Fugitive slaves, Victorian justice
A suspicious detective, a kind-hearted magistrate and public support for escaped slaves are part of this story of a Victorian court case told by New Generation Thinker Oskar Jensen
The trial of sisters begging on the streets of South London led to donations sent in by Victorian newspaper readers and an investigation by the Mendicity Society. New Generation Thinker Oskar Jensen, from Newcastle University, unearthed this story of the Avery girls in the archives and his essay explores the way attitudes to former slaves and to the reform of criminals affected the sisters' sentencing.
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