INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION DOCUMENTS

Document 1A: Excerpts from The Condition of the Working Class in England Friedrich Engels ~ 1845

The following are excerpts from an 1845 book by the German philosopher Friedrich Engels, the son of a German textile manufacturer, who conducted a study of the industrial working class in Victorian England. It was written

during his 1842–44 stay in Manchester, England, the city at the heart of the Industrial Revolution, compiled from Engels' own observations and detailed contemporary reports. Below are excerpts of his observations both on the physical health and living conditions of Manchester’s’ working classes as a result of industrialization. (He would later team up with Karl Marx- another German son from a wealthy family- who becomes known as the father of socialism/communism; the pair would eventually co-author The Communist Manifesto in 1848 outlying their

attack on modern capitalism and calls for revolutionary economic and political changes in industrialized nations.)

THE GREAT MORTALITY AMONG CHILDREN of the working class, and especially among those of the factory operatives, is proof enough of the unwholesome conditions under which they pass their first years. These influences are at work, of course, among the children who survive, but not quite so powerfully as upon those who succumb. The result in the most favorable case is a tendency to disease, or some check in development, and consequent less than normal vigor of the constitution. A nine-year-old child of a factory operative that has grown up in want, privation, and changing conditions, in cold and damp, with insufficient clothing and unwholesome dwellings, is far from having the working strength of a child brought up under healthier conditions. At nine years of age it is sent into the mill to work 61/2 hours (formerly 8, earlier still, 12 to 14, even 16 hours) daily, until the thirteenth year; then twelve hours until the eighteenth year. The old enfeebling influences continue, while the work is added to them. . . . but in no case can its [the child’s] presence in the damp, heavy air of the factory, often at once warm and wet, contribute to good health; and, in any case, it is unpardonable to sacrifice to the greed of an unfeeling bourgeoisie the time of children which should be devoted solely to their physical and mental development, and to withdraw them from school and the fresh air in order to wear them out for the benefit of the manufacturers. . . .

The [Factory Inquiry of 1833] Commissioners mention a crowd of cripples who appeared before them, who clearly owed their distortion to the long working hours. This distortion usually consists of a curving of the spinal column and legs. . . . I have seldom traversed Manchester without meeting three or four . . . [cripples], suffering from precisely the same distortions of the spinal columns and legs . . . and I have often been able to observe them closely. I know one personally who . . . got into this condition in Mr. Douglas’s factory in Pendleton, an establishment which enjoys an unenviable notoriety among the operatives by reason of the former long working periods continued night after night. It is evident, at a glance, whence the distortions of these cripples come, they all look exactly alike. The knees are bent inward and backwards, the ankles deformed and thick, and the spinal column often bent forwards or to one side. . . .

In cases in which a stronger constitution, better food, and other more favorable circumstances enabled the young operative to resist this effect of a barbarous exploitation, we find, at least, pain in the back, hips, and legs, swollen joints, varicose veins, and large, persistent ulcers in the thighs and calves. These afflictions are almost universal among the operatives. . . .

All these afflictions are easily explained by the nature of factory-work, which is, as the manufacturers say, very “light,” and precisely by reason of its lightness, more enervating than any other. The operatives have little to do, but must stand the whole time. Anyone who sits down, say upon a window-ledge or a basket, is fined, and this perpetual upright position, this constant mechanical pressure of the upper portions of the body upon spinal column, hips, and legs, inevitably produces the results mentioned. This standing is not required by the work itself, and at Nottingham chairs have been introduced, with the result that these maladies disappeared. . . . This long protracted upright position, with the bad atmosphere prevalent in the mills entails, besides the deformities mentioned, a marked relaxation of all vital energies, and, in consequence, all sorts of other afflictions general rather than local. The atmosphere of the factories is, as a rule, at once damp and warm, far warmer than is necessary, and, when the ventilation is not very good, impure, heavy, deficient in oxygen, filled with dust and the smell of the machine oil, which almost everywhere smears the floor, sinks into it, and becomes rancid. The operatives are lightly clad by reason of the warmth, and would readily take cold in case of irregularity of the temperature; a draught is distasteful to them, the general enervation which gradually takes possession of all the physical functions diminishes the animal warmth: this must be replaced from without, and nothing is therefore more agreeable to the operative than to have all the doors and windows closed, and to stay in his warm factory-air. Then comes the sudden change of temperature on going out into the cold and wet or frosty atmosphere, without the means of protection from the rain, or of changing wet clothing for dry, a circumstance which perpetually produces colds. And when one reflects that, with all this, not one single muscle of the body is really exercised, really called into activity, except perhaps those of the legs; that nothing whatsoever counteracts the enervating, relaxing tendency of all these conditions; that every influence is wanting which might give the muscles strength, the fibers elasticity and consistency; that from youth up, the operative is deprived of all fresh air recreation. . . .

