Child Labor During the Industrial Revolution

Me at Work 

       My name is Emily Young, I am 8 years old, and I’ve been working in this factory for a very long time now. My day normally goes the same way every day. I only sleep from about 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. Once I wake up I have 2 hours, until 6 a.m., to eat and get to work. Any time left over from that is spare time. Once work starts, at 6 a.m., I worked up until 8 a.m. and then I get a 45 minute break to eat breakfast, which lasts until 8:45 a.m. I then return to the tiring work for 3 hours and 15 minutes. At noon I am given 2 hours to eat, travel, and whatever time is left is my spare time. I then continue work for another 6 hours. After these 6 hours of enduring painful and energy consuming labor I am given another 2 hours to eat, travel, and the remaining time is spare time. After this harsh day of labor I then fall asleep and continue life in the same schedule the next day. Life was much easier before me and my family moved to the city.
       Before we moved I worked at home helping my mother cook, clean, and sew clothes for my family. Sometimes I was even given special jobs at harvest time like collecting firewood, bringing water from the well, scaring away bids from our crops, catching rats and mice, gathering wild fruit and flowers for making wine, and gathering acorns to feed the pigs. Even though life was hard we had fresh air and a field to play in. It would have been nice to continue to live in this way but once these factories were made my family began needing more money to survive. With the money that I would make our family could make it. So I began working in this terrible factory.

       Right now I work as a piecer. This job involves having to lean over the spinning-machine to fix the broken threads. I have to piece the threads while the wheel is coming out, which doesn’t give me much time to do this. This job may not sound so hard but doing it for 6 hours straight and with so many broken threads needing fixing it can get very tiring. This job is even harder considering the conditions that I am forced to work in. The buildings were dirty, low-roofed, poorly ventilated, and ill drained. There was constantly dust everywhere.

I have seen many terrible things while on the job. If we were ever drowsy the overlooker would dip us in water head first, and even sometimes hit us. One day the drawing frame was stopped by a little boy. The overlooker walked up to a girl and asked why it had stopped and she said she didn’t know. He then began beating her with a stick. When he was finished she said that she would let her mother know. He fetched the master and she was once again beaten with a stick over the heads until it was full of lumps and bleeding. That was probably the most violent punishment I had seen while working. In other instances the children were just beat but not as much as the other little girl. My wage was about 4 shillings every 3 days. The money really helped my family out. Without I don't think we could make it. 
       Many people were against child labor so the government passed various acts to improve the labor for us including: 1802 Health and Morals Factory Act, 1819 Factory Act, 1833 Althrop’s Factory Act, 1833 Factory Act, 1844 Graham’s Factory Act, 1844 Factory Act, 1847 Fielder’s Factory Act, Factory Act 1847, 1847 Factory Act, and the 1874 Factory Act. These acts did various things such as improving working conditions but most of the restricted the amount of hours children could work a day and a week. I had basically no education. I knew simple things like what 1+1 was but I never really got an education. My mother taught me how to cook and do things around the house but that was about it. 

Macbeth

This reinterpretation of Macbeth was very easy to be understood by modern audiences. The directors stray away from tradition when portraying the witches. The way the directors reinterpreted it really brought out the emotions of the audience. 
There was more than one scene in Rupert Goold’s film adaptation of Macbeth that I found shocking and unsettling. They were Act III, scene 4, and Act IV, scene 2, and Act V, scene 7 In Act IV, scene 2 Banquo’s ghost appears at the banquet Macbeth is hosting. The reason why this scene was shocking is because the ghost actually had blood from when he was killed. The fact that the scene looks so realistic was also shocking. In Act 4, scene 2 assassins are shown about to kill Lady Macduff and her children. The reason why this scene was so shocking, and even more unsettling, is because one of the assassins had a hand saw with them which made me think that they were going to do wrong and cruel things to them (besides killing them). Another reason this scene was unsettling is because of the fact that they were killed for, basically, no reason. The thought of someone even killing a child is disturbing to me, and probably to any audience member. The way the man warned them was very full of emotion and you could feel his concern for Lady Macduff and the children. Act 5, scene 7 was unsettling because of the way that Macduff walks in with all the blood on him and with Macbeth’s head in his hands and the way that Malcolm held Macbeth’s head. When Macduff walks in with Macbeth's head he is covered in Macbeth’s blood. It was unsettling to picture the way that he beheaded him because, by the looks of it, it was done very cruelly. When Malcolm held Macbeth’s head he seemed very calm and not startled at all. When he lifted the head is the part that I found the most unsettling because the head look extremely realistic.

