Kidnapped: A Georgian Adventure


Kidnapped: A Georgian Adventure

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In the summer of 1728, a merchant ship from Dublin

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sailed into the Delaware Bay on the east coast of America.

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The ship was laden with goods

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and dozens of poor Irish emigrants bound for the New World.

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Amongst them was a scrawny 13-year-old boy.

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The boy's name was James Annesley,

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and he wasn't like the other children on board.

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His late father had been a baron, and James was heir to five

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aristocratic titles and numerous estates.

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That is, until he was kidnapped and sold into slavery.

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It's a tragic story of betrayal, loss and salvation

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played out in one of the great trials of the 18th century.

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It later became an inspiration for Kidnapped,

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Robert Louis Stevenson's classic novel about a boy whose inheritance

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was stolen by his wicked uncle.

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James's extraordinary childhood took him from the privileged peak

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to the murky depths of 18th century society.

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His story opens a window onto a tumultuous age.

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The 18th century heralded the rise of the British Empire,

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and the birth of the Enlightenment

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with its progressive ideas about freedom and equality.

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In this film, I will reveal that it was a century of contradictions

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tainted by the shocking exploitation of the vulnerable and the poor.

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And it had a guilty secret.

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You could kidnap a child, and it wasn't even a serious crime.

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HOUNDS BARK

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In April 1715, a son was born to an

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Irish aristocrat, Baron Altham, here at Dunmain House in County Wexford.

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Little James was like manna from heaven for his doting parents.

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To have a male heir was of the greatest importance for aristocratic

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families in the 18th century, so at Dunmain there were celebrations -

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bonfires, dancing, singing, revelry.

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Under primogeniture, the oldest son inherited everything,

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land, fortune and a title if there was one.

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It was one of the foundation stones of British society.

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Young James was in line to become the Earl of Anglesea, and indeed,

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to inherit four other titles

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and many estates in Ireland, England and Wales and £10,000 a year,

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that's millions in today's money.

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For James, growing up in the Elysian Fields

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of southern Ireland was idyllic.

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The future promised so much.

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He would one day be one of the wealthiest men in the British Isles

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and hold seats in the English and the Irish House of Lords.

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Like many privileged children in the 18th century,

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young Jamie lived a childhood that many boys would envy.

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Dogs, horses and guns.

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And Jamie looked terrific.

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His father dressed him in a scarlet silk coat,

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a hat with gold lace and a white feather.

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And Jamie sported a sword, lovely.

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Also, his father gave him a young mare called Hanover,

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named in honour of the King, George I.

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Young Jamie was absolutely very much a little lord.

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James lived a pampered existence in this gilded world.

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If you were lucky enough to have wealthy parents,

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the Georgian era was a good time to grow up.

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Increased prosperity and the rise of the middle classes

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spawned an affectionate and sentimental view of children.

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In many ways, it was when our modern notion of childhood began.

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James was born into the Anglo-Irish aristocracy.

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They'd come to power during the Protestant Ascendancy

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when English adventurers seized control of Ireland.

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# Irish blood, English heart This I'm made of

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# There is no-one on earth I'm afraid of... #

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Now, this aristocracy was very different

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to its more sophisticated English counterpart.

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It certainly behaved very differently.

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They were rough and ready characters, boisterous, earthy,

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prickly, aggressive.

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They loved hunting, shooting, boozing, living life to the full.

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And that would have a devastating effect on James

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when he was just two years old.

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Baron Altham was a rogue, rascal and a rake,

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given to gambling, boozing and womanising.

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He was said to have fathered a son with James's wet nurse,

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a maid called Juggy Landy.

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This rumour would one day come back and haunt James.

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The family home at Dunmain House is now owned by the Conway family.

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Tales about James's parents are legend here.

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One Sunday in 1717, James's world was turned upside down.

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This time, it was his mother who seemed to be at fault.

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She entertained a male visitor whilst Lord Altham was out.

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He returned back to the house here,

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and he came upstairs and found her in bed with Thomas Palliser.

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And they had a big fight that night as well, of course,

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and he pulled his sword and he severed off his ear.

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-He cut his ear off?

-He severed his ear off with his sword.

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A rough and ready and violent man, obviously a temper.

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He was a very bad tempered man altogether.

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He banished her from the house, he ordered her out.

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She had to pack her bags and leave,

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and she was forbidden ever to see James again.

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-So James lost his mother that night, effectively.

-Yes.

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I must say, a most odd business.

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One can't help but think that the baron orchestrated the whole affair

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as a way of getting rid of his wife

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and to appear blameless.

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It says a lot about marriage

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at the time. He enjoyed her dowry.

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The marriage took place, but there was no love.

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And of course, in the end,

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the real victim of this tragic state of affairs was young James.

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Baron Altham uprooted James from the family home

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and drifted around his Irish estates before ending up in Dublin in 1722.

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After all this upheaval, the Irish capital must have seemed

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like the perfect place for James and his father to make a new start.

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It was the second biggest city in the British Empire.

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The first glimmers of the Enlightenment were appearing,

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visionary ideas about freedom,

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education and reason that would come to define the 18th century.

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These ideas were expressed in bricks and mortar,

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for example here in the elegant

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neoclassical townhouses of Henrietta Street.

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I find the 18th century so fascinating because it was

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a portal between worlds, a time of tremendous change and contrast.

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We think of it quite rightly as the beginning of the modern world,

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the Industrial Revolution, new technology.

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And that's correct of course,

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this sense of it being the age of the Enlightenment.

