Slavery has been called the “sum of all villainies.” This description of it does not apply to chattel slavery. That is, at least, free from hypocrisy. It does not disguise itself. It appears to be precisely what it is. The whips and the chains, the cruelties of the internal traffic, and the “horrors of the middle passage,” all of the crimes and enormities peculiar to that system, are seen and known of all men. Give even the devil his due. He does not here assume the form of divinity. Wages slavery only is that system of it, to which the above description is justly applicable. Is not that so deceptive in its character, that even many lovers of liberty (yourself among the number) have mistaken it for freedom? Do but consider this question fairly. . . . Is there one evil produced by the chattel system, which is not also produced by the wages? . . .
Introduction
In 1847, labor reformer William West published this critique in the abolitionist newspaper The Liberator, drawing provocative parallels between wage labor and slavery. Writing amid ongoing debates over industrial capitalism and workers’ rights, West challenged the idea that wage earners were truly free. He argued that economic necessity forced workers into exploitative conditions, leaving them little real choice in employment. By comparing “wage slavery” to chattel slavery, West sought to expose inequalities in labor, highlight gender and property injustices, and call for systemic legal reforms to create genuine economic independence.
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Source
William West, “Wages Slavery and Chattel Slavery,” The Liberator (April 2, 1847); “Wages Slavery and Chattel Slavery,” The Liberator (April 23, 1847).
