Edward Clark Industrialisation and the people 1790-1890

The Anti-Slavery movement One of the key people at the time was a man called Josiah Wedgewood. He was anti-slavery and a very rich pottery maker. He spent 10,000 pounds of his own money to expanding the canals. This was important for him as it meant that he could transport his pottery in a safer way than using horse and cart. He was also a key anti-slavery campaigner . He created the symbol and the phrase 'Am i not a man and a brother' which was a famous slogan which was sent to Benjamin Franklin in 1788. Many middle class people had this slogan on the pottery they would buy off him  Josiah Wedgewood lived until 1795 so never saw the end of the slave trade or the end of slavery altogether. Abolition of Slavery Act 1807 This act ended the trading of slaves but did not help those already enslaved in the British colonies. This was passed as the West Indies sugar production was not important anymore to the economy as industrialisation was producing greater source of wealth....

The Great Reform Act 1832 The changes since 1783 meant there was the emerging manufacturing classes that wanted to challenge the aristocratic system of government. A lot of these people did not yet have the right to vote. This lead to when the Whigs came to power in 1830 under Charles Gray they went forward with the Great Reform Act 1832.  This Bill took a while to get through in October 1831 the bill was thrown out by the House of Lords.  In May 1832 after months of protests and unrest another bill was created which was rejected by the House of Lords. Grey asked the king to create 50 new peers to get the bill through. Gray resigned and Wellington tried to take over but he didn't have the support and Britain was on the verge of revolution. Gray return as PM and King William agreed to create the peers if the Lords failed to pass the bill. In June 1832 the Great reform act was created, What did it do The act increased the electorate from 435,000 to 652,000 an increa...

                                                                        Overview Between these years Britain continued to grow, This is backed up with the production figures in the three main industries of cotton,coal and iron. Between the years of 1815 to 1830 coal production rose from 16 million tons to just under 30 million tons, between 1815 to 1830 pig iron production doubled as at the start of the century it took 8 tons of coal to create 1 ton of pig iron but by 1830 this was only 3.5 tons which means the production became more efficient. With cotton production by the 1830s an estimated 30% of the industrial workforce was part of the cotton industry as 70% of all British exports were textiles which were mostly cotton. Raw cotton accounted for 20% of Britain's import. This makes sense that the export ma...