The White Slavery

Annie Besant describes the conditions of the London Match Workers as a kind of ? purenessned Slavery,? but does their condition really match those of the slaves brought to the Americas? The conditions of both strike social debates of their times, where human worlds were treated as property. I count both parallels and differences surrounded by the conditions of London?s working association and the African slaves brought to the America?sBeginning with the physical conditions of the labor each had to perform, umpteen parallels exist between the hard labor of the British mill workers and plantation slaves. Annie Besant says, ?One little girl was fined 1s. for letting the web kink around the machine in an endeavor to save her fingers from being cut, and was sharply told to take care of the machine, ?never mind your fingers?.? The slaves as well as face similar harsh conditions, but in whatsoever respects may have been treated better only because of their value as property. With little training necessary at their jobs, the owners faced little economic disincentive if a girl was injured or had to be replaced.

Next are the parallels between the way the factory workers and the slaves were viewed by the upper class and the government. Annie Bessant says, ? born(p) in slums, driven to work while still children, little because underfed, oppressed because helpless, flung aside as soon as worked out, who cares if the break or go on the streets, provided only that Bryant and May shareholders ache their 23 percent.? This is the view from the working class; they feel as if are treated like garbage. We do not master this opinion from the factory owners or the government. The government did little at first to promote fair treatment and wages for the children or adult factory workers. Many, like Thomas Babington Macaulay, argued that without the factories the girls would have no jobs resulting in even worsened poverty. We see the same compositors case made earlier for the black slaves. James Froude claims that the British dust is good for the former slaves in the West Indies, in his phrase The English in the West Indies. The ?ruling class? pull up stakes argue that the system in place is good for the great deal. only if the system was actually good for the people would riots exist in the West Indies? Would factory girls cut their arms and pour their slant in protest?But there were also laboured differences in the upper-classes? view of the factory workers and the slaves. The factory workers were still viewed as people. And as we saw in the slide show, many people fought for their rights.



The factory workers never faced the stigma that the slaves faced. Although the slaves were freed and conditions grew better, a degree Celsius of hard fighting for equality was still to come.

Also the psyche of the factory workers and the slaves was not the same. The factory workers, although trapped by circumstance, were of all time free. For example, the girls did not want to come in late or take a day off from work because they would nod off wages. Slaves did not face the same wage reducing punishments. It was worse; they could be beaten or switched to hard labor. The mentality of the slaves was a cry for freedom, not an end to the work.

Parallels exist between the ?white Slavery? and the slavery that the British, Spanish and Portuguese imposed on the African slaves in the Americas. Both white and black slaves faced hard labor, less-than human status in society and unthinkable to escape circumstances. However, the historical view and the ?revolutions? for freedom occurred in incompatible ways because of color and the views from the upper class.

BibliographyNorton Anthology of English Literature, 8th Ed, Vol 2

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