Slaves vs. Modern Employees: A Controversial Comparison | Chapter 7
Slaves vs. Modern Employees
The Dawn of Discontent: Industrial Revolution and Wage Labor
The air inside the factory is thick with cotton dust and the deafening roar of machinery – power looms clattering, spinning jennies whirring. The factory floor is a dizzying maze of iron and steam. Young women and children, their faces smudged with grease and exhaustion, operate the dangerous machines. They are 'free' laborers, in theory; they have no legal owner and can leave their employment. Yet, their lives are circumscribed by the factory bell and the harsh demands of the mill owner.
These early industrial workers were migrants from rural areas, driven by economic necessity after enclosure acts and agricultural innovations displaced them from traditional lands. They sold their labor for a wage, often barely enough to survive. Twelve to fourteen-hour workdays were common, six days a week. Safety regulations were non-existent, leading to frequent accidents – fingers crushed, limbs entangled, lives lost. Child labor was rampant, with children as young as six working in dangerous conditions, their small hands deemed ideal for navigating intricate machinery.
Dialogues on the factory floor were often functional and terse. 'Mind the shuttle!' an older woman might warn a young girl, whose eyes drooped with fatigue. The foreman's shouts were constant: 'Faster! Keep the threads moving!' There was little room for personal expression or complaint; dissent could lead to immediate dismissal, and there was always a line of desperate people waiting for any available job. Their housing was often in overcrowded, unsanitary tenements, ripe for disease.
Psychologically, this was a new form of oppression. While not legally owned, workers experienced a profound sense of alienation from their labor. They produced goods they could never afford, performed repetitive tasks, and had little control over their working conditions or the fruits of their efforts. Their identity became tied to their function within the industrial machine, rather than their craft or community. The transition from agrarian life to industrial wage labor fundamentally altered the relationship between human beings and their work, introducing concepts of 'employment contracts,' 'wages,' and 'hours' that would evolve into the modern labor system. However, in its nascent stages, it presented a severe form of economic exploitation and precariousness, drawing early observers to question the true 'freedom' of these 'wage slaves' compared to the chattel slaves still toiling across the Atlantic.