That the growth of young operatives is stunted, by their work, hundreds of statements testify; among others, Cowell gives the weight of 46 youths of 17 years of age, from one Sunday school, of whom 26 [who were] employed in the mills, averaged 104.5 pounds, and 20 not employed in mills, 117.7 pounds. One of the largest manufacturers of Manchester . . . said on one occasion that if things went on as at present, the operatives of Lancashire would soon be a race of pigmies. A recruiting officer testified that operatives were little adapted for military service, looked thin and nervous, and were frequently rejected by the surgeons as unfit. In Manchester he could hardly get men of five feet eight inches; they were usually only five feet six to seven, whereas in the agricultural districts, most of the recruits were five feet eight.

The men wear out very early in consequence of the conditions under which they live and work. Most of them are unfit for work at forty years, a few hold out to forty-five, almost none to fifty years of age. This is caused not only by the general enfeeblement of the frame, but also very often by a failure of sight, which is a result of mule-spinning, in which the operative is obliged to fix his gaze upon a long row of fine parallel threads, and so greatly to strain the sight. . . .

In Manchester, this premature old age among the operatives is so universal that almost every man of forty would be taken for ten to fifteen years older, while the prosperous classes, men as well as women, preserve their appearance exceedingly well if they do not drink too heavily.

The influence of factory work upon the female physique also is marked and peculiar. The deformities entailed by long hours of work are much more serious among women. Protracted work frequently causes deformities of the pelvis, partly in the shape of abnormal position and development of the hip bones, partly of malformation of the lower portion of the spinal column. . . . That factory operatives undergo more difficult confinement than other women is testified to by several female and male midwives, and also that they are more liable to miscarriage. Moreover, they suffer from the general enfeeblement common to all operatives, and, when pregnant, continue to work in the factory up to the hour of delivery, because otherwise they lose their wages and are made to fear that they may be replaced if they stop away too soon. It frequently happens that women are at work one evening and

delivered the next morning, and the case is none too rare of their being delivered in the factory among the machinery. . . .

But besides all this, there are some branches of factory work which have an especially injurious effect. In many rooms of the cotton and flax-spinning mills, the air is filled with fibrous dust, which produces chest affections, especially among workers in the carding and combing rooms. Some constitutions can bear it, some cannot; but the operative has no choice. He must take the room in which he finds work, whether his chest is sound or not. The most common effects of this breathing of dust are blood-spitting, hard, noisy breathing, pains in the chest, coughs, sleeplessness—in short, all the symptoms of asthma, ending in the worst cases of consumption. . . . But apart from all these diseases and malformations, the limbs of the operatives suffer in still another way. Work among the machines gives rise to multitudes of accidents of more or less serious nature, which have for the operative the secondary effect of unfitting him for his work more or less completely. The most common accident is the crushing of a single joint of a finger, somewhat less common the loss of the whole finger, half or a whole hand, an arm, etc., in the machinery. . . . Besides the deformed persons, a great number of maimed ones may be seen going about in Manchester; this one has lost an arm or a part of one, that one a foot, the third half a leg; it is like living in the midst of an army just returned from a campaign. But the most dangerous portion of the machinery is the strapping which conveys motive power from the shaft to the separate machines. . . . Whoever is seized by the strap is carried up with lightning speed, thrown against the ceiling above and floor below with such force that there is rarely a whole bone left in the body, and death follows instantly. . . .

