Masarykova univerzita

Filozofická fakulta

Katedra anglistiky a amerikanistiky

Bakalářská diplomová práce

2013 Alice Giles Masaryk University

Faculty of Arts

Department of English

and American Studies

English Language and Literature

Alice Giles

The Essential Plight of Female

Convicts in Establishing Overseas

Colonies in the British Empire

Bachelor’s Diploma Thesis

Supervisor: PhDr. Jitka Vlčková, Ph. D.

2013

I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.

……………………………………………..

Author’s signature

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank my supervisor PhDr. Jitka Vlčková, my fellow students and my family for

their support and guidance. Table of Contents

1 Introduction ...... 1

2 Living Conditions on British Isles During the 18th and 19th Centuries ...... 4

2.1 Life of British Women ...... 6

2.2 Fallen Women and Disorderly Girls ...... 8

3 Old Bailey and Newgate Gaol ...... 12

4 Transportation ...... 18

5 Voyage to Australia ...... 22

6 Arrival to Australia ...... 27

6.1 Life Under “The System” ...... 29

6.2 Female Factories ...... 32

7 Freedom ...... 39

8 Conclusion ...... 43

9 Resume - English ...... 50

10 Resume – Česky ...... 51

1 Introduction

The aim of this thesis is to research and investigate the plight of British female convicts during the second half of the eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth century when colonial business with convicts flourished. In order to see the whole problem accurately, it is important to consider all aspects, including the lives of British working class women as yet non-convicts, politics, class and the social situation in the

British Isles at that time and also to some extent, a comparison to the male section of society.

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the British government had to deal with a growing number of criminals and thus, sending them overseas for long-term servitude seemed to work until the necessity and also opportunity of establishing a new colony on the other side of the hemisphere, in Australia, took over. In addition, as in almost all kinds of societies and cultures, the women played an important role in the future of the colony, despite that fact that most of them were seen by others as prostitutes and “damned whores” for whom there was no pity.

It is not the intention of this paper to analyse the life of male convicts since it would require much greater research and extend the scope of the work beyond the defined focus, however, there are occurrences of some comparisons between the female and male convicts within the text when needed. Also, regarding the servitude and punishment, special interest is paid to Australia which was arguably the most appalling.

Other British colonies are mentioned only peripherally.

The work is divided into four parts. The first part focuses on the situation and circumstances on the British Isles during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, class distinction and overall factors which led to miserable conditions for women in British 1

society who in many cases found themselves in a hopeless state of affairs that they tried to solve by various means, usually in the form of petty crime. This part should answer the question, “why and how so many British women got into trouble leading to a criminal path?”

The second part focuses on their life after being caught committing a crime. They were no longer free, and thus under the system which determined their future life. This paper deals with their situation in prison, how cases were handled in front of a Judge in a court and finally, on the work of a great prison reformer Mrs. Elizabeth Fry who had changed lives of many female convicts for the better.

The third part focuses on the various attempts to establish business with the convicts and the ultimate decision to colonise Australia. It focuses on the reasons why the British women were so important in the plans of the British Government and the

Crown.

The fourth part is dedicated to the life of female convicts after their trial at the court and their sojourn in prison which was followed by the voyage to Australia. The work further focuses on living conditions in a strange land, the forced servitude and exploitation of female convicts who were outnumbered by men by one to nine from the early years of the colony in New South Wales to the end of transportation of convicts in

1856 owing to the abolition of transportation.

Since the time I read the first article about the convicts and their roles in establishing the nation of Australia, this problem became a great interest of mine, especially when I found out that there was a widely held, biased opinion on the character and personality of the founding Mothers of Australia. There were many sources which I explored, among them The Fatal Shore by Robert Hughes which gave me an overall picture of the situation on the British Isles during the eighteenth and 2

nineteenth centuries, the voyage to Australia and the years on its land before the abolition of transportation. The Old Bailey Online website provided me with detailed information about particular proceedings, trials and punishments. Sian Rees with her book The Floating Brothel and Deborah J. Swiss with her book The Tin Ticket helped me to understand and see that there was only a fine line for young British women or girls between being free or arrested. The Tin Ticket in particular brought a meticulous description of the “Newgate Angel”, Mrs. Elizabeth Fry, who helped to make the ordeal tolerable for many female convicts. Thanks to the plentiful amount of Australian research websites such as Convict Trail Project, Convict Female Research Association,

Parramatta Female Factory Precinct Association and The Female Convicts Research

Centre I could learn more about life in captivity and servitude in the land of Australia.

