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Friedrich EngelsThe Condition of the Working Class in England
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1845A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 9-10
Chapter 9 Summary: “The Mining Proletariat”
Engels takes a closer look at the living and working conditions of miners throughout England and their four-month-long strike in 1844.
The Children Employment Commission’s Report cited by the author concludes that living conditions among miners’ children are somewhat better compared to those in other branches of industry because of higher wages.
However, the miners’ general health is very poor due to spending 12 hours a day underground inhaling air mixed with dust and smoke. Lung, heart, and digestive diseases are the most common, leading to premature aging and death. The “black spittle” condition is prevalent among workers in mines without proper ventilation; the lungs are saturated with coal particles causing a black mucous discharge (252). Physical development is also slowed down, so that a young man of 19 might look to be 11 or 12. Children as young as four or five are employed to watch the fire doors separating different parts of the mine. Older children are tasked to transport coal by creeping on hands and knees through narrow tunnels. Exhausted by 12-hour workdays, young people might simply lie down to sleep by the side of the road, to be found by their parents late at night.
In addition to the health problems caused by long working hours and bad conditions, cave-ins and explosions are also commonplace, increasing the mortality rate among miners. These problems can be avoided with proper ventilation, but mine owners are reluctant to invest in what they see as unnecessary improvements.
As a result of the terrible living and working conditions, 40,000 miners went on strike in 1844; it lasted four months. Only after the owners had evicted the protesters’ families from their cottages, even the sick and pregnant, and brought in workers from Ireland, did the English miners concede defeat. However, Engels considers their success at maintaining a peaceful strike for so long, despite lack of income and escalating provocations from the police and other officials, a powerful message and a turning point for the English proletariat. Even if that particular strike was broken, workers became aware of their own ability to self-organize and protest.
Chapter 10 Summary: “The Agricultural Proletariat”
Engels examines in detail the conditions of farmers throughout England and Ireland. The consolidation of smaller plots of land into larger farms gradually prevents small farmers from sustaining themselves, so eventually they are forced to work for wages. The problem with this system is that landowners do not employ workers when there is no need, like in the winter months.
The degradation of working and living conditions in the agricultural sector was slowed down by the Napoleonic Wars, as there were no imports and a high number of laborers were drafted into the army. However, after the end of the war, all of a sudden, a large surplus population and the resumption of importation lowered wages. Additionally, like in other branches of industry, adult male workers were displaced by children and women to oversee agricultural machines. This all lead to the rapid impoverishment of the agricultural proletariat.
In Wales small homesteads are predominant, which is a problem since Welsh farmers cannot compete with their larger English neighbors. In Ireland the land is parceled out to the extreme, so each family rents a cottage and a small plot of land to grow potatoes for personal use. However, there are many more people than land plots, so the demand is high, which drives up rent. A family with a small plot cannot survive only on their crop, so, habitually, the father helps with planting and harvesting and goes away to find work elsewhere the rest of the year.
In addition to the economic forces driving down product costs and wages, in England farmers are faced with one more injustice: Game Laws, which are extremely harsh. When a family in the countryside is starving, killing an animal could feed it for some time. However, to preserve game for hunting season, it is illegal to kill animals on land belonging to the aristocracy. If caught, a person is sent to prison. In other words, landowners want to enjoy their sport without concern for the impoverished starving farmers living all around them.
Chapters 9-10 Analysis
These two chapters round up Engels’s study of the proletariat as a whole. He touches on all main branches of industrial production to demonstrate that there are no positive aspects to living in a capitalist system for workers. He also widens his discussion to include Wales and Ireland to demonstrate that the industrial transformation of agriculture is doomed to cause poverty and suffering no matter the location or the specifics.
The description of the 1844 strike serves as an inspirational moment. Engels exclaims, “What a degree of true human culture, of enthusiasm and strength of character, such a battle implies,” indicating his admiration for these people (260). The author believes their orderly and peaceful behavior during the strike indicates a moral superiority belying official reports that describe them as “brutal and lacking in moral sense” (260). Despite the strike’s failure, Engels brings it up as a model for future action.
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By Friedrich Engels