A pretty list of diseases engendered purely by the hateful greed of the manufacturers! Women made unfit for childbearing, children deformed, men enfeebled, limbs crushed, whole generations wrecked, afflicted with disease and infirmity, purely to fill the purses of the bourgeoisie. And when one reads of the barbarism of single cases, how children are seized naked in bed by the overlookers, and driven with blows and kicks to the factory, their clothing over their arms, how their sleepiness is driven off with blows, how they fall asleep over their work nevertheless, how one poor child sprang up, still asleep, at the call of the overlooker, and mechanically went through the operations of its work after its machine was stopped; when one reads how children, too tired to go home, hid in the wool of the drying-room to sleep there, and could only be driven out of the factory with straps; how many hundreds came home so tired every night, that they could eat no supper for weariness and want of appetite, that their parents found them kneeling by the bedside, where they had fallen asleep during their prayers; when one reads all this and a hundred other villainies and infamies . . . how can one be otherwise than filled with wrath and resentment against a class which boasts of philanthropy and self-sacrifice, while its object is to fill its purse a tout prix (at any price)?

…The way in which the vast mass of the poor are treated by modern society is truly scandalous. They are herded into great cities where they breathe a fouler air than in the countryside which they have left. They are housed in the worst ventilated districts of the towns; they are deprived of all means of keeping clean. They are deprived of water because this is only brought to their houses if someone is prepared to defray the cost of laying pipes. River water is so dirty as to be useless for cleansing purposes. The poor are forced to throw into the streets all their sweepings, garbage, dirty water, and frequently even disgusting filth and excrement. The poor are deprived of all proper means of refuse disposal and so they are forced to pollute the very districts they inhabit. And this is by no means all.

There is no end to the sufferings which are heaped on the heads of the poor. It is notorious that general overcrowding is a characteristic feature of the great towns, but in the working-class quarters people are packed together in an exceptionally small area. Not satisfied with permitting the pollution of the air in the streets, society crams as many as a dozen workers into a single room, so that at night the air becomes so foul that they are nearly suffocated. The workers have to live in damp dwellings. When they live in cellars the water seeps through the floor and when they live in attics the rain comes through the roof. The workers’ houses are so badly built that the foul air cannot escape from them.

The workers have to wear poor and ragged garments and they have to eat food which is bad, indigestible and adulterated. Their mental state is threatened by being subjected alternately to extremes of hope and fear. They are goaded like wild beasts and never have a chance of enjoying a quiet life. They are deprived of all pleasures except sexual indulgence and intoxicating liquors. Every day they have to work until they are physically and mentally exhausted. This forces them to excessive indulgence in the only two pleasures remaining to them. If the workers manage to survive this sort of treatment, it is only to fall victims to starvation when a slump occurs and they are deprived of the little that they once had.

How is it possible that the poorer classes can remain healthy and have a reasonable expectation of life under such conditions? What can one expect but that they should suffer from continual outbreaks of epidemics and an excessively low expectation of life? The physical condition of the workers shows a progressive deterioration.

Document 1B: Document 1C:

Document 1D Document 1E

Document 2:Testimony on Child Labor in Britain, Conducted by the

Child Laborers in Glassworks, Lewis Hine (1908)

Replacing Bobbins in Machinery, Lewis Hine (1909)

Sadler Committee of the British Parliament, 1831The Industrial Revolution had a profound impact on the European economy. The transition from rural craft-based

economies to urban industrialization revolutionized the manufacturing of goods. The organization of labor also took a dramatic shift as human or animal power was replaced by mechanical power with the development of the

efficient steam engine by James Watt in the 1780s. The application of steam to machinery revolutionized the textile industry and the transportation industries. Socially, the Industrial Revolution also wrought tremendous change.

The new industrial working class that emerged found itself mired in monotonous, low paying, and often dangerous jobs. Employment was never secure, sick workers received no pay, and any protests caused immediate dismissal. Unfortunately for many families, one worker in the family could not earn enough to supply the family's needs, so

working class families became families where every member, including children, contributed by taking employment. Children in Britain had always worked, but their employment in the textile mills deprived them of an

education and often subjected them to harsh discipline. Working conditions for children finally attracted Parliamentary attention in Britain, and in 1831 a Parliamentary commission known as the Saddler Committee

heard testimony from mill employees from across Great Britain. Below is the testimony of twenty-three-year-old interviewee Elizabeth Bentley.

