White Slavery
SHERARD, Robert Harborough (author). Harold PIFFARD (illustrator). The White Slaves of England. London; James Bowden. 1897.

8vo.; publisher’s red pictorial cloth lettered and ruled in gilt and black to spine, decorated in black to upper cover, top edges olivine; pp. [ii], 13-370 + [6] adverts.; with black and white frontispiece after a photograph and monochrome illustrations throughout after photos and engravings; an unusually fresh and crisp copy with small splash mark to top edge of lower board but otherwise near fine; internally extremely crisp and fresh without ownership inscription, interestingly with a small contemporary bookseller’s label from Geneva to front pastedown.

First edition. An important social document which details the conditions of the most impoverished workers in England in the final decade of the nineteenth century. It looks at the Alkali workers of Widnes and St. Helens, the Nailmakers of Bromsgrove; the Slipper-Makers and Tailors of Leeds; the Woolcombers of Bradford; the White-Lead workers of Newcastle and the Chainmakers of Cradley Heath, followed by a detailed 82-page appendix detailing government legislation and actions taken against these industries.