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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