3

2 Living Conditions on British Isles During the 18th and

19th Centuries

In order to explore and analyse all the reasons which led to high criminality among British women during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, it is necessary to include all aspects including the social and political climate in the British Isles during that period. Despite the nostalgia for Georgian England, its architecture, paintings, fashion, beautiful gardens and portraits of stylish and elegant families which extol contentment and happiness, for working class people the British Isles during the

Georgian reign was not a desirable place to live. Hughes in his book Fatal Shore claims that England in particular was full of controversy. While the minority of upper class people lived in luxury displaying their pomposity with lively and opulent balls in their mansions, the majority of British people lived on the verge of starvation (20). Unable to feed themselves or their children, working class people fought for their survival from one day to another. As a consequence; dirt, disease, the abundance of cheap alcohol and a high level of criminality lead to everyday problems and a solution was not in sight.

Accordingly, the poor, in their desperation resorted to various types of crime, from petty theft to felony, and gin provided them with solace in their exhaustion. Made in England,

“this white grain spirit flavored with crushed juniper berries became England's national stupefaction, the heroin of the eighteenth century” (Hughes 23). It was a quick and cheap way to ease the body and mind with little knowledge of its consequences.

Not surprisingly, because of this erratic and unpredictable behaviour of poor people owing to their despair and wretchedness, the aristocracy and upper classes gradually grew more anxious and uneasy with the rise of this misery. “The general perception among the upper and middle echelons of society was that crime was caused 4

by laziness, sloth and general abandonment. Low wages, unemployment and need were not considerate to be motivating factors” (Christopher 10). The harder the times were, the harder were the prosecutions with the weak attempt to wipe out the “criminal class” by which the English meant “a distinct social group 'produced' crime, as hatters produced hats or miners coal” (Hughes 165). Moreover, it was also widely believed that

“crime was a class problem, with an entire criminal class terrorising their more virtuous compatriots” (Christopher 10). So, the lower the people were on the ladder of prosperity, the more they were considered as the scum of society with a high potential of committing a crime.

The situation in London was one of the worst. A pervasive, smelly odour was floating in London's air, sewers were running into open drains, rats in cellars were the norm and due to dirt and bad hygiene there was a high percentage of infant mortality.

“London was judged the greatest city in the world, but also the worst smelling” (Hughes

20). The City of London was full of desperate, unfortunate people coming from all parts of the British Isles with the vision of a better life, “the living were so crowded that there was scarcely room to bury the dead” (Hughes 20). Unemployment was very high and even the most dangerous and arduous labour was fought for by many hungry and desperate potential workers. As Hughes further claims “to speak of an eighteenth- century 'working class' as though it were a homogeneous entity, united by class- consciousness and solidarity, is both anachronistic and abstract” (20-1). This section of society was trying to survive by any means as best as possible.

5

2.1 Life of British Women

Considering the situation of working class men in Georgian England and Scotland as hopeless, then the situation of women was extensively worse and more despondent.

Taking into consideration that they had children in the early stages of their youth, very often left without any help or the support of a husband or family, they tried to survive alone by their wits. “Nearly 30 percent [sic] of Glasgow households were headed by a woman. Some were widows and others abandoned wives” (Swiss 11). The majority of men spent a huge part of their wages in the pub, or with prostitutes and among the poor, it was the woman's responsibility to make sure that the man's salary did not disappear within one night. “If a woman was poor, it was considered her fault. If her children went hungry, it was blamed on her flawed character” (Swiss 12). Moreover, every employed woman “carried the additional responsibilities of a factory labourer and was expected to be on her feet for fourteen-hour shifts throughout her pregnancy” (Swiss 7-8). As there were no social nets and childcare was very rare, there was no possibility of rest after giving birth and women quickly came back to work in the fear of losing the only income they had, even though it was badly paid and far behind the wage of a man.