Some of the scenes looked similar to the popular modern movies like The Last Exorcism (the chanting of the witches seem as thought it was inspired by this horror movie). The director definitely modernized this film. The clothes, time period, and the equipment are much more modern than the way they were meant to be. I think that the way that directors didn’t make the witches look like the traditional image was a good thing because if they would have made them look that way the movie would be less realistic. The extra parts that the directors added like in the beginning where the witches ripped some organ of the man out and hangs it on the rack along with a jacket. That scene adds more horror to the film.

Galileo Galilei

On February 15 of 1564, I, Galileo Galilei was born in Pisa in the Duchy of Florence, Italy. I was the first born of six. My father was Vincenzo Galilei, a well-known musician and music theorist, and my mother was Giulia Ammannati. In 1583, I began studying medicine in the University of Pisa. I soon became fascinated with mathematics and physics. I was on my way to becoming a university professor but, I unfortunately had to leave the university in 1585 before earning my degree. I continued to study mathematics.  During that time I began my study on objects in motion and published The Little Balance which described the hydrostatic principle of weighing small quantities. When I received a teaching job at the University of Pisa in 1589, I conducted experiments with falling objects and produced my book Du Motion (On Motion), which went against the Aristotelian views about motion and falling objects.  In 1592, I lost my job at the University of Pisa. I then began teaching geometry, mechanics, and astronomy at the University of Padua. When my father died in 1591, I was entrusted with the care of my little brother Michelagnolo. In 1604, I published The Operations of the Geometrical Military Compass. I also made a hydrostatic balance for measuring small objects. The same year I developed the Universal Law of Acceleration. Sometime close to 1609 I developed a simple telescope of my own. In the fall of 1609 I began observing the sky with my telescope. In March 1610, I published The Starry Messenger which said that the moon was not flat and smoother, but a sphere with mountains and craters. In 1612, I published my Discourse on Bodies in Water, which went against the Aristotelian explanation of why objects floated. In 1613, I published my observations of sunspots, which further contradicted the Aristotelian doctrine that the sun was perfect. In 1616, I was ordered to stop holding, teaching, or defending the Copernican theory regarding the motion of Earth. In 1623, a friend of mine was selected as Pope Urban VIII. He allowed me to pursue my work and even encouraged me to publish it, but it could not advocate the Copernican theory. So, in 1632, I published the Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems. Though he claimed Dialogues was neutral, it was clearly not. The Church was against the book and summoned me to Rome. I was never imprisoned, but when I was threatened with torture I finally admitted that I supported the Copernican theory. I was then put under house arrest for the remainder of my life. While under house arrest I wrote Two New Sciences which was basically a summary of my life's work on the science of motion and strength of materials. Sadly I died on January 8, 1642.
Without my work and evidence proving the Copernican theory people of today may still believe the Earth is the center of the universe and the church may have never dropped its opposition of heliocentrism in 1835. My studies have altered the way that modern scientists study, and their beliefs.

Sources:

"Galileo." The Columbia Encyclopedia. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008. Credo Reference. Web. 21 January 2013

"Galileo." Galileo. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 2011. Web. 21 Jan. 2013.

"Galileo." 2013. The Biography Channel website. Jan 21 2013.

"God wills it" was the battle cry of the Crusaders. It was often shouted at their enemies. Write an informative Blog about who commanded the crusades, who went and why. Then compare it to this quote: from BALIEN (in speech to Jerusalem): Which is more holy? The wall? The mosque? The sepulcher? Who has claim? Find what references is making, and which religions is he making references to? Compare this idea of one god willing a religious war compared to the idea that all of these religions have claim to the Holy City.

If you were alive during the Crusades, you would hear the phrase "God wills it" a lot. This is because this war was a "holy war". In 1095, Pope Urban II called for a war against the Muslim rulers of Jerusalem. This was the First Crusade. Over the next two centuries, Christian armies from Europe fought more crusades, but none was successful. Almost every man that was able to fight became a crusader because it was said that if you fight in the Crusades your sin will be forgiven. Old and young men and even peasants participated in the Crusades to have their sin forgiven. One man Balian of Ibelin was an important noble that basically commanded the Christian troops in the second crusade. He made any man capable of bearing arms a knight. In one of Balian's speeches to Jerusalem he says "Which is more holy? The wall? The mosque? The sepulcher? Who has claim? No one has claim. All have claim". When he says "the wall" he is referring to the Western Wall  in Jerusalem. This wall pertains to the Jewish religion. On certain occasions, this is where Jews assemble for prayer and lamentation. It is traditionally  believed to be the remains of the Western Wall of Herod's temple, which was destroyed by the Romans in A.D. 70. It is also called Wailing Wall. When Balian says "the mosque" he is referring to the Dome of Rock located in Jerusalem. The wall pertains to the Muslim religion. The Dome of Rock is a shrine in Jerusalem at the site from which Muhammad ascended through the seven heavens to the throne of God. It was built on the site of the Jewish temple. When Balian says "the sepulcher" he is referring to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. This sepulchre pertains to the Christian religion. This sepulchre is the place where Jesus was crucified and is also said to contain the place where Jesus was buried. The church has been a paramount pilgrimage destination since at least the 4th century. This quote, I feel was necessary. The fact that someone wanted to own everything, was a major factor that led to the downfall of Jerusalem. The problem all began in 1071 when a group of fanatical Muslims captured Jerusalem. They wouldn't tolerate Christians and began to treat the cruelly. Pope Urban then called for a crusade. The Turks that ill treated them, in a way, started the Crusades. I think humans, in our natural state, want to live in peace. Balian says that everyone has equal claim. You can't say one god is greater than the other or that one place is more holy than the other. The Crusades weren't necessary. So many people were killed, even innocent little kids were killed. All of these lives should not have been lost because someone wanted to have more control over Jerusalem.

