Victorian Nonfiction
Writing About the Industrial Age
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle was born in 1795 to a humble working-class family. He learned the value of hard work at a young age, and he later received a university education in Edinburgh. Widely read among critics and fans alike, he became famous in his time for such written works as his satirical Sartor Resartus and History of the French Revolution. In his writing, Carlyle expressed his opposition to democracy, the industrial revolution, and the growing materialism that characterized Victorian society. Carlyle passed away in London in 1881.
Access and read an excerpt from "Signs of the Times" by Thomas Carlyle. As you read this excerpt, identify whether Carlyle was in favor of or against the use of machines during the industrial age. How does Carlyle persuade the reader to accept his argument?
Andrew Ure
Andrew Ure was born in 1778 in Scotland. He studied medicine at Glasgow University and later gave popular lectures in chemistry and mechanics at the Andersonian Institution. By 1830, he had resigned from the institution and moved to London, where he worked as a consultant in chemistry. His tours of English textile mills led him to write The Philosophy of Manufactures in 1835. His massive work A Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines was translated into numerous languages. Ure died in London in 1857.
Access and read an excerpt from The Philosophy of Manufactures by Andrew Ure. As you read this excerpt, identify whether Ure was in favor of or against the use of machines during the industrial age. What counterarguments and examples does Ure use to persuade his readers?
Writing About Slavery
Mary Prince
Mary Prince was born in 1788 in Bermuda, which at that time was a colony of Britain. Her parents were slaves of African descent, so Prince also was a slave from birth. Although slavery had been abolished in Britain, it was still legal in Britain's Carribean colonies. In 1828, Prince traveled to London with her master and his family. There, she managed to escape her enslavement and later earned wages working in the home of Thomas Pringle of the Anti-Slavery Society. Pringle helped her transcribe and publish her narrative account of the abuses of slavery that she personally experienced while living in Bermuda and Antigua. Her narrative The History of Mary Prince attracted widespread attraction after its 1831 publication, helping to win advocates in favor of abolishing slavery in Britain's colonies. Prince was still living in England in 1833 when the Slavery Abolition Act was passed. It not known today what came of Prince after 1833, but one would hope that she was finally able to return to Bermuda to live out her life in freedom with her husband.
The History of Mary Prince is just as shocking and disturbing today as it was in the Victorian era. Unlike Carlyle and Ure, Prince did not need to resort to complex persuasive devices in her argument against slavery; revealing the brutal truth of the treatment of slaves was more than enough to rally British society to abolish the enslavement of fellow human beings. By publishing the first slave narrative of a black woman in Britain, Prince helped to open society's eyes to the realities of slavery.
Before reading Prince's slave narrative, be prepared to come across diction that was common in Prince's time, such as the N-word. Also be aware that certain scenes as depicted by Prince are inherently of a disturbing nature.
"Oh the horrors of slavery!—How the thought of it pains my heart! But the truth ought to be told of it; and what my eyes have seen I think it is my duty to relate; for few people in England know what slavery is. I have been a slave—I have felt what a slave feels, and I know what a slave knows; and I would have all the good people in England to know it too, that they may break our chains, and set us free."
— Mary Prince
Access and read excerpts from The History of Mary Prince: A West Indian Slave. As you read excerpts from this slave narrative, take notice of those who abuse their power over Prince and those who bestow kindness on her. Are you surprised by how certain individuals treat Prince, whether kindly or cruelly, during her enslavement?
Victorian Nonfiction Review
Now that you have explored three nonfiction writings of the Victorian period, it is time to review your knowledge and practice what you have learned. In this non-graded activity, read the questions and select the appropriate answers. Click the player button to get started