Lyle,
I have heard those arguments from pro-slavery folks before that being a
slave was preferable to being a factory worker under the robber barons, yet,
there was a greater degree of freedom in that situation than in slavery.
People could and did escape from the tyrony of the robber barons. They were
free to choose to work for them, and they were free to choose to leave. Many
did. Many were too depressed by their condition to see a way out. Some had
come from oppressive systems in Europe and they saw no way to live except
under such a system. But it was not slavery, and it did not bind the
children as slavery did.
In teaching English to high schoolers, I often came across various Jack
London stories. In some, he talked about the harsh conditions that he lived
under as a child in the very same conditions you are talking about. He was
able to extricate himself, and his work for some of those years allowed his
younger brothers and sisters to get an education to escape the system. This
was not an opportunity in slavery.
So no, as deplorable as the circumstances were under early capitalism, they
were not as onerous as slavery even in its most benign practice. The people,
although sometimes too depressed to see a way out (not unlike those who get
themselves under onerous debt these days), the escape existed, legally. And
was used, often by the children who chose not to continue in the practice.
And yes, in recent decades, we have seen an attempt to return to the
employment practices of the robber barons. Now, tho, the problem is less
that employees are bound to to a given employer, but that they are treated
as commodities and loyalty to a job is no longer rewarded.
Unregulated capitalism is almost as bad as slavery, but it is NOT slavery,
and there are always escapes.
So, I reject yours and Elizabeth's contention that slavery was less onerous
than other means of employment. It was much more than a means of employment,
and the abuses it engendered were, as Jefferson said, like holding the wolf
by the ears.
Anne
Anne Pemberton
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http://www.erols.com/apembert
http://www.educationalsynthesis.org
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