Some mothers were so desperate that they “used laudanum, a cheap and readily available derivative of opium, to drug their children during the day. An ounce cost the same as a pint of beer and suppressed hunger as it fuelled an addiction” (Swiss 8).

Women were generally offered jobs in factories, woollen manufacturers, mills and in domestic service. Working in the factories and mills meant a certain income of food rations and money, but also a certainty of future health problems caused by exhaustion, malnutrition or injury. “In theory, the Industrial Revolution offered women the potential for economic freedom. In reality, most earned between one-third and one-half of what a

6

man brought home” (Swiss 12). The more lucky women, especially in their youth, had the opportunity to obtain a job as maidservants in big cities. They were in most cases sent by their parents who very likely lived in the belief that their daughter might not only earn some money and thus, enrich the family budget, but also marry a man who would provide her with lifelong protection and care. Sturma additionally points out that

“despite the increasing employment of women in factories and female sweated outwork which accompanied the industrial revolution, domestic servants remained the largest single group of working-class women in England” (4). The maidservant jobs were surely some of the safest, but also riddled with temptation as the women were every day surrounded by objects which could easily be stolen and then pawned.

The least lucky women were neither working in factories, nor employed as maidservants. They were usually victims of a lost job, lost parents or husbands.

Consequently, they could either live on the streets at the mercy of other people's sympathy, or work in workhouses, which was in many cases effectively a death sentence. The workhouses were very often parish houses built for the relief of the poor where they were housed and provided with food and some clothing in exchange for hard work and long working hours. The family was separated including the children who had to work from their early childhood as well. Swiss in her research claims that “the workhouse was a death sentence for 23 percent [sic] of those who entered, a mortality rate more than double that for the homeless” (12).

The situation was even worse with Irish women who very often did not even have an opportunity to work. Their options to earn a living or obtain some food for themselves and their starving children were extremely limited: “Women and children were often reduced to begging when their men went in search of work after the potatoes had been exhausted” (Williams 3). Consequently, the ruling powers did not make it 7

easier for them and after the union in 1801 most of the industries were ruined and together with an increasing population, the adversity of Irish women was completed.

The deterioration of the relationship between Irish and British people intensified and the religious chasm between Irish Catholics and British Protestants deepened. Williams also points out that “although women played little direct part in these conflicts they were certainly affected by them and the resulting turmoil” (3). On top of that and “above all they had to bear the brunt of an economic and social system which produced misery and extreme poverty” (Williams 3). The whole situation in Ireland culminated with the failure of the potato crop between 1845 and 1849. A landlord's agent from Queen's county gave an account with saying he could

scarcely believe that men, women and children were actually dying of

starvation in thousands. Yet so it was. They died on the roads and they died

in the fields; they wandered into the towns, and died in the streets; they

closed their cabin doors, and they lay down upon their beds, and died of

actual starvation in their houses. (qtd. in Williams 4)

Understandably, the fear of being caught stealing and the following consequences had vanished; to steal was a question of whether to starve to death or to survive. The problem was that in many places in Ireland there was actually nothing to steal. Those who were not yet too drained of strength or overcome with disease, travelled to larger

British towns, to London in particular, with the hope of a better life.

2.2 Fallen Women and Disorderly Girls

To claim that British female convicts were in most cases innocent and unjustly sentenced would be an untrue and very generalised argument. When having been judged

8

it usually was not their first offence and according to “The Proceedings of the Old

Bailey”, there were some serious cases of murderer and other serious crimes committed by women (The Old Bailey Online). However, the majority of these women were the victims of the hard times, an indifferent society to whom they either found themselves in debt or faced with the decision whether to steal or die. Also, among them were disorderly girls, mostly abandoned by their parents and thus left to fight their cruel destiny. Swiss argues that having found themselves in unresolvable situations, they resorted to petty theft or later, when their character was broken due to constant fear and hunger, to prostitution (18). Those who were truly trying to avoid their “damned fall” into prostitution by hard work in the factories were often abused by the factory owner who “under his authority, sexual abuse was tolerated and even encouraged” (Swiss 27).

