This assignment was completed in my socials class. I am proud of it because I put a ton of effort and time into it. I spent hours on this piece perfecting it to the best of my abilities. The following writing is my diary entry assignment which outlines the life in perspective of someone living in the industrial revolution.

NOVEMBER 16, 1842 4:30am

Diary Entry

Dear diary, my name is Benjamin Grant, and I am a 7-year-old living in the time of the industrial revolution. I work at the Cory Banks factory with my mom and sister. Every morning except Sundays the bell rings at 4:00am for work. I work under the machines collecting excess materials from 5:00am until 5:00pm when the end bell rings. After work, I have one hour of school where I learned how to read and write. My job is mentally and physically exhausting and I have been hurt so many times. Last week my finger got stuck in the big wheels and they got blood EVERYWHERE!

My working conditions were extremely poor for multiple reasons. Cory banks was a lot better than my job before. The owners are nice to me and give me enough food, however, it is very hard work to do. I am always exhausted when I get home. It is dirty, distracting, and completely unsafe for me to be doing this. Sometimes I get really upset thinking about losing my family because of the dangers and the injuries I have suffered. There are hundreds of people that work with me so lots of people catch colds, flus, diseases or viruses. My dad passed away from a virus he picked up at work last year. This work is dangerous for me because I can fit into small places that adults can’t, this means behind operating machines, in machines and in any other small places.

I lived in a small room with my family, we all woke up and are going to work together in half an hour when the bell rings. It is a small space to live in, but I get to be surrounded by my favourite people, my mom and sister. At my last factory I was separated from them, and I was upset and ran away. I made it out and continued to work at a different place. There are three single beds, one for each of us. I wear the same clothes every day, so I only need new ones when I grow. We all got our food at the factory, so we had no kitchen in our room. It was squishy for sure but cozy.

I read the newspaper every morning to see what’s happening outside of Cory Banks, this morning there was nothing new. The only thing written about is the changes in society, and one other small article. Changes in this society are enormous right now, there are more products available because of my hard work, more people were working because of more job openings, kids like me were working at ages as young as four. There are more products to sell therefore the costs of food, clothes etc, are going down. More people are working, which means there is more money out there. Before, my parents struggled to support me and my sister, however, now that me, my mom, and my sister are working there is more money to go around for the three of us. In the smaller article I read farmers were going bankrupt! How could this be? With all these new machines to complete tasks more efficiently? Well, what I didn’t know was more than half of the produce farms couldn’t afford this technology and continued farming the

traditional way. This meant they produced fewer products and the bigger companies with more money took over.

Living in the industrial revolution is exhausting and draining. But my dad would be proud, he will be proud of me.