Göksu Şimşek – 2200005115

Kardelen Sudem Çelik - 2200005842 17/05/2023

6/10

1. Write a 250-300 word diary entry of a child labourer as either a factory worker or a
miner in the early years of the industrial revolution. In your diary entry, use at least 3
points from your lecture notes and mark them bold.

Dear Diary,

As someone who is a 12-year-old working in a factory, I want to write about my life. My

family's condition is very bad. We live in a slum house, and there are a lot of factories

nearby. Air pollution and darkness prevail here. We stay in small rooms with a large

number of employees. My 8-year-old brother works in the mine because employers said he

can easily fit into small spaces and push coal carts. Mines are dangerous places. Noxious

gases, or coal dust, cause diseases in him. I work in a factory. We are now in 1820, and

steam engines are used everywhere. It blows air into the iron furnaces for the smelting

process. Steam engines helped increase mass production by reducing human power, but

even with mechanization, many workers were needed in factories. My working conditions

are also quite harsh and dangerous. Working hours are too long—14 hours a day. The

factory remained unventilated, which is harmful to our lungs. Machines are unfenced and

dangerous. If we are not careful, we may lose our finger while cleaning. Lots of kids like me

clean under and around the moving parts of machines. They said we were suitable for this job

because of our young age and agility. We work too much, so most of the time we are

sleepless and hungry. Despite all this hard work, the wage they give us only helps us

survive. I don't remember the first one, but the government declared two laws for workers.
First Factory Act 1802 and Factory Act 1819. These are the laws that lowered working

hours and the working age. Unfortunately, both of them were resisted by the factory

owners. They did not want the government to interfere in the relationships between

factory owners and workers. These laws existed on paper but were not implemented.

They never declared a law about our wages. I hope one day our work will pay off more and

our lives will get easier.