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They were not. In brief, we know this because of both individual accounts -- people were quite verbal about preferring the life of an independent peasant to tha
by achierius 1y ago
They were not. In brief, we know this because of both individual accounts -- people were quite verbal about preferring the life of an independent peasant to that of the 'servant-like' factory worker -- and aggregate demographic trends, which show that peasants primarily moved into the cities during hard times, when famine and economic woes made their previous lifestyle impossible.
Cities at the time were charnel houses -- even worse, I think, than the popular imagining of them today. The rate of death in London, as well as in other cities during the revolution, was so high that it needed a constant inward flow of immigrants to even maintain its population. Without the safer, more livable countryside to provide a continuous supply of fresh meat for the mills, those cities would have depopulated through a combination of plague, malnutrition, violence, and workplace injury.
- beloch 1y agoLabour laws were a big problem. e.g. In the early stages of the revolution in England, it was illegal to leave your job and take another one. It was a choice between poor pay/unsafe working conditions and jail. Even once workers won the right to find jobs elsewhere, pay was still so poor that entire families, including children, had to work for families to stay afloat.
- zpeti 1y ago> which show that peasants primarily moved into the cities during hard times, when famine and economic woes made their previous lifestyle impossible this is exactly the point. Your children might only starve every 10 years, but when they do, a consistent factory work seems like a much better life. Just because you had 9/10 non-starving years doesn't mean the starving year is ok.