Fugitive slaves, Victorian justice
Arts & Ideas
BBC
4.2 • 598 Ratings
🗓️ 6 April 2023
⏱️ 14 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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.
Producer: Ruth Watts
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Can I just say? |
| 0:01.5 | You're about to listen to a BBC podcast. |
| 0:04.0 | It's such a wonderful listen. |
| 0:05.6 | So nice. |
| 0:06.5 | There are loads more like it on BBC sounds. |
| 0:08.8 | Different paces, different heights. |
| 0:10.6 | The roof is buckling. |
| 0:11.9 | Where you can also listen to live sports commentary. |
| 0:14.2 | It's right foot goes for goal. |
| 0:16.7 | And then enjoy even more podcasts full of analysis and reaction to the big stories. |
| 0:21.7 | The stat that is astonishing is they ended with the lowest amount of possession. |
| 0:25.2 | And she's had to live with that. |
| 0:26.8 | So if you love sport, a passion, it's almost like a religion. |
| 0:29.7 | Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:31.7 | Sort of expecting that every week now. |
| 0:35.8 | BBC Sounds, music, radio Podcasts. I'm Oskay Ensign, one of the BBC Radio 3 and the Arts |
| 0:44.6 | and Humanities Research Council New Generation thinkers. In this episode of The Essay, I'll be looking |
| 0:50.8 | at a tale of two young beggars claiming to be fugitive slaves in Victorian London. |
| 0:57.8 | Fugitive slaves' Victorian justice draws on newspaper reports, including historical racist language used at the time. |
| 1:07.2 | Number 298 Borough High Street doesn't exist anymore. |
| 1:11.9 | Located just down the road from London's Borough Market, |
| 1:15.0 | it's been swallowed up by David Bomberg House, |
... |
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