Who advocated for the idea that "wage slavery" in the North was worse than slavery in the South?

The idea that "wage slavery" in the North was worse than slavery in the South is attributed to George Fitzhugh, a Southern social theorist and pro-slavery advocate. He argued that the conditions faced by wage laborers in the North—who lacked job security and were subject to the whims of the market—were more oppressive than the conditions of enslaved people in the South. Fitzhugh believed that while enslaved people were dependent on their owners for survival, wage laborers were at the mercy of a capitalist system that could discard them at any moment, leading to a more precarious existence.

Fitzhugh used this argument to defend slavery as a more humane and stable system, insisting that it offered care and protection to individuals who would otherwise be abandoned in the harsh realities of northern industrial capitalist society. His writings sought to paint a stark contrast between the two systems, positioning slavery not merely as a social institution but as a necessary structure for ensuring the welfare of individuals. This perspective was rooted in the belief that social and economic inequality in the North rendered the lives of free laborers more miserable than those of enslaved persons in the South, which was a controversial and provocative argument at the time.