The
term the white slave trade was first used in the 1830s and referred
to female prostitution. Some national figures such as Josephine
Butler, Catherine Booth and William
Stead, thought the government should take action to reduce prostitution
in Britain. They were particularly concerned with the issue of child
prostitution and called for an increase in the age of consent from
twelve to sixteen. In 1875 the campaigners had their first success
when the House of Commons agreed to raise
the age of consent to thirteen.
In 1885 William Stead and Bramwell
Booth of the Salvation Army joined
forces to expose the growth in child prostitution. In July 1885, Stead
purchased for £5, Eliza Armstrong, a thirteen year-old daughter
of a chimney-sweep, to show how easy it was to procure young girls
for prostitution. Stead published an account of his investigations
in the Pall Mall Gazette entitled Maiden
Tribute of Modern Babylon.
In September, William Stead and five others
were charged with unlawfully kidnapping a minor and committed for
trial at the Old Bailey. Stead was found
guilty and was imprisoned for three months in Holloway Gaol. As a
result of the publicity that the Armstrong case generated, Parliament
in 1885 passed the Criminal Law Amendment Act
that raised the age of consent from thirteen to sixteen, strengthened
existing legislation against prostitution and proscribed all homosexual
relations.
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