# Industrial slave

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{{For|the industrial device named after the Czech term meaning "slave"|Robot}}
{{Globalize|date=February 2010|2=USA}}
An '''industrial slave''' is a type of [slave](/source/slave) who typically worked in an [industrial](/source/Industrial_sector) setting. These slaves often had work that was more dangerous than [agricultural](/source/agricultural) slaves. Besides agricultural and domestic service, slaves were a main labor force in mining, in shipping as [galley slave](/source/galley_slave)s, and in many kinds of manufacturing.

==United States==
In the [antebellum](/source/Antebellum_era) southern [United States](/source/United_States), industrial slaves were often the property of a [company](/source/company) instead of an individual.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://freeuniv.com/mirror/h101w11.htm |title=Slavery in Ante-Bellum Southern Industries |publisher=The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System |date=1999 |accessdate=2007-10-29}}</ref> These companies spanned various industries including [sawmill](/source/sawmill)s, [cotton gin](/source/cotton_gin)s and [mills](/source/cotton_mill), [fishing](/source/fishing), [steamboat](/source/steamboat)s, [sugar refineries](/source/sugar_refinery), [coal](/source/coal_mining) and [gold mining](/source/gold_mining), and [railroad](/source/railroad)s.<ref>{{cite web |work=Series C: Selections from the Virginia Historical Society |title=Railroad and Canal Construction Industries and Other Trades and Industries |url=http://www.lexisnexis.com/academic/guides/african_american/southern_industries/slavec2.asp |year=1997 |publisher=University Publications of America}}</ref>

Industrial slaves were exposed to many dangerous jobs in [factories](/source/factory). Most of the machinery and tools were very new and the simplest mistake could mean the loss of a hand, foot, or even death. Industrial slaves worked twelve hours per day, six days per week. The only breaks they received were for a short lunch during the day, and Sunday or the occasional holiday during the week. 

Industrial [textile mill](/source/textile_mill)s in the old south that used slave labor "Usually earned annual profits on capital between 10 and 65 percent and averaging about 16 percent." The use of industrial slaves sometimes allowed a [bankrupt](/source/bankrupt) company to be resurrected: "The Woodville mill, which went bankrupt with free labor, annually paid 10 to 15 per cent dividends after switching to slave labor".<ref>{{cite book |last=Starobin |first=Robert S. |title=Industrial Slavery in the Old South |url=https://archive.org/details/industrialslaver00star |url-access=registration |publisher=[Oxford University Press](/source/Oxford_University_Press) |location=[New York](/source/New_York_City) |year=1970 |isbn=978-0-19-500113-6}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Industrial Slave}}

Category:Secondary sector
Category:Slavery by type

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Industrial slave](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_slave) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_slave?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.