ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is to examine an amalgam of abduction legends that have, for more than a century, traveled together more often than they have done so apart. The legends center around the forced abduction of women, usually by means of trick or drugging, for the purposes of forced prostitution. Enhanced by periods of moral panic over so-called “white slavery” which peaked in the 1880s in Britain and the 1910s in the United States, the legend core has been challenged and debunked nearly from the beginning (BillingtonGrieg, 1913; Massachusetts, 1914), and as a result was “driven underground” from time to time but never really dissipated. In fact, it has shown itself to be a resilient legend with a great deal of flexibility, seemingly strengthened by its remission periods.
