So which system ultimately was better for the poorest or lowest people in the hierarchy?
Remember slave farms rarely numbered over 20 slaves, whilst factories might have thousands of workers with only cash contracts and no other help.
I never seen such a blissful picture of slavery painted - one that makes it the savior of the less fortunate, who having no probable chance of reaching a decent amount of wealth in his lifetime to live modestly is better off as being the property of another. Industrial capitalism in its first century did present difficulties in how to handle the massive economic and cultural shift in the western world but it did not take long before the clash of workers and capitalist resulted in movements forward. I do not think the question of weighing which was better is at all proper as they are hardly equal. The enslaving of men to be property for the means of labor is not the same as paying a worker a wage who is a free citizen with political rights.
Archonsod pointed out the excellent topic of Socialism which shows clearly that since the first movements of the Industrial Revolution there were attempts at how to manage this new life and I think by looking into the lives of men like Robert Owen we can find that not every capitalist was as crude as a Dicken's character.
Another possible debate may be Serfdom versus Slavery?