Seth Rockman The Unfree Origins of American Capitalism Page 23

Slavery could resemble wage labor when slaveholders embraced a liberal ethos, worked their slaves in industrial production, used positive incentives to maximize labor output, and bought and sold human property without pretense of paternalism. Conversely, wage labor could appear akin to slavery in its material exploitation of unskilled workers and its reliance upon legal coercion to hinder labor mobility.