Industrial Revolution Fiction

For most of human existence, people lived in a somewhat similar fashion. Everything that has been produced, from food and raw materials to clothing and other finished products, has been done either solely by hand or with some help of animal power. This was the same across the eras and throughout the world, no matter how advanced or backward the various civilizations were. Yet, our lives today couldn’t be more different.

The Industrial Revolution, which took place in Great Britain between the middle of the 18th century and the middle of the 19th, transformed British industry and society and made Great Britain the most powerful nation in the world. The Industrial Revolution didn’t happen due to one, single factor but rather to a number of separate, yet, related developments which interacted to change the world profoundly and completely. Improvements in the production of iron allowed the construction of efficient, reliable steam engines.

While Joe and his relatives continue their laborious work at Darby ironworks in Coalbrookdale, his brother Richard, through his marriage to a Bridgnorth Corn Merchant's daughter, ascends the social ladder. The novel unfolds, weaving in moral and ethical complexities as it portrays the realities of 18th-century England's justice system. Through the Banghams' interactions with the law, the narrative sheds light on the grim aspects of prisoner transportation to America and the struggles of its enslaved populace, introducing the emerging anti-slavery sentiment.