Moreover, “it was not uncommon for owners to offer sons and friends their choice among the mill girls” (Swiss 27). They strongly felt that those girls they employed were their own property.

Maidservants were another group with a high probability of becoming “fallen women”. Working in the houses of upper class people, where the abundance of the

Mammon was obvious, and temptation was stronger than the will to refuse meant a risky employment and the danger of falling into a future of crime. Rees emphasizes that what turned the situation even worse was Prime Minister Pitt's tax on maidservants over the age of 15 (6). Even though it received severe criticism at the time, with opponents claiming that it was the most probable age for girls to become prostitutes, the tax was approved. In July 1786 The Times estimated that “upon a very modest calculation, not less than 10,000 have been added to the number of common prostitutes by Mr. Pitt's tax on maidservants” and by October the same year The Times continued that “there are in

London and its environs 50,000 common women” (qtd. in Rees 6). However, as 9

prostitution was not, quite interestingly, considered as a crime, many British and mainly

Irish prostitutes, who “were generally of indifferent character with three-quarters of their number having previous convictions „fell into their own trap‟ and many had become hardened by their profession and accustomed to crime. They lured men into situations where they could easily be robbed” (Williams 6). Thus, this act resulted in a severe punishment for them.

Nevertheless, in spite of the stereotypical generalization, according to The Old

Bailey Online most of the convicted women were not originally prostitutes (“The

Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674-1913”) unless they were forced or in order to find protection and prospects by willingly offering themselves to men. However, “as a group, female convicts were deemed not only criminals but also debased strumpets.

They were labelled as whores even though the law did not make prostitution a transportable offence” (Forell 8). Also Sturma points out that “the portrait of a typical female convict depicts an incorrigible prostitute, an unmarriage-able reprobate, and a corruptive force” (3). In spite of such a stereotypical depiction, they were mostly convicted of larceny, petty theft, vagrancy and other non-violent crimes with no sexual involvement. Quite unfairly, these “disgraced females found 'their character is utterly gone' and 'may never be retrieved', whereas disgraced males might 'reform' and be admitted into that same society and meet with a cordial reception as before” (Rees 6).

The fallen women were reproached accordingly to their social status and the moral

“mood” of society. As much as they might have tried, one wrong act considered by the ruling class as mischievous, labelled them as “bad” and condemned, so that anyone in power could treat them as they wished. “For the bad, there was no turning back from a destiny of damnation. Yet a male criminal, they believed, held the capacity for reform and redemption”. And thus, “one code of morality applied to men and another to 10

women” (Swiss 87). Oddly enough, the Glasgow Courier offered redemption by printing the text that “if a woman was 'not ugly', she might 'find relief in prostitution' instead of a crippling life in the textile mills” (Swiss XII). This publicly available argument pictures the indifferent attitude towards women on the whole and their manipulation in sometimes inhuman and humiliating manners. Nevertheless, those women who had no promiscuous past, might have fallen into a type of prostitution later either voluntarily as a means of survival, or as victims of cunning plans by the British authorities.

11

3 Old Bailey and Newgate Gaol

Before the criminals received their punishments, they had a regular proceeding in court. The main court where the convicts heard their verdicts was the Old Bailey, which was at the end of the eighteenth century famous for its short trials, and as The Old

Bailey Online informs “in 1833 one commentator calculated that the average trial took only eight and a half minutes” (“Trial Procedures”). The judges and prosecutors were very well aware of the situation in the English prisons and notwithstanding the weather conditions outside “doors and windows were kept wide open to the snow and pelting rain for fear of infection from the prisoners brought up from the cells” (Rees 37).

