The White Slave Market: An Overview of the Traffic in Young Women at the Turn of the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries, Mackirdy Mrs Archibald, Willis William Nicholas

Human bondage and the exploitation of the weak, poor and vulnerable is as old as human kind itself. It is such a primal aspect of human nature that there have been long periods of history where it was considered the natural order, and in numerous cultures the members of which could dispassionately view the matter without it ever occurring to them that it might be morally reprehensible. Such is the mobility of morality. That situation, of course, prevailed openly in modern western societies until very recently and certainly abides in the wider world less openly to this day. The traffic in young women to be used as labour slaves and especially those to be forced into prostitution has a history equally as long. Indeed, all know that this exploitation persists to the present time and is seemingly impossible to eradicate as it provides enormous revenue for the unscrupulous and gratification for the irrepressible base instincts of men. This book, written at the turn of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, sought in its day to make the public aware of the practice of white slavery in an attempt to promote its eradication. The circumstances of the victims of times past may have been different in detail to those of todays enslaved, but the common thread of exploitation remains the same. This book is an interesting chronicle on the subject from an historical perspective and will engross all those interested in learning more. It poignantly demonstrates that the practice and the battle against human trafficking has been long established and-though the war proceeds without final victory or the expectation of it-long opposed. Available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket.