Coercion, Contract, and Free Labor in the Nineteenth Century

Abstract

Introduction: free wage labor in the history of the West Part I. American Contract Labor and English Wage Labor: The Use of Pecuniary and Nonpecuniary Pressure: 1. 'Free' contract labor in the United States: an anti-essentialist view of labor types I 2. 'Unfree' wage labor in nineteenth-century England: an anti-essentialist view of labor types II 3. Explaining the legal content of English wage labor 4. Struggles over the rules: the Common Law Courts, parliament, the people, and the master and servant acts 5. Struggles under the rules: strategic behavior and historical change in legal context 6. Struggles to change the rules 7. Freedom of contract and freedom of person Part II. 'Free' and 'Unfree' Labor in the United States: 8. 'Involuntary servitude' in American fundamental law 9. Labor contract enforcement in the American north Conclusion.