberdeen the fourth; otherwise known as the Prime Minister of Britain. When the maid answered the door she questioned who we were and why we were there, yet to come to a response that I was Janelle a time traveler and needed to speak with him about a new law that should be created. With a scared face she opened the door and showed Kathy and I the way to his office. When we entered the room, we bowed down to him and took a seat as he pointed. Immediately, I started rambling on while I was, how I got here, what I have experienced, and slowly made my way to the attendance statutes. Hoping that he would not fall asleep in the middle of my story I found to see that he was engaged and fascinated with what happened through my journey. I continued on for about a good thirty minutes or so until I made my point that laws needed to be created. When he asked what I mean I specifically told him that there needs to be changes in how the children are gaining their education. I went on to hand him the Massachusetts Compulsory Attendance Statutes and explained that if he were to use this that it would benefit his country because the technology would advance in the factories. People would gain an education and be able to understand the changes that are being made to the industries. The Prime Minister still looked at me with a confused expression on his face. Once again I explained how giving him the Massachusetts Compulsory Attendance Statutes would advance their children in handling and using the machinery better, and also not having to work such long stressful days. The second time I explained it to him I used a more elementary approach. Once he understood, he smiled and said that he would consider using this. Joyful and speechless I hopped up and down in the air clapping my hands together celebrating the fact I was making a difference. In the middle of my excitement, he stopped me and threatened to have me executed if this hurt his country in any way. Yes, I was scared, but the thought of actually making a change was all I needed to accept the agreement. I decided to stick around London for a few months while the law was being placed.surprisingly the law quickly took place. The children soon started being forced to attend school and the industries grew in advancement. The technology grew greater as children grew smarter to understand how to use it. A dramatic change took place in the matter of only a few months. The rise of the industries picked right back up from their downfall and continued to increase for the three months that I stayed there. I know I was only supposed to stay a few months after the statutes were handed in, but this place grew on me, and so did the people. Kathy quickly became e great friend, always showing me new things and educating me on new information each day. I was even educating myself. I had learned more then what could have been taught. This was the type of experience that you had to be there to truly understand what life was like and how rough people had it. People had to be there to understand and have a clear visualization of what Steve looked like, the way the houses in London were made, true graphics of the disciplined children, my excitement to help a country; all this was something that could only be enjoyed and appreciated by the people that were there. You could take to heart the children's sad faces as they spent their child hood on a machine or being punished for something that was not even a fault. The fact that we have this law in 2011 shows how grateful we are and how much we should appreciate going to school because it could be worse. This law changed Britain and I am happy that it was because of me and that I was able to make a difference. All the children would now be happy in school learning and making friends while the countries industry rose in great power.