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Child Prostitution and the Age of Consent


In the autumn of 1879, an Englishman on business in Brussels visited a brothel where he was offered a nineteen-year-old English prostitute. She claimed to have been abducted to Belgium, imprisoned in the brothel, and forced to prostitute herself. In effect, ‘she was as much a slave as was ever any negro upon Virginian soil’ (item 3, p. 28). Rather than get involved in the case directly, the gentleman employed a go-between who took the story to a Quaker, Alfred Dyer. Dyer judged the case worthy of investigation, and in February 1880 departed for Brussels with a Quaker friend, George Gillet, and a member of the LNA, Mary Steward, who was an experienced rescue worker. Dyer and Gillet were to pose as clients, and take statements from any English prostitutes they encountered. They were assisted by a Belgian pastor, Leonard Anet, who accompanied them to hospital wards reserved for diseased prostitutes, and by an advocate, Alexis Splingard, who gave them legal advice. The results of their investigations were explosive. In order to get round Belgian law which required state registered prostitutes to be at least 21, brothel keepers imported English girls between the ages of 13 and 21, whom they registered using false birth certificates. The girls generally came willingly, persuaded that they were going to a highly paid domestic situation. Some were even promised marriage. Once in the brothel, they were kept prisoners and starved or beaten if they refused to prostitute themselves. Such was the case of one diminutive girl, Adeline Tanner, abducted from London in September 1879 by brothel keeper Eduoard Roger. The Tanner Case (item 1) would become the chief evidence in a huge criminal trial mounted in December 1880 against twelve keepers and managers of brothels in Brussels. Adeline and other girls were rescued by Mrs Steward, and some were nursed personally by Josephine Butler at her Liverpool home.

Volume Contents

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    Front Matter
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    Introduction By Jane Jordan
  • The White Slave Trade
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      1
      Letter from Josephine E. Butler to Dr William Carter, ‘Private’, 1 April 1880, [From Liverpool], Josephine Butler Collection, The Women’s Library By Josephine Butler
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      2
      ‘The Modern Slave Trade’, Letter to the Editor of the Shield, 1 May 1880, pp. 63-5 By Josephine Butler
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      3
      The European Slave Trade in English Girls, London, Dyer Brothers, 1880 By Alfred S. Dyer
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      4
      Letter from Josephine E. Butler to Unknown Recipient, n.d. [Autumn 1880], Josephine Butler Collection, The Women’s Library By Josephine Butler
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      5
      ‘The Deposition on Oath of Josephine E. Butler’, 8 November 1880, Made Before Mr T. Stamford Raffles, Stipendiary Magistrate of the City of Liverpool
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      6
      ‘A Letter to the Mothers of England: Commended also to the Attention of Fathers, Ministers of Religion, and Legislators’, April 1881 By Josephine Butler
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      7
      ‘Suggestions for the Amendment of the English Law’, Submitted to the Select Committee of the House of Lords (1881) on the Law Relating to the Protection of Young Girls, Shield, 15 October 1881, pp. 197-8 By Benjamin Scott
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      8
      Recommendations of the Select Committee of the House of Lords on the Law Relating to the Protection of Young Girls, Sentinel, August 1882, p. 128
  • The Protection of Girls
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      9
      ‘Laws for the Protection of Youth’, Letter to the Editor of the Sentinel, March 1882, pp. 90-2 By Josephine Butler
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      10
      Letter from Josephine E. Butler to Florence Booth, 26 March 1885, [From 9 The Close, Winchester], Salvation Army Heritage Centre By Josephine Butler
  • The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon
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      11
      Letter from Josephine E. Butler to Anna Maria Priestman, 5 June 1885, [From 9 The Close, Winchester], Josephine Butler Collection, The Women’s Library By Josephine Butler
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      12
      ‘The Maiden Tribute of Modem Babylon’, Pall Mall Gazette, Monday 6 July to Friday 10 July (1885) By W. T. Stead
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      13
      Circular sent out by the London Branch of the Ladies’ National Association, August 1885, Josephine Butler Collection, The Women’s Library
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      14
      Rebecca Jarrett, London, Morgan & Scott, 1886 By Josephine Butler
  • The Criminal Law Amendment Act
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      15
      ‘Provisions of the New Criminal Law Amendment Act’, Sentinel, September 1885, p. 477
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      16
      Letter from Josephine E. Butler to Margaret Tanner, 16 August 1885, [From 8 Rue de Pommier, Neuchatel, Switzerland], Josephine Butler Collection, The Women’s Library By Josephine Butler
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      17
      Ladies’ National Association Circular by Josephine E. Butler, dated 17 August 1885, [From Office of the Federation, Neuchatel, Switzerland], Josephine Butler Collection, The Women’s Library By Josephine Butler
  • Personal Reminiscences of a Great Crusade
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      Personal Reminiscences o f a Great Crusade, London, Horace, Marshall & Son, 1911 By Josephine Butler
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        Introduction
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        Obituary Notice of Mrs. Butler
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        Prefatory Biographical Note
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        I
        Chapter I
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        II
        Chapter II
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        III
        Chapter III
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        IV
        Chapter IV
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        V
        Chapter V
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        VI
        Chapter VI
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        VII
        Chapter VII
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        VIII
        Chapter VIII
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        IX
        Chapter IX
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        X
        Chapter X
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        Conclusion