R,
This was an area I was interested in for awhile as well (still am, sort of). You're right: apologists of slavery in the South often defended the institution by pointing out the cruelty of 'free' Northern wage labor. Eric Foner's _Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party Before the Civil War_ delves a bit into these polemics: "Your whole class of manual laborers and operatives, as you call them, are slaves," S. Carolina Senator James Hammond, a Fire-eater, stated.
Doing searches on the Fire-eaters, the apologists of slavery, might turn up useful info. George Fitzugh is perhaps the most well-known of these, who often criticized capitalism while arguing for a slave society.
"The pro-slavery argument was not merely a defense or rationalization of slavery. It was also a critique of northern society, and especially of its materialism and individualism. In Fitzhugh's analysis, the cause of the North's social problems was the 'whole moral code of Free Society,' which he summed up as 'every man for himself.' Free competition, lauded by the classical economists and advocates of the self-made man, was the means by which capital exercised its mastery over labor. It fostered selfishness and greed, arraying the two classes against one another in unceasing combat. ... In place of the acquisitive materialism of the North, Fitzhugh held up the patriarchal values of the South, with their stress on the responsibilities of the planter to the entire community, as the model of social ethics." (from Foner's Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men, p.66-67)
Hope this helps.
Brian
On Wed, 18 Sep 2002, R wrote:
> the anti-Bellum south did a pretty good job "defending" its slavery by
> pointing out that the north was populated with wage slaves. any
> historians out there conversant with the wage slave dialogue -- then or
> now? can't find much on it since, evidently, it hits to close to home in
> our mercantile society.
>
> R
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"And Mr. Block thinks he may / Be President some day." - Joe Hill, "Mr. Block"