In A Conversation on Slavery, in which an American, an Englishman, and a Scotchman argue over the issue of American slavery, the American uses the rhetorical strategy of equating unfair working conditions in other societies to the institution of slavery in his defense of America. He explains to the Englishman that “your working poor are not indeed absolutely slaves; but there seems something a little like Slavery, where the Laws oblige them to work for their Masters so many hours at such a Rate, and leave them no Liberty to demand or bargain for more.” To the Scotchman the American asserts that coal miners in Scotland “are absolute Slaves by your law, and their children after them, from the Time they first carry a Basket to the End of their Days.”
It is easy to spot certain logical fallacies in the American’s argument. First of all, pointing out unethical behavior toward laborers in other countries does nothing to lessen the horrors of American slavery, which the American does not adequately address. He rather uses the poor working conditions of the English and the Scotch as a red herring to distract from the issue of slave labor in his own country. Furthermore, however similar the living conditions between American slaves and the British poor (which in itself is a dubious claim), it can still be argued that there exists a substantive difference between finding oneself in unfortunate economic circumstances and being the legal property of another human being.
However, despite these flaws in the American’s logic, some of his claims warrant consideration. Just because the legal institution of slavery disappears from a society, does that preclude similar forms of economic entrapment that effectively strip the lower class of their liberty? While the American was applying this argument to 18th century Britain, it seems relevant in our society today. The legal institution of slavery no longer exists in the United States, but how many of the goods that we buy come from countries whose laborers experience standards of living similar to 18th century American slaves? I have no idea where any article of clothing that I am currently wearing was manufactured. Some, probably most, of my clothing was likely made in some other country. Very few of us do any research into finding out the conditions in which our goods are manufactured, despite the knowledge that something very similar to slave labor still exists throughout the world. Are we therefore implicit in the same kind of willful ignorance that the American points out in the Englishman and Scotchman? Do we pat ourselves on the back for living in a society free of institutionalized iniquity while supporting it abroad?
