When he read about whipping boys in the course of his research, Fleischman felt an indignation that kept him working at a difficult project. He felt he had to tell the story of a whipping boy and his prince because he believed that both were victims of institutionalized injustice. The prince was a victim of excess privilege, the whipping boy had no privilege at all.

Throughout history children have been victimized. A child like Jemmy is particularly helpless because of his poverty. But Fleischman's sympathy extends to children of all classes who are powerless to defend themselves.

Through his position as whipping boy, Jemmy comes to understand why Prince Horace is so bored. Neither the energy nor the imagination of a growing boy are given adequate scope under his princely restrictions.

Fleischman drew some of his material from Henry Mayhew's London Labour and the London Poor...