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But that Enlightenment you must set

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against the darkness that lingered from the old world.

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Fantastic contrast.

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If you think of the changes that took place after 1700,

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in that hundred years, all was transformed.

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Aristocrats like James's father

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would have entertained lavishly in houses like these,

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which were the height of fashion in the first half of the 18th century.

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But there was another side to Dublin.

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It's said that everybody in Dublin

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knew everybody else and their business, which I'm sure was true.

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The trouble with the baron, his business was not good.

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He would do virtually anything but work for a living.

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That, of course, was the case with most lords and gentlemen

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in the 18th century.

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"Work, good heavens!"

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The thing about the baron, of course, is that he spent a lot

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more than his income allowed

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on...well, the usual vices.

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To fund his debauched lifestyle,

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he became embroiled in dodgy financial deals.

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Altham sold rights to land,

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but the land wasn't his yet.

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He wouldn't inherit until his cousin, the Earl of Anglesea, died.

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He was playing a dangerous game.

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Let's say that the baron sells a lease for half its current value.

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Here's a lease, a wonderful and compelling document,

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signed at the bottom.

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This, you might think, is a very good deal for the purchaser.

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And so it is in many ways, but they are gambling,

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gambling that the baron will outlive the Earl of Anglesea and actually

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inherit the estate that he's selling leases on.

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Also, usually in these deals,

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the person selling the lease

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gets his heir to also sign the lease.

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That makes the purchaser feel a little

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bit more happy, but in this case James was too young.

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So James was something of an inconvenience for his father

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in this rather strange dealing that was going on.

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Leave the lease here and take the

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money I've got for it over here.

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The baron couldn't have been a worse father.

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It wasn't just his financial skulduggery,

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selling off James's inheritance.

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There was also his womanising...

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..which had an even more dramatic effect on James.

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Altham seduced a wealthy woman called Sally Gregory

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and moved in with her.

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Was the baron attracted to Sally Gregory's beauty

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or to her bulging bank balance?

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Probably a bit of both.

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What is more certain is that Sally was a tough character.

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She hated James, she wanted him out of the way,

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probably wanted to replace him with a son and heir of her own.

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She was frightful, to be frank.

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She and her mother beat James, and eventually the baron agreed

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that James was to be put out to lodgings,

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out of sight, out of mind, out of the house.

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James had lost his mother,

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and now, aged eight, he'd been abandoned by his father.

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Father, Father, where are you going?

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Oh, do not walk so fast!

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Speak, Father, speak to your little boy,

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Or else I shall be lost.

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Life in the lodgings was unbearable,

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and James soon ran away.

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Overnight, the young aristocrat with everything

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was sleeping rough in haylofts, doorways and dark alleys.

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James now lived a cruel, harsh, feral existence,

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a shocking contrast to his privileged upbringing,

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evidence of the narrow boundary between heaven and hell

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in the 18th century.

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James's harrowing experiences in the dark and dangerous streets of Dublin

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mirror those of tens of thousands of homeless children

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whose secret sufferings and short lives have been lost to memory,

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lost to history.

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Is that trembling cry a song?

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Can it be a song of joy?

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And so many children poor?

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It is a land of poverty!

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As James wandered through these streets,

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emaciated and dressed in rags,

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he would have been seen as a vagrant,

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an idle and dangerous pariah.

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Vagrancy was a growing problem in the 18th century,

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and as attitudes towards this vulnerable underclass hardened,

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the authorities decided something had to be done.

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They used the full force of the law,

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the cruel and vindictive Vagrancy Acts.

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Parish authorities could use the Vagrancy Acts to round up not just

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the beggars and the vagabonds, but all who lived and worked

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in the street, the homeless, the poor, the powerless,

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those people deemed to be socially inconvenient.

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Destitute children were seized in great numbers

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and made to toil in the workhouse.

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There their lives could be brutal and short.

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The first workhouses date back to the 17th century.

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By James's time, they had sprung up all over Britain.

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They were designed to clean up the streets.

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They promised children a minimal education and put them to work.

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But the workhouses were, in many cases, no more than prisons

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where children were exploited

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and subjected to the most appalling abuse.

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She beat no-one as much as Alexander Knipe.

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She beat him with a stick with her left hand first,

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and because that was not enough,

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she took her right hand and hit him with the head of the stick.

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And she hauled him upon the ground with her hand and stamped upon him.

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He was very hot.

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He groaned worse and worse.

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The next morning, I saw him dead in his bed.

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Not all abandoned children suffered the horrors of the workhouse.

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The 18th century witnessed a rise in philanthropy and the spread of more

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enlightened institutions,

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like charitable schools and foundling hospitals.

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In Dublin, King's Hospital was founded as a free school

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by King Charles II in 1669

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to provide an education to boys who had lost their fathers.

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Here they would have learnt the three Rs -

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reading, writing and arithmetic,

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and then they would have been apprenticed

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to one of Dublin's many tradesmen.

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Schools like the King's Hospital were full of good intentions,

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but they couldn't do much more than scratch the surface.

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The vast majority of poor children

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fell outside the safety net provided by the philanthropists.

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James Annesley was one of them.

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Desperate and alone, he finally plucked up the courage

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to go and see the one man who could save him from his life of misery.

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James tried to visit his father once.

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He knocked on the door and was treated like a common beggar,

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a vagabond. The neighbours observed this and were shocked.

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They then begged Baron Altham

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to take better care of his poor destitute son.

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There was no-one left for James to turn to.

