The Smethwick Sloggers.

In Birmingham and the surrounding districts, including Smethwick, in the 1870s there arose a sub-culture of hard young men, desensitised by the prevailing social conditions. Organising themselves into gangs, they erupted into the headlines with pitched street battles between rival faction in which all manner of weapons were used including, in particular, knives and belt-buckles. Outrageously lawless, the gangs, collectively known as Sloggers, fought vicious open battles in the streets for control of "territory"; in the process they frequently assaulted or killed members of the public or even police officers. Indeed, as the mobs coalesced to become organised hierarchical units, police were often particularly targetted, to keep them in their place as it were. Some argue that the overt lawlessness and violence of the 1870s broke out precisely because the police were trying to get on top of the routine street crime which had been rife since the 1850s - gambling dens, theft, robbery - and that the youth of the city, by no means amenable to any form of official discipline, took the decision, almost on a sort of group consciousness level, to have none of it. After that initial explosion the cat was out of the bag, and it only required some enterprising, ruthless, individuals to take the situation by the scruff of the neck: thus within a few short years we have outfits like The Peaky Blinders of TV fame, and the Birmingham Boys (which latter would effectively eliminate the Blinders' influence following a war over the control of on-course betting).
But, I am digressing. Sloggers (in the form of Smethwick Sloggers) feature in Black Hearts which is set, you will recall, in the 1880s, a time when it was I believe not unreasonable to still describe lawless bands of young men as Sloggers. And, there is no doubt that some of the original slogging gangs came from Smethwick. Also, there is no reason to suppose that some of those hard-bitten criminal elements which infested the busy Black Country town of Blackheath in the nineteenth century did not also style themselves "Sloggers". Perhaps even occasionally visiting from Smethwick? Anyway, this is the scenario in the book, and that is supported by local lore to the effect that one sergeant Frederick Salt, who "cleaned up" Blackheath, encountered a gang called or known as Smethwick Sloggers. Now, it would probably not come as much of a surprise for me to tell you that in Black Hearts the villains are defeated by our hero, Abraham Lively. However, as a nod to the true-life character I have inserted a sergeant Samuel Salt into the pages of Black Hearts.
Attached, a selection of slogger/early peaky blinder mug-shots. Note that one appears to be wearing a polka-dot scarf!

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