CHAPTER I. General Slavery proceeding from the existence of the British Aristocracy _Page_ 13 CHAPTER II. Slavery in the British Mines 28 CHAPTER III. Slavery in the British Factories 104 CHAPTER IV. Slavery in the British Workshops 168 CHAPTER V. The Workhouse System of Britain 206 CHAPTER VI. Impressment, or Kidnapping White Men for Slaves in the Naval Service 257 CHAPTER VII. Irish Slavery 284 CHAPTER VIII. The Menial Slaves of Great Britain 370 CHAPTER IX. Mental and Moral Condition of the White Slaves in Great Britain 379 CHAPTER X. Coolie Slavery in the British Colonies 433 CHAPTER XI. Slavery in British India 441 CHAPTER XII. The Crime and the Duty of the English Government 489 THE WHITE SLAVES OF ENGLAND. CHAPTER I. GENERAL SLAVERY PROCEEDING FROM THE EXISTENCE OF THE BRITISH ARISTOCRACY. What is slavery? A system under which the time and toil of one person are compulsorily the property of another. The power of life and death, and the privilege of using the lash in the master, are not essential, but casual attendants of slavery, which comprehends all involuntary servitude without adequate recompense or the means of escape. He who can obtain no property in the soil, and is not represented in legislation, is a slave; for he is completely at the mercy of the lord of the soil and the holder of the reins of government. Sometimes slavery is founded upon the inferiority of one race to another; and then it appears in its most agreeable garb, for the system may be necessary to tame and civilize a race of savages. But the subjection of the majority of a nation to an involuntary, hopeless, exhausting, and demoralizing servitude, for the benefit of an idle and luxurious few of the same nation, is slavery in its most appalling form. Such a system of slavery, we assert, exists in Great Britain.