According to The Old Bailey Online the female convicts judged in front of the Judge,

Prosecutor and the Jury were very often dressed in rags hanging on their skinny bodies, hardly covering the very private parts. Also, due to the enormous number of criminal cases, lack of time and lawyers available as not every felon could afford one, the verdicts were sometimes unfairly handed down (“Trial Procedures”). Owing to this and uniform law at the end of the eighteenth century, many cases of theft such as stealing a loaf of bread for starving children ended up as a hanging crime. On the contrary, other researchers such as Ekirch object that it was not always so clear and especially towards the end of the eighteenth century, juries reduced the charges in many cases (191). In this way the judges were able to get around very severe punishments, lowering the blame of the convict. However, there were still very strict laws concerning forgery, great larceny and treason which in almost all cases resulted in a death sentence. The Old Bailey

Online further reports that “until 1827, defendants found guilty of stealing goods worth

40 shillings or more from a dwelling house were subject to a mandatory sentence of 12

death. By reducing the value of the goods below 40 shillings, juries could avoid this statutory penalty” (“Punishments at the Old Bailey”). Furthermore, it asserts that “there was a shift from physical punishments such as whipping, branding, and hanging to attempts to reform the defendant through transportation and imprisonment”

(“Punishments at the Old Bailey”). There is an obvious link between the effort to colonize Australia and the increasing number of convict women sentenced to transportation instead of death. There were women who committed crimes which would, under usual circumstances, have meant a death penalty, instead sentenced directly by the jury to Transportation Beyond the Parts of the Seas. Additionally, if death sentence had already been given, transportation to Australia was offered to women as an option. There was a real attempt on the side of the Jury to obtain as many women as possible for transportation in order to satisfy the needs of the new colony. On closer inspection of the verdicts brought by the Jury in individual cases, the punishment of men and women differed for crimes of comparable seriousness. Women were mostly sentenced to transportation whereas men were imprisoned, fined or sentenced to hard labour. According to “The Register of Verdicts and Punishments” manslaughter was usually punished by imprisonment or with a fine for men, whereas women were most often “transported for life” (The Old Bailey Online). For instance, the case of John

Haswell from 1800 who was indicted for the wilful murder of Evan Jones resulted in a guilty verdict of manslaughter and John Haswell was fined 1s. (1 shilling) and discharged. Margaret Hayes who was 14 years old was indicted for stealing of 23 yards of cotton, of value 1 l. 3 s. (1 librum and 3 shillings ) in January 1820. She was found guilty and sentenced to seven years transportation whilst John Hepworth was indicted for stealing of two calf-skins, value 2 l., fourteen calf butts, value 8 l., twenty-four calf shoulders, value 3 l., and four pairs of calf legs, value 23 s., and he was imprisoned for 13

three months. As a common practice, women who were indicted for committing serious crimes were more often found guilty of less serious larceny and sentenced to transportation. “If the judges had been sticklers in sentencing according to the evidence, many of the women who ended up in Sydney Cove would have been hanged in

England” (Rees 39).

Most of the convicted women travelled to Newgate gaol situated in London which was the worst, the biggest and the most notorious prison in London. Prisoners then waited here for their trial at the Old Bailey court or, after the pronouncement of a judgement they were imprisoned there. Swiss reports that many of the Newgate inhabitants had to travel from all parts of the British Isles by stagecoaches, barely dressed, cold, hungry and with dubious company (54). Their hardship was amplified during the winter months due to the typical English weather conditions of pervading and unrelenting cold and damp: even the most hardened criminals accustomed to the elements would suffer from hypothermia. “Getting up on the carriage required the agility of an acrobat” (Swiss 54) as the prisoners were handcuffed at the wrists and also chained at the ankles. The journey could sometimes take more than four days and some of the charges saw their first food in their new dwelling in Newgate.

Newgate Gaol was an infernal place with all sorts of people of all ages, criminal histories and backgrounds. Innocent people were awaiting trial in the same cells alongside unscrupulous, hardened criminals from the dirtiest slums of London. Mrs.