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He had to learn to survive on his wits.

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He became a well known face on the tough streets of Dublin,

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that small, scruffy urchin who claimed to be the son of a lord.

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But what sort of man was James's father?

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How could he treat James in such a terrible manner?

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Particularly since he loved him so much earlier on.

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We simply do not know. It is one of the mysteries of the story.

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What we do know, though, is that one day James was here

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in Smithfield, the horse market,

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leading a horse around for sale, I suppose.

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And James was spotted by a butcher,

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John Purcell.

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Purcell knew a little bit about James, he recognised him,

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questioned him, found out more details about James's story,

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took pity on him and took him under his wing,

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a very important turning point in James's life

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on the streets of Dublin.

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Purcell had a son of his own,

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and he was shocked to see the state of James.

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My father brought James Annesley to his house in Dublin in a very bad

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condition with hardly a shoe to his foot and a hair rope about his middle

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to keep his clothes together.

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James, now 12,

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had been given a second chance by the well-meaning John Purcell.

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He now entered the world of the Dublin artisan classes,

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hard-working tradesmen who were the beating heart of the city.

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In return for food and shelter,

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James ran errands for Purcell.

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The work was tough and the hours long,

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but it was a close-knit community

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where people looked out for each other and James felt safe.

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James had been virtually adopted by Purcell.

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He'd been saved from destitution

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and for the first time in three years had some stability,

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but just when the future looked bright,

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fate intervened.

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An extraordinary scene now unfolded in Dublin's Christ Church Cathedral.

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On November 16th 1727, James came to the funeral of his own father.

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Baron Altham had died suddenly and in mysterious circumstances

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at the age of just 38.

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James crept into the cathedral

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and found the funeral already under way.

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He mixed with the mourners who would have been gathered just about here.

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They were respectable people

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and I'm sure rather shocked by this dishevelled street child

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joining them, but of course, it was the funeral of his father,

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and James had not been invited.

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As the body was carried down here,

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James could restrain himself no longer

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and cried out with tears in his eyes, "My father, my father."

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One mourner, most surprised by James's outburst,

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asked the little urchin what he meant by it.

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James blurted out, "I am Baron Altham's son,"

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and then fled from the crypt, from the cathedral

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back to the butcher's shop.

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To find out more about the baron's untimely death,

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I went to meet Kenneth Milne, the cathedral's historian.

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It starts in 1669 with a list of burials. Where's our chap?

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Our one is 1727.

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Ah, there it is.

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Altham, Arthur. Fourth Lord, Baron.

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And this records him being buried here.

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He was supposed to be buried at the public expense.

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He was impoverished, he was an improvident person.

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Essentially, it was a pauper's burial,

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but he was buried in the cathedral because of his rank.

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Yes, I would have thought so.

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Ah! So we don't know where his bones are now?

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No, there's no monument.

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Maybe this solves the mystery of why the baron abandoned James.

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He was so broke that he had to make his son an outcast.

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There was, however, one mourner present who did recognise James,

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and this mourner took a very unhealthy interest in the lad,

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indeed would do all he could to destroy him.

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It was James's uncle, Richard Annesley.

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He was a brigand, a bigamist and a blackguard.

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And he had one very good reason for wanting to see the back of James.

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Now Baron Altham was dead and gone, James was due to inherit.

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But if something should happen to him,

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then one Richard Annesley would get everything.

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James's freedom, even his life, was in jeopardy.

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Here's the Annesley family tree,

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and here we see the senior member of the family in the 1720s,

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Arthur, the Earl of Anglesea.

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No children at this time and probably too old to have any.

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So the title and fortune he possesses would go upon his death to

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his cousin Arthur, the next oldest male heir.

0:25:000:25:04

Here we see him, Arthur, Baron Altham.

0:25:040:25:07

And upon Baron Altham's death, all would go to Altham's son, James.

0:25:070:25:14

But now, if James were not around,

0:25:140:25:17

all would go from Altham

0:25:170:25:20

to Altham's younger brother, Richard.

0:25:200:25:22

All Richard has to do to become the Earl of Anglesea and to have

0:25:220:25:28

millions of pounds in today's value is to get rid of James.

0:25:280:25:34

You can see the temptation.

0:25:340:25:37

Richard dreamed up a most dastardly plan.

0:25:390:25:43

Three weeks after the death of the baron, Richard sent

0:25:490:25:53

a message to Purcell, requesting a meeting with his nephew, James.

0:25:530:25:58

The meeting was to take place at the Ormond Market,

0:25:580:26:02

the butchers' market that stood here.

0:26:020:26:05

Purcell was alarmed by the message.

0:26:050:26:08

He was very suspicious, he wasn't quite sure what Richard

0:26:080:26:12

had planned, so he came here, he agreed to the meeting,

0:26:120:26:17

but he came armed with a cudgel, with James clinging to his side.

0:26:170:26:22

Somewhere around about here,

0:26:220:26:24

the pair of them saw this rather sinister figure, Richard,

0:26:240:26:28

dressed in black.

0:26:280:26:29

And with no more ado, Richard strode towards them

0:26:290:26:33

and demanded that Purcell hand over that "thieving son of a whore".

0:26:330:26:38

I threatened to knock out the brains of the first man

0:26:460:26:49

that should offer to take him from me

0:26:490:26:51

and said I would lose my life before I lose my child.

0:26:510:26:57

The people in the market heard it, and the butchers came to assist me.

0:26:570:27:03

James had escaped...this time.

0:27:080:27:11

But the scheming Richard Annesley was not deterred.

