Which of these reasons is most important to them?

Modern World History

Document Analysis

Write a 1-2 page analysis (double-spaced) in response to the question below. You don’t need to bother with an introduction or conclusion, as in a traditional essay; you can skip straight to an analysis of the primary source material based on the issues raised in the assignment. Your answer should not just consist of vague statements and generalizations—give me specific examples from the documents, along with quotations when appropriate. You do not need to include footnotes are any other sort of citation in this assignment.

Look at the “Petition of the Yorkshire Cloth Workers” from 1786 (one of the documents that can be found on the course Blackboard site under “Costs and Benefits of Machines”; you don’t need to use the second document written by the factory owners that is paired with the workers’ petition). In their petition, how many different arguments do the cloth workers employ in their protest against the use of machines in their industry? In other words, how many reasons do they give for their belief that the use of machines is harmful? Which of these reasons is most important to them? Do they appeal to the self-interest of the factory owners or to their sense of morality, or both? Which of the arguments in the petition, in your opinion, would have been most effective in changing the minds of the factory owners?