Elizabeth Fry who was a Quaker and prison reformer visiting and helping to improve the conditions of female prisoners wrote in her memoirs that

in two wards and two cells, comprising about one hundred and ninety

superficial square yards, three hundred females were at the same time

confined – those who had not been tried, and who are, therefore, by our laws 14

presumed innocent – those who had been convicted, whatever might have

been the magnitude of their offence (even though they had received

sentence of death) were associated together without distinction of

classification. (Simpson 30)

The women were crowded together in their wards, with no regard paid towards their mental health, level of transgression or current condition; many of them were pregnant or with their little children, left at the mercy of corrupted turnkeys and harsh female criminals. The cells were not furbished and as there were no beds to sleep on, all the women could expect was “a ramp at one end of the room with a wooden beam fixed to its top end served as mattress and pillow” (Rees 35). They had no mattresses or blankets to cover themselves during the cold English nights and together with inadequate clothing, malnutrition, dirt and contagious illnesses already spreading there from ill convicts, it was down to sheer luck in order to stay relatively healthy. Rees also declares that rats, lice and cockroaches were a norm and therefore typhus, or gaol fever as the disease was known, was a usual illness attacking the ward cells and their inhabitants (35). There was not enough money to feed the prisoners, let alone to pay for medicine. Syphilis and other venereal diseases were a matter of course and some of the women were suffering from the last stages of these diseases. Also Elisabeth Fry observed that “some [women] stank from the rotting odor of syphilis” (qtd. in Swiss

72). Swiss further contributes that many incarcerated women were pregnant and usually gave birth directly on the cobbled ground of the cells. New mothers were allowed no exceptions to the rules and had no additional increase in food allowances, nor benefits, rights or concession (62). So, there were no clothes for newborns and no medical treatment for their weak mothers.

15

Due to forced inactivity, fear for the future or feelings of solitude, the women devoted themselves to alcohol. Some of them came to Newgate already addicted to its consumption, others used it as a painkiller as there were no other tranquillizers available. Moreover, as mentioned before, gin was very cheap and it was easier to obtain a bottle of spirit than a piece of bread. Alcohol was also a provider of more calories than the daily ration of food in the prison. Elizabeth Fry could observe during her visits to Newgate that “swearing, drinking, gambling, and fighting, were their

[prisoner's] employment” (Simpson 29). Turnkeys deliberately supplied the women with cheap gin as it was extra income for them. Some women were constantly inebriated, come day or night. “Before the cells were opened each morning, turnkeys would drink a glass of spirits to keep them from fainting, for the putrid stream of myasma was enough to knock them off their feet” (Rees 35). The business with alcohol was another expedient means to earn money and keep women dependent again. The consequences were terrible, as the women fell into more trouble: fighting alcoholism and diseases caused by bad hygiene.

Mrs. Fry in her philanthropy work made huge progress towards prisoner reform.

Her unflagging bid to help women trapped in desperate situations led to a significant change in the treatment of female imprisonment. Elizabeth Fry attracted a lot of volunteers who, as well as Mrs. Fry herself, regularly visited prisons, brought food for prisoners, made clothing for them and their children and, more importantly, read them the Bible. So shocking was this act of dedication to society that “the warden issued tickets for admission to view the fearless missionary who read to the prisoners” (Swiss

78). Simpson reveals that after many years of overcoming obstacles, Mrs Fry was allowed to establish a school for children imprisoned with their mothers directly in

Newgate (37). She tried hard to convince the women themselves that they could partly 16

change their conditions in prison by getting engaged in work and learning skills beneficial for their future, such as sewing, making dresses and maintaining cleanliness as much as possible (Simpson 60-1). This way they could improve life in the prison by themselves. It would not be out of the question to claim that Mrs. Fry had changed the lives of many female convicts for good. Many of them had not experienced any kind and amiable approach ever in their lives, let alone had been lectured on how to read or mend their own clothes. In the report from the Jury of the City of London in 1818, the gentlemen paid their compliments to the work of Mrs. Fry saying that

if the principles which govern her regulations were adopted towards the

males, as well as the females, it would be the means of converting a prison

into a school of reform; and instead of sending criminals back into the world

hardened in vice and depravity, they would be restored to it repentant, and

probably become useful members of society. (qtd. in Simpson 54)

Taking into consideration the period in which is was written, it was rather a courageous and bold statement, and had they given it more importance, the development of criminality would arguably not have developed in such a way as it did.