0:27:170:27:21

He came up with a simple but brilliant plan to get rid of his

0:27:250:27:28

nephew, legally and permanently, courtesy of the British Empire.

0:27:280:27:34

Richard accused James of stealing a silver spoon

0:27:370:27:41

and got two constables to arrest him.

0:27:410:27:44

Together, they dragged him off to Dublin's port.

0:27:440:27:47

James's life was about to change for ever.

0:27:470:27:50

James was brought here, no doubt kicking and screaming,

0:27:560:28:01

and confined in a ship bound for America.

0:28:010:28:04

Richard Annesley had struck a deal with the ship's captain.

0:28:040:28:08

James was to be transported 3,000 miles and sold as a servant

0:28:080:28:13

to the highest bidder.

0:28:130:28:15

Since the Pilgrim Fathers sailed the Mayflower to America

0:28:180:28:21

a hundred years earlier,

0:28:210:28:23

there had been a huge demand for labour in the New World,

0:28:230:28:27

and the Old World was only too happy to oblige.

0:28:270:28:32

From the 17th century onwards,

0:28:320:28:35

thousands of youths like James were transported.

0:28:350:28:39

They ended up as the chattels of plantation owners

0:28:390:28:43

in far-flung lands.

0:28:430:28:45

The popular fear of the idle classes, those rogues and vagabonds

0:28:460:28:50

that cluttered the streets of many cities,

0:28:500:28:53

was one motivation for human trafficking.

0:28:530:28:56

Another was the simple fact that getting rid

0:28:560:28:58

of the ne'er-be-goods could be highly profitable business.

0:28:580:29:03

-How are you?

-Hello!

0:29:030:29:06

Shady recruitment agents, known as "spirits",

0:29:090:29:12

profited from this business.

0:29:120:29:15

These characters lurked in most of the ports around Britain.

0:29:150:29:18

They'd come into bars, a bit like this, I suppose, look around, see

0:29:180:29:22

somebody down on their luck, alone, looking miserable.

0:29:220:29:25

They'd target them. Buy them a drink or two.

0:29:250:29:28

When that person was drunk, insensible,

0:29:280:29:31

the legal form of indenture would be produced.

0:29:310:29:33

Somehow the signature of the drunken person was put on the form,

0:29:330:29:36

and that was it. There was no going back.

0:29:360:29:39

They'd been "spirited away".

0:29:390:29:41

This demand for labour in the colonies meant that some people

0:29:430:29:46

were prepared to stoop to something far more nefarious - kidnapping.

0:29:460:29:52

"Kidnapping" was a word that entered the English language

0:29:520:29:55

in the 17th century and means really what it says,

0:29:550:29:58

the abduction of children,

0:29:580:30:00

who were normally sent across the seas to toil.

0:30:000:30:03

Children, well, they were easy prey. They couldn't fight back.

0:30:030:30:07

They could be stowed aboard ships without too much difficulty,

0:30:070:30:11

kept under control.

0:30:110:30:13

This frightful trafficking in human beings was not,

0:30:130:30:17

of course, confined to Ireland in the 18th century,

0:30:170:30:19

but took place all across the British Isles.

0:30:190:30:23

There's no way of telling just how many children were nabbed,

0:30:280:30:32

never to be seen again by their parents.

0:30:320:30:36

But we do know about a boy from Aberdeen called Peter Williamson

0:30:370:30:44

who was abducted in 1743.

0:30:440:30:47

I was playing on the quay when I was taken notice of

0:30:510:30:54

by two fellows belonging to a vessel in the harbour

0:30:540:30:58

employed in that villainous practice called kidnapping -

0:30:580:31:01

stealing young children from their parents

0:31:010:31:04

and selling them as slaves in the plantations abroad.

0:31:040:31:07

Being marked out by those monsters as their prey,

0:31:070:31:10

I was cajoled on board the ship by them.

0:31:100:31:12

Imagine the terror.

0:31:360:31:38

The children, suddenly confined in an utterly alien, wooden world,

0:31:380:31:45

surrounded by things all of which were unfamiliar.

0:31:450:31:51

The smell of tar,

0:31:510:31:53

ropes, scuttling rats,

0:31:530:31:56

bustling seamen, hunger, thirst, disease

0:31:560:32:00

and, of course, far from home, far from friends,

0:32:000:32:05

in all likelihood never to be seen again.

0:32:050:32:09

The weeping child could not be heard

0:32:130:32:16

The weeping parents wept in vain

0:32:160:32:20

They stripped him to a little shirt

0:32:200:32:23

And bound him in an iron chain.

0:32:230:32:26

For kidnapped boys like James and Peter,

0:32:370:32:40

this was the first view of their new home,

0:32:400:32:43

the distant and alien land of America.

0:32:430:32:47

A great wilderness.

0:32:470:32:50

For Peter, well, his arrival was particularly traumatic.

0:32:500:32:53

The ship bringing him ran aground on a sandbank

0:32:530:32:56

as it approached the American coast.

0:32:560:32:58

The crew abandoned ship leaving the cargo of children, including Peter,

0:32:580:33:04

to fend for themselves.

0:33:040:33:05

The cries, the shrieks and tears of a parcel of infants

0:33:100:33:13

had no affect on or caused the least remorse

0:33:130:33:16

in the breasts of these merciless wretches.

0:33:160:33:19

The wind at length abated.

0:33:220:33:24

The captain, unwilling to lose all his cargo,

0:33:240:33:27

sent some of his crew in a boat

0:33:270:33:29

to the ship's side to bring us onshore.