Evidence of a Female Millhand (Elizabeth Bentley) to the Parliamentary Commissioners:

1. What age are you? Twenty-three. 

2. Where do you live? At Leeds. 

3. What time did you begin work at the factory? When I was six years old. 

4. At whose factory did you work? Mr Burk's Flax mill. 

5. What was your business in that mill? I was a little doffer*. 

6. What were your hours of labour in that mill? From 5 in the morning till 9 at night, when they were  thronged**. 

7. For how long a time together have you worked that excessive length of time? For about a year. 

8. What were the usual hours of labour when you were not so thronged? For six in the morning till 7 at night. 

9. What time was allowed for meals? Forty minutes at noon. 

10. Had you any time to get your breakfast or drinking? No, we had to get it as we could. 

11. Do you consider doffing a laborious employment? Yes. 

12. Explain what you had to do? When the  frames*** are full, they have to stop the frames, and take the flyers off, and take the full bobbins off, and carry them to the roller, and then put empty ones on, and set the frame going

again. 

13. Does that keep you constantly on your feet? Yes, there are so many frames and they run so quick. 

14. Your labour is very excessive? Yes, you have not time for anything. 

15. Suppose you flagged a little, or were late, what would they do? Strap us. 

16. And they are in the habit of strapping those who are last in doffing? Yes. 17. Constantly? Yes. 

18. Girls as well as boys? Yes. 

19. Have you ever been strapped? Yes. 

20. Severely? Yes. 

21. Is the strap used so as to hurt you excessively? Yes it is . . . I have seen the overlooker go to the top end of the room, where the little girls hug the can to the backminders; he has taken a strap, and a whistle in his mouth, and

sometimes he has got a chain and chained them, and strapped them all down the room.

22. What was his reason for that? He was very angry. 

23. Did you live far from the mill? Yes, two miles. 

24. Had you a clock? No, we had not. 

25. Were you generally there in time? Yes, my mother has been up at 4 o'clock in the morning, and at 2 o'clock in the morning; the colliers used to go to their work at 3 or 4 o'clock, and when she heard them stirring she has got up out of her warm bed, and gone out and asked them the time; and I have sometimes been at Hunslet Car at 2

o'clock in the morning, when it was streaming down with rain, and we have had to stay till the mill was opened. 

26. You are considerably deformed in person as a consequence of this labour? Yes I am. 

27. And what time did it come on? I was about 13 years old when it began coming, and it has got worse since; it is five years since my mother died, and my mother was never able to get me a good pair of stays to hold me up, and

when my mother died I had to do for myself, and got me a pair. 

28. Were you perfectly straight and healthy before you worked at a mill? Yes, I was as straight a little girl as ever went up and down town. 

29. Were you straight till you were 13? Yes, I was. 

30. Did your deformity come upon you with much pain and weariness? Yes, I cannot express the pain all the time it was coming. 

31. Do you know of anybody that has been similarly injured in their health? Yes, in their health, but not many deformed as I am. 

32. It is very common to have weak ankles and crooked knees? Yes, very common indeed. 

33. This is brought on by stopping the spindle? Yes. 

34. Where are you now? In the poorhouse. 

35. State what you think as to the circumstances in which you have been placed during all this time of labour, and what you have considered about it as to the hardship and cruelty of it. {The witness was too much affected to

answer the question.}

* doffer - Person responsible for removing the spindles, called bobbins, when they were full of yarn. This job usually fell to a child. **thronged - Under pressure.***frames - The spinning machines themselves, which were built in a type of very bulky frame. 

*************************Document 3: An Act to Regulate the Labor of Children and Young Persons in the Mills and Factories of the United Kingdom (a.k.a. the Factory Act ) of 1833 The first significant legislation passed anywhere in the world to attempt to deal with the appalling conditions faced by workers laboring in factories, the Factory Act was enacted by the British Parliament on August 29, 1833. Below

are excerpts of the law, which dealt primarily with regulating child labor. It served as a precursor for later legislation limiting the number of hours adults could work as well.

