 Whereas the iron master lived a rather luxurious life with the opportunity to afford travel, tutors for his children, and expensive home furnishings, workers had few material possessions of their own.Workers were not well traveled outside of the plantations, and little news outside of the confines of the plantation concerned their daily lives.Notably, however, poverty was not well known on the plantations, even in times of economic depression, and workers’ wages in the United States greatly surpassed comparable wages in the European iron industry.