0:33:290:33:31

James Annesley's arrival was less dramatic,

0:33:350:33:38

but he couldn't possibly have imagined

0:33:380:33:41

what terrors the New World had in store for him.

0:33:410:33:45

James landed in Delaware, on the east coast of America,

0:33:470:33:51

at a town called Newcastle, south of Philadelphia.

0:33:510:33:55

Newcastle was the state capital, a bustling port

0:33:570:34:01

and the place of entry for many indentured servants.

0:34:010:34:04

Now, we all know about the way in which black Africans

0:34:060:34:10

suffered the indignities, the horrors of slavery.

0:34:100:34:14

But what's not so well known

0:34:140:34:16

is the often almost equally bitter story of white servitude,

0:34:160:34:21

and that was a world that James was now about to enter.

0:34:210:34:24

Astonishingly, almost half of the estimated 300,000 emigrants

0:34:310:34:37

from the British Isles arriving in the British colonies in America

0:34:370:34:40

between 1700 and 1775

0:34:400:34:43

were either transported convicts or indentured servants.

0:34:430:34:49

For the poor and dispossessed,

0:34:530:34:55

indentured servitude could offer an escape.

0:34:550:34:58

They paid for their passage across the Atlantic

0:34:580:35:01

by agreeing to work for nothing for a set number of years.

0:35:010:35:06

Unlike slavery, once they'd served their time,

0:35:060:35:11

they were free to start a new life.

0:35:110:35:13

But the reality was often much bleaker.

0:35:130:35:17

On their arrival, they were sold off like animals.

0:35:170:35:21

I've never seen such parcels of poor wretches in my life,

0:35:280:35:32

for they are used no better than many Negro slaves

0:35:320:35:36

and sold in the same manner as horses or cows.

0:35:360:35:39

James was bought by a farmer called Duncan Drummond.

0:35:440:35:49

There's no record of how much he fetched, but Peter Williamson

0:35:500:35:55

was sold for £16, which is about £2,000 today.

0:35:550:36:00

I'm going to Philadelphia to meet historian Roger Ekirch,

0:36:050:36:10

who has written a biography of James Annesley.

0:36:100:36:12

Nobody knows more about his story.

0:36:120:36:15

Can you tell me what James's life would have been like,

0:36:160:36:19

as far as one can tell, when he arrived in Delaware?

0:36:190:36:22

Clearly, the evidence suggests his first master was very, very, brutal.

0:36:220:36:29

Very tough.

0:36:290:36:31

His daily life consisted of felling timber

0:36:330:36:38

in the backwoods of Northern Delaware.

0:36:380:36:42

Daniel Defoe in the very early 18th century, in Moll Flanders,

0:36:420:36:45

talks about indentured servants, doesn't he?

0:36:450:36:48

And he says they should be more properly called slaves.

0:36:480:36:51

There was a common saying among slaves

0:36:510:36:54

that were a Negro not a Negro, an Irishman would be a Negro.

0:36:540:37:00

In terms of the material conditions of life,

0:37:000:37:04

one's daily existence, dress, diet, housing,

0:37:040:37:10

conditions for both slaves and white servants,

0:37:100:37:15

especially unskilled servants,

0:37:150:37:19

they were both absolutely horrendous

0:37:190:37:23

with very little likelihood, in his uncle's mind,

0:37:230:37:26

that James would ever be able to return to Ireland.

0:37:260:37:31

And the people responsible for the kidnapping -

0:37:310:37:34

the law in Britain was quite ambiguous

0:37:340:37:37

about the nature of their activity, wasn't it?

0:37:370:37:40

Yes. Up until the early 19th century,

0:37:400:37:44

you could be hung for stealing a horse,

0:37:440:37:48

whereas the kidnapping of an individual was only a misdemeanour.

0:37:480:37:55

It's a sickening thought.

0:38:020:38:04

Richard Annesley would only have had his knuckles rapped

0:38:040:38:07

and a fine for kidnapping James,

0:38:070:38:10

while his teenage nephew slaved in this primeval landscape.

0:38:100:38:15

James was put to work by Duncan Drummond on his farm...

0:38:250:38:28

..toiling relentlessly with hardly anything to eat

0:38:300:38:35

and constant beatings.

0:38:350:38:36

All in this terrifying wilderness infested with snakes,

0:38:380:38:41

wild beasts and mosquitoes.

0:38:410:38:44

It must have been horrendous.

0:38:450:38:48

After five years, James could take no more.

0:38:580:39:01

He escaped, risking everything in the desperate hope

0:39:040:39:07

that he would get back to Ireland and reclaim his inheritance.

0:39:070:39:11

James must have been in an appalling situation, hacking away, fearful.

0:39:160:39:22

It just shows, doesn't it, how, I suppose, frightful things were

0:39:220:39:27

on Drummond's plantation, where James was treated cruelly,

0:39:270:39:32

that this was a preferred option,

0:39:320:39:36

to be wandering through this dangerous, elemental land.

0:39:360:39:42

Newspapers of the time are full of advertisements

0:39:500:39:54

offering rewards for the capture of indentured servants.

0:39:540:39:59

I have some of these newspapers here.

0:40:010:40:05

Ten dollars reward.

0:40:080:40:09

An indentured servant named James Quinn, by trade a tailor.

0:40:090:40:15

About 5ft high with black curly hair, a down look...

0:40:150:40:21

HE LAUGHS

0:40:210:40:22

..with thick legs and much addicted to liquor.