WHEREAS it is necessary that the Hours of Labour of Children and young Persons employed in Mills and Factories should be regulated, inasmuch as there are great Numbers of Children and young persons now employed in Mills and Factories, and their Hours of Labour are longer than is desirable, due Regard being had to their Health and Means of Education; be it therefore enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the Authority of the same, That from and after the First Day of January One thousand eight hundred and thirty-four no Person under Eighteen Years of Age shall be allowed to work in the Night, (that is to say,) between the Hours of Half past Eight o'clock in the Evening and Half past Five o'clock in the Morning, except as herein-after provided, in or about any Cotton, Woollen, Worsted, Hemp, Flax, Tow, Linen, or Silk Mill or Factory wherein Steam or Water or any other mechanical Power is or shall be used to propel or work the Machinery in such Mill or Factory…

And be it further enacted that no person under the age of eighteen years shall be employed in any such mill or factory more than twelve hours in any one day, nor more than sixty-nine hours in any one week. . . . And be it further enacted that there shall be allowed in the course of every day not less than one and a half hours for meals to every such person. . . .

And be it enacted that it shall not be lawful for any person whatsoever to employ in any factory or mill as aforesaid, except in mills for the manufacture of silk, any child who shall not have completed his or her ninth year of age.

And be it further enacted that, from and after the expiration of six months after the passing of this act, it shall not be lawful for any person whatsoever to employ, keep, or allow to remain in any factory or mill as aforesaid for a longer time than forty-eight hours in any one week, nor for a longer time than nine hours in any one day any child who shall not have completed his or her eleventh year of age; or, after the expiration of eighteen months from the passing of this act, any child who shall not have completed his or her twelfth year of age; or, after the expiration of thirty months from the passing of this act, any child who shall not have completed his or her thirteenth year of age. Provided, nevertheless, that, in mills for the manufacture of silk, children under the age of thirteen years [after a medical certificate of approval] shall be allowed to work ten hours in any one day.

And be it further enacted that all children and young persons whose hours of work are regulated and limited by this act shall be entitled to the following holidays, viz.: on Christmas Day and Good Friday, the entire day; and not fewer than eight half-days besides in every year. . . .

And be it . . . enacted that it shall be lawful . . . to appoint during his majesty's pleasure four persons to be inspectors of factories and places where the labor of children and young persons under eighteen years of age is employed. . . . And such inspectors or any of them are hereby empowered to enter any factory or mill, and any school attached or belonging thereto at all times and seasons, by day or by night, when such mills or factories are at work; and, having so entered, to examine therein the children and any other person or persons employed therein, and to make inquiry respecting their condition, employment, and education. . . .

And be it further enacted that every child hereinbefore restricted to the performance of forty-eight hours of labor in any one week shall, so long as such child shall be within the said restricted age, attend some school. . . .And be it further enacted that every inspector shall keep full minutes of all his visits and proceedings, and shall report the same to one of his majesty's principal secretaries of state twice in every year, and oftener if required. . .

[Source: Statutes of the Realm, 3 & 4 William IV, c. 103]

Document 4: Mines and Collieri es Act of 1842 (a.k.a. The Mines Act )

The Mines Act, passed by the British Parliament in 1842, was a response to the working conditions of children revealed in the Children's Employment Commission (Mines) 1842 report. At the beginning of the 19th century, methods of coal extraction were primitive and the workforce (men, women and children) labored in dangerous

conditions. In 1841 about 216,000 people were employed in the mines. Women and children worked underground for 11 or 12 hours a day for smaller wages than men. The public became aware of conditions in the country's

collieries in 1838 after an accident at Huskar Colliery in Silkstone, near Barnsley, when a stream overflowed into the ventilation drift after violent thunderstorms causing the death of 26 children; 11 girls aged from 8 to 16 and 15 boys between 9 and 12 years of age. The disaster came to the attention of Queen Victoria who ordered an inquiry.

Lord Ashley headed the royal commission of inquiry which investigated the conditions of workers, especially children, in the coal mines in 1840. Commissioners visited collieries and mining communities gathering

information sometimes against the mine owners' wishes. It was this report that most likely shocked the conscience of British citizens which lead to the passage of the Mines Act; excerpts of this Act are below.