     

Was a Quarantine Necessary? Can you hold people against their will?

In August of 2009 Ziketan, with 10,000 people, was quarantined after three deaths from the pneumonic plague. Three people died and nine people were sickened during the course of the plague. The bacterium responsible for this plague is the same bacteria that caused the bubonic plague. This plague is basically the bubonic plague in the lungs. This quarantine, in my opinion, was not necessary because, as stated in the article, this disease can be treated with antibiotics. Quarantining the town was a bit extreme. They could’ve treated the people that had the disease and/or the people that show any symptoms of the plague. Towns should only be quarantined when there is an infectious disease that isn’t curable or any disease for which no treatment has been discovered.

People should not be held against their will, especially these people because they weren’t any threat to the health of other people. The people could of been treated with antibiotics instead of putting the entire town under quarantine. It would be different if the person had a disease that was deadly, then they should be quarantined even against their will.
This extreme action to the situation was not necessary. They did this out of fear because when you hear the word "plague" you automatically think of the Black Death which over a five year period from 1347 to 1352, 25 million people died due to it. One-third to one-half of the European population was wiped out! There may be some fear that arises from that but, no decision should be based off of fear. In this situation fear outweighs reason. A little like Lord of the Flies when the boy were so terrified they began doing their "dance" and out of fear, when they see Simon they attack thinking that he is the beast. This is a moment where fear has outweighed reason. The entire situation should've been handled a different and more reasonable way.

Is our value of "freedom of speech" more important than the Global considerations of other countries? Or should other countries recognize our values too?

On September 11, 2012 the assaults against the United States from the Arabian world took a turn for the worst. The mobs were set off by Egyptian media reports about the 14 minute trailer for the video, called "Innocence of Muslims", that was released on YouTube. Basically, this movie depicts the Prophet Muhammad as a womanizer, a homosexual, child molester and a greedy thug. Three Americans have been murdered, one was an American ambassador, American franchises & American flags are being burned all over the Middle East.
I don't believe that our value of freedom of speech is more important the Global considerations of other countries but, other countries need to recognize our value as well. The United States government should have  taken this trailer down as soon as they discovered it. If we want people to respect our values than we must also respect theirs. But, the way that the Arabian/ Islamic world has approached the situation is irrational and irresponsible. Instead of resorting to acts of violence they could have simply talked to us and made some sort of agreement for the US to ban the movie. "Three people were killed on Friday - two in Tunisia and one in Egypt- as protesters battle with police armed with tear gas and rubber bullet and who sometimes fired into the air to try ward off the demonstrators from American embassies." The fact that these people have resorted to murdering innocent people, to me, is outrageous  If they should be going after anyone it should be the people behind the film not people that had nothing to do with it. They ESPECIALLY should not kill people that serve this country. Because of the way they approached it I don't believe that the US should give them their way. They need to understand that the US didn't encourage the movie to be made, some disrespectful people made it. We should also find the people behind the murder of these innocent Americans and bring them to justice and make them realize what they have done. The US is the the only that needs to act upon this issue. The leaders of Arabia, or whomever is participating in this, should get the protesters to stop and then come make peace with the leaders of the US. I believe that the US should not stop protecting itself and its people. We should fight until these people reach some sense and act in the correct and humane way.

The picture below shows that this child's mind is being corrupt being corrupt by a stereotype that Americans don't like or don't respect the Islamic way of life. But, this is a lie because the freedom of religion is something that this country believes in. Its like raising an American child to believe that all Muslims are terrorists. It isn't right. These children have an innocence that should be kept for as long as possible.