Methodists and Machines

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Methodists and Machines

• English Social and Intellectual History, 1714-1851

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Gregory Kings Census

• 1696Secretary to the Commissioners of Public
  Accounts
• Life expectancy was 35
• Nuclear family was normlong before Industrial
  Revolution
• 1,360,586 families5,500,520 persons
• Top 3.5 of all families controlled 25 of income

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Transformation in England

• Population grew to 7.1 million in 1780, but more
  than doubled by 1851 to nearly 17 million
• Improvements in hygiene, the agricultural
  revolution, and industrial revolution explain
  much of this growth
• England also evolved in its social normsread
  morallyand much of this was a function of
  Methodism and allied assumptions.

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Hygiene

• Inoculation against small poxDr. Edward Jenner
  (1790s) other epidemic diseases seemed less
  virulent too.
• Soap
• Potato

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Agricultural Revolution

• Elizabethan Enclosure and redistribution of land
  in 1640s and 1650s increased productivity.
• Jethro Tull (1647-1741) advocated deep plowing
  and invented the seed drill.
• Charles Townshend (1674-1738) advocated use of
  legumes and crop rotation to enhance soil
  fertility.
• Robert Bakewell (1725-1785) used selective
  breeding to enhance healthier cattle.
• Arthur Young (1741-1820) advocated and publicized
  better agricultural techniques one source of
  pro-male bias in English farming families.

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Jethro Tull
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Industrial Revolution

• Good natural resources and, with turnpike trusts
  in 1730s, 40s, and 50s, better transportation.
• Entrepreneurial Culture
• Need for coal and clothing drove process
• Coal production soared3 million tons in 1700 25
  million tons in 1830. Made possible by steam
  powered pumps to get water out of the mines.
• ClothingFlying shuttle (1733) John Kay Mule
  (1762) Samuel Crompton Waterframe (1785) Richard
  Arkwright.
• Eli Whitneys Cotton Gin (1793) created raw
  cotton surplus 8 million pounds raw cotton in
  1770s into Britain 250 million pounds in 1830

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Water Frame
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James Watt (1736-1819) and Steam Engine

• Improved Atmospheric Engine of Savery and
  Newcomen by adding separate condenser for steam.
• Perfected flywheel
• Made double reciprocating engine steam drives
  piston in both directions
• 1000 steam engines in England in 1800

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Watts Steam Engine
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Industrial Revolutions Impact

• Growth of large factory towns like Manchester,
  Birmingham, and Liverpool
• Division of Labor, both according to task and
  increasingly of gender
• Material quality of life increased among workers
  as did alienation

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Meddling Methodists

• John Wesley (1703-91) challenged Calvinism and
  brought evangelical revivals to England.
• 1795Society of Methodists broke with Church of
  England
• Very socially conservative, Methodism challenged
  idea that well-born and governing classes were
  superior to ordinary rabble.
• Methodists introduced Sunday Schools and dicta
  cleanliness is next to godliness.
• Only 80,000 Methodists in 1790numbers grew to
  low millions by 1840.

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Other Reform Movements

• Driven by Enlightenment Humanitarianism and
  Methodism
• John Howard (1726-1790)Prison Reform
• William Wilberforce (1759-1833)slave trade
  Somersset case in 1772 1807 slave trade
  abolished 1833 slavery abolished in Empire.
• Growing concern about Child Labor and desire for
  political reform

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William Wilberforce