A Bill To prohibit the Employment of Women and Girls in Mines and Collieries, to regulate the Employment of Boys, and make Provisions for the Safety of Persons working therein. 22 June 1842.—6 VICT.

1….Whereas it is unfit that Women and Girls should be employed in any Mine or Colliery, and it is expedient to make regulations regarding the employment of Boys In Mines and Collieries, and to make provisions for the safety of persons working therein; it therefore enacted, by The QUEEN's most Excellent MAJESTY, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the Authority of the same, THAT from and after the passing of this Act, it shall not be lawful for any Owner of any Mine or Colliery whatsoever to employ any Female person within any Mine or Colliery, or permit any Female person to work…at or before the passing of this Act employed within some Mine or Colliery.

2…And be it Enacted, That from and after the passing of this Act, it shall not be lawful for any Owner of any Mine or Colliery to employ any Male person under the age of Ten Years within any Mine or Colliery, or to permit any such Male person to work or be therein, other than such as at the passing of this Act shall have attained the age of Nine Years, and were at or before the passing of this Act employed within some Mine or Colliery...

3. Clause (A)…: And be it Enacted, That no Male person under the age of Thirteen Years shall, after the expiration of One calendar Month from the passing of this Act, be employed within any Mine or Colliery for more than Twelve Hours in any one day, nor for more than Three Days in any one week, nor for any two consecutive days; nor shall any such Male person be employed during one and the same week in more than one Mine or Colliery, unless the different Mines or Collieries in which he shall be employed shall belong to the same Owner.

4. Clause (B)…And be it Enacted, That it shall be lawful for One of Her Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State, if and when he shall think fit, to appoint any proper person or persons to inspect any Mine or Colliery; and it shall be lawful for every person so authorized to enter and examine any Mine or Colliery, and the works, buildings and machinery belonging thereto, at all times and seasons, by day or by night, and to make inquiry touching any matter within the provisions of this Act; and every person to be so appointed shall report his proceedings in the execution of this Act in such manner as may be directed by the Secretary of State ; and he shall in like manner report the state and condition of the Mine or Colliery he shall inspect, and of the persons working therein, and whether or not the provisions of this Act are properly observed in the Mine or Colliery which he shall so inspect.

6…And be it Enacted, That every person or persons, body or company offending against any of the aforesaid provisions, shall forfeit a sum not more than Ten Pounds, nor less than Five Pounds, for every person employed or suffered to be in a Mine or Colliery contrary to the aforesaid provisions, to be sued for and recovered as after mentioned.

14…And be it Enacted, That the Justices of the Peace or Sheriffs or Stewarts by whom any person shall be convicted and adjudged to pay any sum of money for any offence against this Act… and [is] in default of payment at the time appointed, such person shall be imprisoned in the common jail or house of correction (with or without hard labor), as to the said Justices or Sheriffs or Stewarts shall seem meet, for any time not exceeding Two calendar Months, the commitment to be determinable upon payment of the amount of the penalty and costs.

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Document 5: Cholera Outbreak in London

As cities grew larger and more crowded during the Industrial Revolution, one negative social impact was the faster

rate at which human and animal accumulated, often seeping into drinking sources. In London in June 1866, a localized cholera epidemic in the East End claimed 5,596 lives, just as the city was completing construction of its major sewage and water treatment systems; the East End section was not quite complete. Epidemiologist William Farr identified the East London Water Company as the source of the contamination. Farr made use of prior work

by John Snow and others pointing to contaminated drinking water as the likely cause of cholera in an 1854 outbreak. Quick action prevented further deaths.

(Top Left) Fun Magazine political cartoon titled “Death’s Dispensary: Free to the Poor” featuring King Cholera about the

cholera epidemic in London, England (Aug. 18th, 1866); (Top

Right) Cholera & Water Broadsheet for London’s Limestone

District (Aug. 1st, 1866)

(Below) How Cholera Affects the Body (2010)

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Document 6: The Communist Manifesto (1848) ~ Karl Marx & Fredric EngelsThe Communist Manifesto (originally Manifesto of the Communist Party) is an 1848 political pamphlet by

