Coercion, Contract, and Free Labor in the Nineteenth Century

Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2001. orig.cloth. 24x16cm, xi,329 pp. Small ink mark to bottom page-edge. Small spot to rear cover.. Textual maps & illus.. Minor rubbing. VG. ¶ Series: Cambridge Historical Studies in American Law and Society. Contents:Introduction: free wage labor in the history of the West; American Contract Labor and English Wage Labor: The Use of Pecuniary and Nonpecuniary Pressure: 'Free' contract labor in the United States: an anti-essentialist view of labor types; 'Unfree' wage labor in nineteenth- century England: an anti-essentialist view of labor types II; Explaining the legal content of English wage labor; Struggles over the rules: the Common Law Courts, parliament, the people, and the master and servant acts;Struggles under the rules: strategic behavior and historical change in legal context; Struggles to change the rules; Freedom of contract and freedom of person; 'Free' and 'Unfree' Labor in the United States: ' Involuntary servitude' in American fundamental law; Labor contract enforcement in the American north. ["This book presents a fundamental reassessment of the nature of wage labor in the nineteenth century, focusing on the common use of penal sanctions in England to enforce wage labor agreements. Professor Steinfeld argues that wage workers were not employees at will but were often bound to their employment by enforceable labor agreements, which employers used whenever available to manage their labor costs and supply. In the northern United States, where employers normally could not use penal sanctions, the common law made other contract remedies available, also placing employers in a position to enforce labor agreements. Modern free wage labor only came into being late in the

Steinfeld, Robert J. - Coercion, Contract, and Free Labor in the Nineteenth Century