Final answer:
During the Industrial Revolution, workers faced harsh and unsafe conditions, earning minimal wages while enduring long hours amid dangerous machinery and toxic environments. Despite the risks, industrial labor was preferred due to its higher pay relative to farm work. Efforts to improve conditions through labor movements were mostly unsuccessful during this period.
Step-by-step explanation:
Working Conditions During the Industrial Revolution
Workers lived in a place of infernal dins, with crashes and thunder of machinery and a roar of an immense cataract. The working environment was characterized by shrieking and blaring rooms where the cacophony of industry was unceasing. Young "tiny urchins" earned meager wages, such as fifty-five cents a day, and were subjected to air that compromised their health. Despite the sickness it caused, they continued to work to survive.
Conditions were especially perilous for breaker laborers who were often seen dumping coal, indicating the grueling and dangerous nature of coal mining during this time. They faced extreme heat, the threat of cave-ins, fires, and explosions, coupled with inadequate ventilation leading to long-term lung diseases. These workers experienced a brutal reality, with death and debilitating injuries being commonplace amongst them. In these dire circumstances, miner strikes and labor movements surfaced but were frequently squelched by powerful entities.
Despite the dangers of industrial labor, it was often preferred over other work options due to slightly higher wages compared to agricultural labor. However, the living and working conditions in factories and mines remained abysmal for many people during the Industrial Revolution, with only minimal legislative steps taken to protect workers' rights much later in the period. The grim setting of these industrial towns provided bleak inspiration for literary figures like William Blake and Charles Dickens, who vividly depicted the hardships faced by workers in their works.