A Discussion Of The Relationship Between Master And Servant In 19th Century England

For a long time, the relationship between master and servant has been an important social relationship in England. Before 17th century, the relationship between the master and servant is that of personal attachment. After 17th century, following social changes of England, the noun "servant" started to mean an occupation rather than a social status. But not until 18th century, the relationship between master and servant had not gotten rid of the traditional influences and become the capitalistic hiring relationship. This transformation was finally completed in 20th century. This article studies the relationship between master and servant in 19th century because this century is an important turning point. Moreover, in 19th century, England was enduring the industrialization and the urbanization. The economic structure and social structure were undergoing great changes. A study of the relationship between master and servant, this ancient social relationship, may provide a unique prospective for people to understand the history of England in 19th century. In addition, the domestic and foreign scholar have not pay enough attention to the relationship between master and servant in modern England even some domestic scholars who have studied in this domain, they just do a surface job. This article intends to makes up the insufficiency of research in this domain.By analyzing the historical materials, the author discovered that there was no personal attachment between master and servant in 19th century. The servant sold the labor force and the master purchased it. The master and the servant were two sides of commercial business. Generally speaking, the master did not treat the servant as a family member. The servant did not have a lifelong responsibility for the master. However, in this period the relationship between master and servant were different from the relationship between the capitalist and the industrial workers. It was not the equal relationship of employer and employee legally. The relationship between master and servant was still hierarchical. Once a servant was employed, all his/her time was considered the working time and he/her lost the freedom of going out and leaves. The...