0:40:220:40:26

Eight dollars reward.

0:40:260:40:28

An Irish servant man, name - George Murphy, by trade a barber,

0:40:280:40:32

of a black complexion, straight black hair, pock marked,

0:40:320:40:37

a well-fed fellow, about 5ft 5in high,

0:40:370:40:40

18 or 19 years old.

0:40:400:40:43

All these people, of course,

0:40:430:40:45

are the property, the possessions of others, of their masters,

0:40:450:40:50

and I suppose, you know, a form of currency

0:40:500:40:54

in what was, in many respects, a very brutal world.

0:40:540:40:59

James joined a group of fugitives, other runaways.

0:41:030:41:08

That was a big mistake.

0:41:080:41:09

They were more easily tracked, and all of them were captured.

0:41:090:41:13

James was returned to Drummond, who gave him a very severe whipping.

0:41:130:41:18

Worse still, James's period of servitude was extended.

0:41:180:41:23

Would he never escape this hell?

0:41:230:41:27

As he toiled day in day out,

0:41:290:41:32

there is no way he could have known

0:41:320:41:34

he was living through extraordinary times.

0:41:340:41:37

Revolutionary new ideas were germinating

0:41:400:41:42

that would eventually transform the world.

0:41:420:41:45

These were the Enlightenment ideas for which, in many ways,

0:41:480:41:52

the 18th century is best remembered.

0:41:520:41:54

The triumph of rational thinking, the assertion of the rights of man,

0:41:540:41:59

the heady mix of liberty and equality

0:41:590:42:04

that fuelled revolutions in America and in France.

0:42:040:42:08

A new generation of thinkers arose

0:42:080:42:11

that challenged the very essence of the Old World.

0:42:110:42:15

Philosophers, like Jean-Jacques Rousseau,

0:42:150:42:19

had radical new ideas on everything from politics to childhood.

0:42:190:42:24

Love childhood.

0:42:250:42:27

Indulge its sports, its pleasures, its delightful instincts.

0:42:270:42:31

Who has not sometimes regretted that age,

0:42:310:42:35

when laughter was ever on the lips

0:42:350:42:38

and when the heart was ever at peace?

0:42:380:42:42

Inspired by the ideas of men like Rousseau,

0:42:450:42:47

the American Colonies overthrew British rule.

0:42:470:42:51

They declared independence in 1776...

0:42:510:42:56

..and the United States of America was born.

0:42:590:43:03

The ideas of Enlightenment were taking root in the New World.

0:43:030:43:08

We hold it to be a self-evident truth

0:43:170:43:20

that all men are created equal.

0:43:200:43:23

The rights enshrined in the 1776 Declaration of Independence are,

0:43:230:43:30

of course, admirable, but the problem is that, um...

0:43:300:43:34

..attitudes towards slavery and indentured servitude

0:43:360:43:40

changed painfully slowly.

0:43:400:43:43

The abolition of slavery went on

0:43:460:43:48

to become one of the great moral crusades of the 19th century.

0:43:480:43:52

By the 1820s, the trade in indentured servants

0:43:550:43:58

had all but died out

0:43:580:43:59

because it was no longer profitable.

0:43:590:44:02

But for James, that would be too late.

0:44:030:44:06

James wanted to escape his brutal existence

0:44:110:44:15

and, primarily, had one thing on his mind.

0:44:150:44:19

He did not want to make a life for himself in the New World,

0:44:190:44:23

but get back to Ireland and battle to reclaim his birthright.

0:44:230:44:28

After 13 years of abuse and exploitation,

0:44:310:44:35

and on his third attempt, he finally escaped.

0:44:350:44:40

He was 25 and had been in America, effectively a slave,

0:44:400:44:45

for more than half his life.

0:44:450:44:47

James made his way to Jamaica,

0:44:500:44:52

where he enlisted as a common seaman upon a Royal Naval warship.

0:44:520:44:56

Incredibly, while on that ship,

0:44:560:44:58

he was recognised by an old school friend from Dublin.

0:44:580:45:02

This story was so incredible, so strange,

0:45:020:45:05

that it soon got back to London.

0:45:050:45:07

Here we have a copy of the Daily Post,

0:45:070:45:10

published on February 12th 1741,

0:45:100:45:14

that, indeed, contains an account of James's discovery.

0:45:140:45:19

Under plantation news - the admiral has ordered

0:45:190:45:22

he should walk the quarterdeck as a midshipman

0:45:220:45:26

till the truth can be manifested.

0:45:260:45:29

So, James, well, things were looking up, weren't they?

0:45:290:45:33

Recognised by the Royal Navy, or at least by the Admiral of the Fleet.

0:45:330:45:37

This would do him a great deal of good.

0:45:370:45:39

He was on his way back to Ireland,

0:45:390:45:40

on his way back to reclaim his titles and his rightful inheritance.

0:45:400:45:44

But before he could do that, he had to do battle with his nemesis,

0:45:520:45:56

his uncle, Richard Annesley,

0:45:560:45:59

who was now the rich and powerful Earl of Anglesea.

0:45:590:46:03

In Ireland, James was welcomed back like the prodigal son.

0:46:140:46:17

He'd become one of the most celebrated figures in the country

0:46:170:46:21

and had won many supporters.

0:46:210:46:23

The newspapers called his battle the Great Cause.

0:46:230:46:27

But not everybody was pleased that James was back.

