http://money.msn.com/now/us-incomes-through-the-years

1860 average annual household income: $277

The year 1860 was notable for the strike of some 20,000 shoe manufacturing employees in Lynn, Mass., who were angry about their low salaries. Weekly pay was about $3 for men and $1 for women, and both worked 16 hours a day, according to Libcom.org.

The strike did eventually lead to raises for the workers. Still, the average annual earnings of Americans in 1860 totaled about $277. Manufacturing workers likely received a bit more, at $297 a year, according to he National Bureau of Economic Research.

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From that $3 a Week ($.03 an hour at 80 hours per week, or $156 a year) you had to provide for your own food, clothing and housing. And if you couldn't survive on that you were "free" to looking for another job, IF you didn't owe the company store a debt, because of their inflated pricing, because you were paid in company script instead of real currancy.

The Northern factory owners complained about the South having "Free labor" in their slaves. But the Southern slave owner had to provided all the food clothing and housing (even as poor as it sometimes was) necessities of life for their slaves besides the initial investment of the purchasing price of the slave. It looks like the Northern factory owners were the ones getting the bargain.

The Northern Factory owners had no investment in their work force. Workers were literially a dime a dozen in the North. The Southen plantation owners had a substancial investment, and a vested interest in their workforce.

While the slave was not "free" to go as he pleased, neither was the Northern workforce in reality "free" either. Chains are made of many things other than just iron.

Unfortunately many of our people today are held in the chains of dependency to our social programs, just like the slaves and Northern factory workers of 1860.