Wage slavery has been defined in many different ways over the years. From the now very basic necessity of having to work for a wage in which you live off of, to the very extreme version of these times of being a wage laborer without any more of, the basic freedoms and benefits then a black slave. The term wage slavery had to be extreme in order for the people to grasp the severity of the situation of these workers, otherwise nothing may have been done. The work conditions of the mid to late 1800’s were legitimate wage slavery and justly called so to fully encompass its state of affairs.
Making reference to the then current manufacturing and industrial systems was just not limited to the poor workers oppressed by it. While the word slave may not have been used itself by some it was more then alluded to through other words meeting its definition. Andrew Carnegie wrote, “ It controls us all because we are all in it”(Carnegie 231), referring to the entire economic system. Frederick Douglass makes several statements of slavery being a system, one in which there is slave and master. While in the case of slavery one has the power of will over the other. These are the same characteristics exhibited throughout the manufacturi
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This statement confirms that to some degree there will always be wage slavery, always someone to enjoy the fruits of another’s labor. Therefore completing the cycle that started off as an independent wage laborer and turned them into dependent wage slaves. The term was not used lightly, in many it ignited at least some hope that others would be able to see their indignations. To incapacitate him from earning is to make him a slave. ” Such was the impression of choice with the wage slaves, knowing that without having the minimum the employer gave them they would not be able to exist. The mayhem that was brought to their aspiring lives was of the most severe nature, so they used a word (slave) that carries the amount of weight in not just its meaning, but its history. These workers were put into extreme situations and extreme circumstances, so in effect only an extreme term justifies their livelihood. “Choice is an illusion, created between those who have power and those who do not. ng world of the time with the low paid workers having little say and doing exactly as instructed by the bosses. In fact it was acknowledged by them that they would need to labor but the goal from this term and work was to spawn a new, and safer working atmosphere. They were motivated to do this after being forced into company regulated living quarters and watching their wages decrease seasonally. Rail workers all across the nation who had been lied to and led into poverty because of the system were very apt to use wage slavery to describe themselves. It described their every aspect of life, from sun up to sun down. “Maintaining and absurdity no longer tolerated in enlightened countries; that a part, and that a very great part, of the human race, are doomed, of right, to the slavery of toil, while others are born, only to enjoy”(Skidmore 188). Douglass goes, as far to say the following, “the difference between the white slaves and the black slaves is that the blacks slaves only have one master”(Douglass 231).
Approximate Word count =
1074
Approximate Pages =
4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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