0:46:270:46:32

On the 16th September 1743,

0:46:330:46:37

James attended one of Ireland's leading social events -

0:46:370:46:41

the Curragh races in Kildare -

0:46:410:46:43

and was accompanied by one of his wealthy new friends,

0:46:430:46:47

Daniel MacKercher.

0:46:470:46:49

Richard Annesley was at the races, too,

0:46:500:46:53

and he had one thing on his mind...

0:46:530:46:55

..murder.

0:46:580:47:00

Things here took a very dramatic turn.

0:47:040:47:07

Even before James reached the racecourse,

0:47:070:47:09

a coach drawn by six horses thundered towards him,

0:47:090:47:13

nearer and nearer.

0:47:130:47:14

It tried to run him down and missed by a hair's breadth.

0:47:140:47:19

James and his party recognised the coachman.

0:47:190:47:21

It was one of Richard's men.

0:47:210:47:23

Then, incredibly, the coach stopped, turned round

0:47:250:47:28

and had another go at this dramatic hit-and-run killing.

0:47:280:47:32

It was an astonishing event, so brazen in front of everybody.

0:47:320:47:37

All the race-goers could see this going on.

0:47:370:47:39

MacKercher was outraged by this attempt to murder James,

0:47:430:47:47

or at least to terrorise him.

0:47:470:47:49

He spotted Richard by the winning post with his henchmen.

0:47:490:47:52

Very bravely, MacKercher approached Richard, they had an argument.

0:47:520:47:56

During the argument,

0:47:560:47:57

MacKercher was hit over the head with a butt of a whip.

0:47:570:48:00

James was advised to flee.

0:48:020:48:04

He got on his horse, fled the field, chased by 40 or 50 armed men.

0:48:040:48:08

As he ran off,

0:48:080:48:09

he could hear Richard screaming out, "Knock his brains out!"

0:48:090:48:13

James turned to confront the men,

0:48:150:48:18

but his horse fell and landed on top of him.

0:48:180:48:21

The mob left him for dead.

0:48:210:48:23

But they hadn't counted on James's resilience.

0:48:290:48:32

He survived

0:48:330:48:35

and was even more determined to win back his inheritance.

0:48:350:48:40

It would prove to be the biggest challenge of his life.

0:48:400:48:44

He was to take the fight against Richard Annesley

0:48:440:48:47

to the law courts of Dublin.

0:48:470:48:50

The trial was regarded as the most important of the age.

0:48:540:48:58

At stake was one of the foundation stones of society - inheritance -

0:48:580:49:04

the idea that title, wealth, power, property

0:49:040:49:08

passed through the blood to legal heirs.

0:49:080:49:12

The Irish peers who met in this splendid room,

0:49:180:49:23

the Chamber of the House of Lords,

0:49:230:49:26

knew that to tinker with the God-given laws of inheritance

0:49:260:49:29

could undermine their very world.

0:49:290:49:33

Roger Ekirch has spent two years

0:49:410:49:43

studying the transcripts of this extraordinary trial.

0:49:430:49:46

It centred on whether James was a legitimate heir

0:49:480:49:52

to one of the Annesley estates in Ireland.

0:49:520:49:55

So, Roger, why do you believe, as you clearly do,

0:49:550:49:58

you're convinced, that James was indeed the legitimate heir?

0:49:580:50:03

Most basically, because the circumstances are irrefutable.

0:50:030:50:09

What was at issue is whether Lady Altham was his natural mother

0:50:090:50:15

or instead a chambermaid by the name of Joan,

0:50:150:50:20

or, as she was sometimes referred to, Juggy Landy.

0:50:200:50:26

So that you had servants brought to Dublin

0:50:260:50:32

from more than 20 years earlier.

0:50:320:50:36

One, for example, was named Dennis Redmonds, who had been sent

0:50:360:50:42

to procure a midwife

0:50:420:50:45

while Lady Altham was reportedly in labour.

0:50:450:50:50

"Well, then I ask you

0:50:500:50:52

"whether you ever knew My Lady to be with child or not

0:50:520:50:56

"during the time of your being there?"

0:50:560:50:59

"I did."

0:50:590:51:01

"How did you know it?"

0:51:010:51:02

"Because I seen her big bellied."

0:51:020:51:05

One of the most compelling reasons, I think,

0:51:060:51:09

why this trial was so sensational,

0:51:090:51:13

on a very sort of fundamental, visceral level,

0:51:130:51:17

was that, ultimately,

0:51:170:51:20

James's saga was a story of betrayal and loss.

0:51:200:51:27

It's also a story of enormous resilience,

0:51:270:51:32

survival...

0:51:320:51:34

and had the potential, ultimately, for redemption.

0:51:340:51:38

The trial lasted 12 days,

0:51:420:51:44

the longest at the time in British legal history.

0:51:440:51:48

James emerged victorious.

0:51:480:51:51

There were wild celebrations in the streets of Dublin

0:51:510:51:55

and in James's home town of New Ross.

0:51:550:51:58

There was curiosity throughout the nation.

0:51:580:52:00

George II invited James to an audience in London.

0:52:000:52:05

Round one went to James, but victory in Dublin simply wasn't enough.

0:52:080:52:13

Battle would now recommence in London.

0:52:150:52:18

James had to defeat his Uncle Richard

0:52:180:52:22

at the heart of the English judicial system,

0:52:220:52:25

here in Westminster.

0:52:250:52:27

He would have to prove that he was rightful heir,

0:52:290:52:33

not just to one estate in Ireland,

0:52:330:52:35

but also to five peerages across the British Isles...