German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Originally published in London (in German it is Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei) just as the global revolutions of 1848 began to erupt in Europe and Latin America,

the Manifesto was later recognized as one of the world's most influential political manuscripts. It presents an analytical approach to the class struggle (historical and then-present to 1848) and the problems of capitalism and the capitalist mode of production, rather than a prediction of communism's potential future forms. The Communist Manifesto summarizes Marx and Engels' theories about the nature of society and politics, that in their own words, "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles". It also briefly features their ideas for how the capitalist society of the time would eventually be replaced by socialism’s more extreme form, known as

Communism or “Marxism.” Ironically, both Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels both came from very wealthy German families. Marx and Engels used a couple of terms here that need to be clarified. First of all, “bourgeoisie”

referred to the new business and industrial ownership class that had emerged in the last few centuries before his time (as opposed to the traditional landed aristocracy); “proletariat” referred to the workers in these factories (owned by the bourgeoisie), who, in Marx’ view, were “wage slaves,” bound to work for wages lest they starve.

Part I: Bourgeois and Proletarians The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.

Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary reconstitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes.

In the earlier epochs of history, we find almost everywhere a complicated arrangement of society into various orders, a manifold gradation of social rank. In ancient Rome we have patricians, knights, plebeians, slaves; in the Middle Ages, feudal lords, vassals, guild- masters, journeymen, apprentices, serfs; in almost all of these classes, again, subordinate gradations.

The modern bourgeois society that has sprouted from the ruins of feudal society, has not done away with class antagonisms. It has but established new classes, new conditions of oppression, new forms of struggle in place of the old ones.

Our epoch, the epoch of the bourgeoisie, possesses, however, this distinctive feature: It has simplified the class antagonisms. Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other-bourgeoisie and proletariat. . . .

Modern industry has established the world market, for which the discovery of America paved the way. This market has given an immense development to commerce, to navigation, to communication by land. This development has, in its turn, reacted on the extension of industry; and in proportion as industry, commerce, navigation, railways extended, in the same proportion the bourgeoisie developed, increased its capital, and pushed into the background every class handed down from the Middle Ages.

We see, therefore, how the modern bourgeoisie is itself the product of a long course of development, of a series of revolutions in the modes of production and of exchange..

The bourgeoisie has played a most revolutionary role in history.

The bourgeoisie, wherever it has got the upper hand, has put an end to all feudal, patriarchal, idyllic relations. It has pitilessly torn asunder the motley feudal ties that bound man to his “natural superiors,” and has left no other bond between man and man than naked self-interest, than callous “cash payment.” It has drowned the most heavenly ecstasies of religious fervor, of chivalrous enthusiasm, of philistine sentimentalism, in the icy water of egotistical calculation. It has resolved personal worth into exchange value, and in place of the numberless indefeasible chartered freedoms, has set up that single, unconscionable freedom—Free Trade. In one word, for exploitation, veiled by religious and political illusions, it has substituted naked, shameless, direct, brutal exploitation.

Part II: Proletarians and Communists …We have seen above that the first step in the revolution by the working class is to raise the proletariat to the position of ruling class to win the battle of democracy.

The proletariat will use its political supremacy to wrest, by degree, all capital from the bourgeoisie, to centralize all instruments of production in the hands of the state, i.e., of the proletariat organized as the ruling class; and to increase the total productive forces as rapidly as possible.

These measures will, of course, be different in different countries. Nevertheless, in most advanced countries, the following will be pretty generally applicable.

1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes. 2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax. 3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance. 4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels. 5. Centralization of credit in the banks of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an

exclusive monopoly. 6. Centralization of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the state. 7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the state; the bringing into cultivation of

waste lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan. 8. Equal obligation of all to work. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture. 9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of all the distinction between

town and country by a more equable distribution of the populace over the country. 10. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children’s factory labor in its present form.

Combination of education with industrial production, etc. In place of the old bourgeois society, with its classes and class antagonisms, we shall have an association in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all.

Part IV: Position of the Communists in Relation to the Various Existing Opposition Parties

In short, the Communists everywhere support every revolutionary movement against the existing social and political order of things.

In all these movements, they bring to the front, as the leading question in each, the property question, no matter what its degree of development at the time.

Finally, they labour everywhere for the union and agreement of the democratic parties of all countries.

The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win.

.. Workingmen of all countries, unite!

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