Wage slaves is a term that was at first used to denote to people who feared they would never be freed of their need to labor in a bid to stay alive. This was particularly with regard to some northerners who were afraid of this scenario. Cultural differences that existed between cities resulted in tension which again was tied to the concept of wage slaves (Cobbs, Blum, & Gjerde, 2011, p. 307).
Despite the fear that some people had relative to wage slavery, some people lauded the economic mobility that the workers who were involved in this term enjoyed, which came from the freeness that was becoming inbound. Free laborers could therefore better their lives and even strive to grow to the point of being the ones who hire others as was quoted in Abraham Lincoln’s address (Cobbs, Blum, & Gjerde, 2011, pp. 307-308).
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Wage slavery was again used in the north to mean that workers were tongue tied as they were primarily dependent on the salaries or wages that were paid to them. Such workers could barely make it without such payment and it had a different meaning from traditional slavery or owning of people (Cobbs, Blum, & Gjerde, 2011, p. 309).
Proudhon and Marx are some of the individuals who sufficiently elaborated what wage slavery meant as compared to just slavery. Conventionally, white slaves refers to European slaves who were enslaved by non-Europeans (Cobbs, Blum, & Gjerde, 2011, p. 311). In the north however, this term was used to mean the same thing as wage slavery. Wages were at one time regarded as a cunning and devious device, used for the benefit of retaining the benefits of the slave system.
Wage slaves and white slaves were a common occurrence during the pre-civil war era and had specific emphasis on how wages were used to control the work force, especially on the farms to the north of the Union.
References
Cobbs, E., Blum, E., & Gjerde, J. (2011). Major Problems in American History: Volume I. Wadsworth Publishing.