0:52:350:52:38

..or he would get nothing.

0:52:400:52:43

This was going to prove much tougher.

0:52:450:52:47

The Court of Chancery was notoriously slow,

0:52:470:52:51

and Richard, of course, had in his possession the family estates

0:52:510:52:55

and all the wealth that went with them.

0:52:550:52:57

Also, he was more than happy to pervert the course of justice,

0:52:570:53:01

if necessary,

0:53:010:53:02

and, sadly, justice was more than happy to be perverted.

0:53:020:53:07

Richard had in his pocket

0:53:070:53:09

some of the leading lawyers of the kingdom,

0:53:090:53:11

men who knew how to use and abuse the legal system

0:53:110:53:15

to attain their ends.

0:53:150:53:17

They used arcane legal technicalities to stall proceedings.

0:53:200:53:23

The longer the case dragged on, the more they lined their pockets,

0:53:250:53:28

proving the old proverb...

0:53:280:53:31

"..He that goes to law holds a wolf by the ears."

0:53:330:53:39

Richard knew that James's meagre funds wouldn't last for ever.

0:53:390:53:43

Lawyers do not, of course, come cheap.

0:53:430:53:46

So, in effect, Richard was bankrupting his nephew.

0:53:460:53:50

James's case became the great cause celebre of the age

0:53:550:53:59

and a fighting fund was raised for him

0:53:590:54:02

by leading members of Georgian high society.

0:54:020:54:05

After 15 years,

0:54:070:54:09

the Court of Chancery completed its examination of the witnesses,

0:54:090:54:13

but by this time, James was down to his last five pounds.

0:54:130:54:17

This meant that he needed the equivalent of legal aid.

0:54:170:54:21

There was additional delay but, finally,

0:54:210:54:24

the court announced that it would hear the case in January 1760.

0:54:240:54:29

But James couldn't keep the appointment

0:54:320:54:35

which promised to bring him victory.

0:54:350:54:37

On 5th January, he suffered an asthma attack and died.

0:54:370:54:43

He was only 44.

0:54:460:54:49

Within a year, his uncle Richard was also dead.

0:54:520:54:56

Ironically, Richard's son and heir was judged to be illegitimate,

0:54:560:55:01

so the coveted Earldom of Anglesea was declared extinct.

0:55:010:55:06

James was buried here in St Margaret's Church

0:55:090:55:13

in the village of Lee in Kent.

0:55:130:55:15

Hello.

0:55:150:55:17

-Nice to meet you.

-And you, too, yes.

-Excellent.

0:55:170:55:20

Well, wonderful to be here at this really splendid church,

0:55:200:55:24

but my real quest is to find the grave of James Annesley.

0:55:240:55:28

Is it known where he's buried?

0:55:280:55:30

We don't know where he's buried,

0:55:300:55:32

but there's no doubt that he is buried here.

0:55:320:55:34

His name is recorded in the parish register.

0:55:340:55:36

But tombs of earlier members of the family

0:55:400:55:43

-have survived in part and they are stored here.

-How exciting.

0:55:430:55:48

So, I can't pay my respects to James but I can...

0:55:480:55:50

But you can to his ancestors.

0:55:500:55:52

It's tragic that, after such a long and astonishing journey,

0:55:580:56:02

it all came to nothing for James.

0:56:020:56:05

And he, like his father, doesn't even have a known grave.

0:56:050:56:09

But he did leave a will, and I've got a copy of it here.

0:56:090:56:13

"This is the last will and testament of me, James Annesley."

0:56:130:56:19

He states here very directly, "The only son and heir

0:56:190:56:24

"of the Right Honourable Arthur, late Lord Baron of Altham."

0:56:240:56:30

Here we see he proposed to leave £1,000 each to his wife,

0:56:300:56:36

son and daughter,

0:56:360:56:38

and £15,000 to Daniel MacKercher, Esquire.

0:56:380:56:44

But none of this happened.

0:56:440:56:47

James did not regain his birthright.

0:56:470:56:50

He died a pauper

0:56:500:56:52

and nobody - not friend nor family - received a penny.

0:56:520:56:57

James's body would have been buried

0:57:070:57:09

somewhere in the churchyard across the road.

0:57:090:57:12

The old churchyard is wonderful,

0:57:170:57:20

full of 18th-century headstones and tombs.

0:57:200:57:25

I can't but feel somewhere I'll see the name of James Annesley.

0:57:250:57:30

It's an incredible feeling after all my searchings

0:57:320:57:37

for this chap and his story

0:57:370:57:39

to be now so near his last resting place on Earth.

0:57:390:57:42

James lived many lives in one.

0:57:460:57:48

As a son of the nobility,

0:57:500:57:52

he'd briefly tasted the fruits of privilege.

0:57:520:57:54

But then he became a victim of cruel circumstance

0:57:540:57:59

and felt the full force of the contradictions

0:57:590:58:02

at the heart of the 18th century,

0:58:020:58:04

when children were both sentimentalised

0:58:040:58:08

and brutally exploited.

0:58:080:58:10

It's a story that makes talk of the Enlightenment, of the rights of man,

0:58:100:58:16

of human progress sound like empty rhetoric.

0:58:160:58:21

With the Industrial Revolution just around the corner,

0:58:210:58:25

with its exploitation of child labour,

0:58:250:58:28

it was to be a long time before the basic idea was accepted

0:58:280:58:33

that children also have individual and precious rights.

0:58:330:58:39

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

0:58:530:58:56

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0:58:560:59:00

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