Industrialization and the Victorian Era!

Our next set of readings fall under the “Victorian Era”, which as Dr. Glance pointed out in pod cast #9, was the period during the reign of Queen Victoria in England from 1837-1901. The Victorian Era coincided with what is known as the “Industrial Revolution”, which was a period of tremendous technological and economic progress in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The Industrial Revolution resulted in major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, and transportation that drastically effected the economic, social, and cultural conditions in England. All the technological improvements propelled Britain’s wealth and prosperity and gave people, especially the middle class, so many new opportunities. This progress induced so much excitement in the people of England and gave them a sense of pride and optimism.
Although the Industrial revolution was a time of progress and excitement, there were people who saw the many negative aspects of it. Due to the factory, many people in rural areas were out of jobs and had to move into the major cities. This created serious overcrowding and with that came sanitation problems and increased chances of devastating epidemics. The institution of the factory came with many injustices including harsh working conditions, ruthless child labor, as well as smog and pollution.
The poets and writers of the Victorian Era were mixed in their views on the Industrial Revolution. Some supported the progress it would enable, but many longed for the aesthetically pleasing nature of the Romantic age and frequently wrote about the evils of the Industrial Revolution. In this blog I will be focusing on two accounts including one from Kemble and another from Macaulay who both saw the progress as positive and were thus in support of industrialization. I plan on spending the next blog on two writers, Engels and Carlyle, who outwardly opposed industrialization.
Fanny Kemble was a popular actress in the 1800’s and we see her account of being the first woman to ride a steam locomotive. In Record of a Girlhood, she states,

“You can’t imagine how strange it seemed to be journeying on thus, without any visible cause of progress other than the magical machine, with its flying white breath and rhythmical unvarying pace… I felt as if no fairy tale was ever half so wonderful as what I saw (p. 491)”.

We get a sense of how amazingly smooth the ride seemed to her when she says there were no “causes of progress” and how she describes the movement as “rhythmical unvarying”, which was probably a drastic change to the horse and carriage she was used to. I have a hard time imagining a train being so amazing, but the change for these people from bouncing up and down for hours to riding on a track must have felt so smooth as if riding on a cloud. Again she writes, “…the motion is as smooth as possible, too. I could either have read or written… this sensation of flying was quite delightful, and strange… I had a perfect sense of security (p. 491)”. This vast improvement in transportation must have created such a fervor in England. She talks about a sense of “security” probably due to the fact that the train rode so smoothly it probably seemed safer than the rough ride of a horse and buggy, however as Dr. Glance pointed out, was this sense of security misplaced? So many abrupt changes, is it possible for them all to be 100% good? As I’ll point out in the next blog, many writers would not agree with Kemble.
Another author who also felt an increased sense of security was Thomas Macaulay who attributes these improvements to the economical benefits of industrialization. In Review of Southey’s Colloquies, he writes, “History is full of the signs of this natural progress of society…We see the wealth of nations increasing, and all the arts of life approaching nearer and nearer to perfection (p. 492)”. Although I do not agree with this idea that as the economy does better, society moves closer to perfection, I do understand Macaulay’s point. He has seen the corruption and debt Britain has endured, but through industrialization he finally has hope “that in the year 1930 a population of fifty millions, better fed, clad, and lodged than the English of our time (p. 492)”. Although it had its downfalls, Industrialization gave the people of Britain a sense of hope and an optimistic future. This can be seen as he ends his review, “it is to the same prudence and the same energy that we now look with comfort and good hope (p. 493)”. No matter the negative consequences of Industrialization, no one can argue that the progress in technology was exciting. I can only imagine what it must have been like for these people to get their hands on some of the new inventions that made life easier. To an extent, this excitement must have brought the people of England together through a sense of pride and optimism.