| Source B A magistrate reported in 1790 about an incident when he was called in to protect a manufacturer's property from being attacked by workers: 'From the depredations of a lawless Banditti of colliers and their wives, for the wives had lost their work to spinning engines ... they advanced at first with much insolence, avowing their intention of cutting to pieces the machine lately introduced in the woolen manufacture; which they suppose, if generally adopted, will lessen the demand for manual labour. The women became clamorous. The men were more open to conviction and after some expostulations were induced to desist from their purpose and return peaceably home.' J.L Hammond and B. Hammond, The Skilled Labourer 1760-1832, quoted in Maxine Berg, The Age of Manufactures, |
Answer:
Figure 3 shows that each member to the family involved in the production of yarn It is also clear from the picture that one wheel is moving only one spindle.
In the 19th century, spinning was a source of alternative income for the poor peasants; many of these had small plots of land which could not provide work for all members of the family. The spinning wheel gave employment to each member of the family as seen in the picture.
Figure 7 shows that the giant wheels moved by steam power could set in motion hundreds of spindles to manufacture thread. It is clear from this arrangement, that a single worker could spin a large amount of thread in a
short time. It created unemployment in the peasant society.
The machine shown in Figure 11 is called a Spinning Jenny which was devised by James Hargreaves in 1764.
Its one wheel could operate several spindles at a time. As a result, it created unemployment in the labour class and so they opposed it.
In short, we can say that factories by using steam engines and introducing Spinning Jenny were opposed by workers because they created employment among them.
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