Slave Versus Free Labor in Western Culture

At end of the 18th century, Western writers and political activists began to discuss the comparative performance of slave and free labor as systems of production and the accumulation of wealth. This talk will address how and why such comparisons became salient during the last 250 years. It will then consider some of the historical outcomes of policies that were subsequently based upon the substitution of one form of labor for the other. Sponsored by the George L. Mosse Program in History.