Lower Class of the Industrial Revolution

It is very sad to think of all the suffering the lower class had to go through in England during the Industrial Revolution when there was so much money to go around. Reading through Elizabeth Bentley and her experience, what stood out to me was the obviously horrid working conditions and he fact that she had been working at that mill since the age of 6. She had to sometimes work from 13 to 16 hours a day depending on how busy they were. She got punished by the overseer for being late by being "strapped" and if she was late, she got taken away some of the money she could possibly earn, which was not much. Even if she was not late and worked especially hard, there would be no point since during her measly 40 minutes of break time she could not eat and her food was taken from her and given to pigs to feed. There was no reimbursement from that stolen food from the overseer. The document called Thrift mentioned that even parliament didn't try to help these people. Where was the ideas of Enlightenment now? In Thrift, it mentions women were practically treated as animals. It was very unfair that in those times so one tried much to do anything about the unfair treatment of women and children especially. Thank God for the countries finally having laws and regulations for their workers and how sad that this is still going on today in other parts of the world.

Martin Luther

After reading the document in Strayer's book about what Martin Luther said in his published work, Table Talks, I can understand why Protestants really needed to branch out. I almost agree with most of the things he ha to say about the Catholic Church at that time. The pope only cared really about having power, as did bishops and meanwhile, common people were dying of hunger. I can see why he would allow Protestants to marry. The pope today even has been heard saying it would make for a better Church, but then again, our pope today has many radical ideas. Now, don't get me wrong, I think it would be wonderful if priests everywhere were allowed to marry and raise families, I'm just saying it's very radical for the Catholic Church. Martin Luther took verses in the bible very seriously and said, "Christ with one sentence confutes all their arguments: God created them man and female... Now eating, drinking, marrying, etc, are all of God's making, therefore they are good..." (755). This only makes me think more that women should have a higher role in the church and perhaps all priests of all religions should be allowed that marrying option. I definitely do not agree on his views that women can learn but only serve their families though. Even today women are not allowed an active role in the Catholic Church and I think that reflects a lot on how little society has changed in its respect to women.