"Yorkshire Cloth Workers' Petition"

Published in the Leeds Intelligencer and Leeds Mercury, June 13, 1786

"Leeds Cloth Merchant Proclamation in Support of Machinery"

Published in the Leeds Intelligencer and Leeds Mercury, 1791

"But what are our children to do; are they to be brought up in idleness?"

The move by textile workers from home-based workshops into large factories was the first big social change brought about by the introduction of new machinery into the indus-try—part of the process known as the Industrial Revolution. Previously, skilled workers spun yarn from cotton or wool and wove it into fabric on smaller machines located in their houses; textiles were called a cottage industry for this reason. But newly invented machines could produce as much yarn or cloth as several individuals using old equipment. These...