Okay, so Nealson Munn and David Collinson have done a great job at writing and putting together the book INSANE! (the stories of crazy salvos who changed the world). And I know I’ve said this before, but I’m stressing this book for a reason: it’s fantastic. Good news to all 2008 Band of Survivors: You will be getting a copy of this book for the summer! Not on BOS? Jealous? You should be.
The most recent subject to kick my behind was a chapter on how the Salvation Army got involved in fighting human trafficking. Nealson and Munn gave this story (the following is compiled from Nealson Munn and David Collinson’s book Insane! the stories of crazy salvos who changed the world, chapter 4):
Nealson and Munn start from the beginning: They report that it all began when Florence Booth (Bramwell Booth’s wife; formerly Florence Soper) was working at a home for homeless girls in Whitechapel, East London. The girls reported of the stories of the sex trade to her, who then told her husband Bramwell. At first, Bramwell was slightly hesitant to accept the truth of the stories, but promised his concerned wife that he would study the matter. It so happened that one night, a 17 year old girl showed up at the footsteps of the Army’s headquarters in a red dress, with a red-song book in hand (Insane!, Nealson and Munn, page 62). She just escaped from a brothel she thought was going to be her nice new job. She had used the address printed on the inside of the songbook to find help.
Finding the girl, along with some more stories that Florence relayed to Bramwell, really sealed the deal. Bramwell then decided that he would stand up against this evil. So he employed the skills of a man named W.T. Stead in order to help fight. Stead was a journalist (and editor of a magazine known is the Pall Mall Gazette) who was also hesitant to readily embrace the idea of such a horrible practice. However, he too resolved to examine the issue, so Bramwell took him to the Salvation Army’s headquarters where they met specialists on the issue, as well as a few rescued girls. After the meeting, there was little doubt left in his mind.
They then decided that they would work up an extremely risky scheme to gather the facts in such a way that they could publish them and tell the masses of what was going on. Their first idea was to have a Salvationist infiltrate a brothel under the guise of a prostitute in order to witness first hand the conditions and in order to prove for sure the veracity of the reports that had heard. Somehow, the 10 day trip was successful, reports were verified and no one was hurt or bought.
However, in order to prove to the English people what they had seen, they were going to devise an even riskier plan: Stead was to purchase a girl and send her to somewhere in Europe in order to prove “beyond doubt how easy it was to accomplish such a thing, and, by implication, how regularly it was done” (page 70).
Munn and Collinson write about all the precautions they took in devising this scheme for their reputations and safety of all involved. For instance, Stead sent letters to the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London, letting them know of the plan so that someone in power would be able to testify for them in case they were taken to court (which they were). They also tested for the girl’s virginity before and after she was bought by Stead to insure that nothing happened.
Stead and Bramwell went through with the idea (except instead of sending the girl to another part of the trade, they sent her to an Army home in France for her care), and when it was all said and done, published the happenings in a series of articles known as The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon. The result was that after two defeats in Parliament, in 1885 the age of consent was raised from 13 to 16, and brothels were made illegal (page 76). Not to mention that while the Parliament was discussing the issue, Salvationists compiled a whopping 393,000 names for a petition in order to help put pressure on Parliament (page 75).
Unfortunately, Stead and Booth didn’t come out unscathed. With the release of the articles, and subsequently the release of the methods that Stead and Booth used, the public got upset. One man, W. H. Smith, became so upset that he asked the House of Commons to prosecute them and the person responsible for helping them find a girl for purchase (her name was Rebecca Jarrett). They were charged with child abduction. See, even though the mother of the girl Stead bought had sold her willingly, this fact wasn’t able to be confirmed because the articles Stead released did not concretely convey the fact that the whole plan was set up; designed to expose, and not contribute to, the evils of the sex trade. As a result, Jarrett and Stead were arrested while Bramwell Booth was let go. Ironically, Nealson and Munn point out that years after the trial, it was proven that “mother” of the girl was not her biological mother, a fact they report that Bramwell thought could have been used to change the outcome of the trial.
Interestingly enough, while they had victories through the law, Nealson and Munn note that Bramwell didn’t consider the trial to be all negative, for he claimed that it actually promoted and advertised the Army. That’s a good way to look at it.
Nealson and Munn close the chapter by stating that there was a four step approach that Stead and Booth used to combat the issue of the sex trade:
“1. Thoroughly research the issue.
2. Assemble a credible, competent team and develop a strategy.
3. Be willing to take risks, and, if necessary, put your reputation on the line.
4. Never back down – fight until reforms take place” (page 83).
For a good resource on human trafficking, check out stopthetraffik.org. Educate yourself, and find out how you and your corps can get involved.
Read this book!!! You will not regret it!