Following the customs of class distinction, prisoners were housed according to their ability to pay, so there existed two blocks in Newgate. Rees describes that those two blocks consisted of Common Side where poor female convicts were trying to survive and the Master's Side where those more lucky women with some kind of income could pay for more comfortable accommodation (40-1). This luxury was available for a limited number of women felons, usually higher-class shoplifters who managed to save some money before they were caught. Money deepened the class distinction again in British society, even in prison.

17

4 Transportation

The general misery began to cause trouble due to the constant growth of criminality. No wonder that in this kind of situation the British jails were full and cramped in spite of the fact that criminal records and registers of criminals were rather rudimentary and the techniques of proving somebody guilty were limited. Furthermore, according to Marjie Bloy, a contributor to The Victorian Web, until Peel's Police Act of

1829, there was no police force which would supervise the situation and the law was very often left under the control of parishes and wards (“The Maintenance of Law and

Order before 1829”). On the top of that, the British government was struggling not only with its foreign policy and affairs during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but also with several riots on English homeland. The more people manifested their endless misery, the more were the ruling classes oppressing them as “the failure of language – the tyranny of moral generalization over social inspection – fed the ruling class's belief that it was endangered from below” (Hughes 27). The poor and needy were obstacles which might have jeopardized the overall image of British society.

According to Ekirch, the British were not the only nation which had the idea of getting rid of unwanted criminals and thus, transporting them to different lands (184-5).

Prisons bursting with convicts were not, however, the only reason for their removal.

The convict trade system was rather advantageous and could have brought a “fatty sum” into the British pockets. Transported convicts were later sold to American households, farmers and factory owners, with female convicts to families as white maidservants.

Therefore, “at a time when men felt their lives and property to be threatened daily by crime, the idea of exiling felons to the American colonies carried enormous appeal”

(Ekirch 184). “White labor” as the convicts shipped to America were called, were in

18

many cases given fixed sentenced of seven or fourteen years (Ekirch 193). However, for many of them the transportation meant separation for life from the members of their family. Not rarely were women the only caring representatives of a household, so their withdrawal from the family had a disastrous effect on the dependent children. The children were not technically considered as orphans, but only as children of a convict parent and thus were mostly marooned in workhouses. Owing to extra costs, transporting a child together with a parent was very rare, unless there was a particular reason for it, such as the low age of a child who would be unable to work in a workhouse, hence, would become a burden for society. Despite the fact that it was at a time when “women found guilty of forging coins had been burned at the stake”

(Christopher 31), the relief of being transported instead of a death penalty was rather short-term. Rarely were the convict women literate, hence, unable to write a letter and therefore “long before the era of global communication, being banished abroad was a type of death” (Christopher 31). To make matters worse, it was not only the loss of family and friends which had a detrimental effect on the future lives of the convicts, but it was also the loss of personal identity. “This was just as the British government wished it to be” despite having been “reprieved from death – were nevertheless death to

England and those who remained behind” (Christopher 31). Their identity was mostly the only property the women still possessed to some extent and the forced exile might have turned them into hopeless, merciless and apathetic human beings.

Due to a lack of exact records, the information about the number of exiled convicts differs. Whereas Australian researcher and writer Emma Christopher claims that “almost 50,000 men, women, boys and girls had been shipped to America as convicts in chains” (31), historian Roger Ekirch argues that “over 30,000 felons boarded ships in England for transportation to America from the beginning of the convict trade 19

in I718 to its end in I775” (188). At first, there was a high interest in convict labourers in America, which was later followed by an unwillingness to receive them, and ultimately strict opposition to the shipping of convicts to American lands. American

Reverend Hugh Jones complained that “the abundance of them do great mischiefs, commit robbery and murder and spoil servants, that were before very good” (qtd. in

Christopher 35). At any rate, the American Revolution ended the British convict trade to

America forever.

All the same, the ruin of human souls continued “as Britain had begun sneakily banishing its criminals to West Africa” (Christopher 5). In order to replace the advantageous convict trade to America, many British men and women underwent a journey full of hardships to Africa. It seems to be that the British government underestimated the risk of the different climate and culture of the African continent.

Christopher also argues that “before the scheme was abandoned, it would have run the gamut of piracy, treachery, mutiny, starvation, poisonings, allegations of white women forced to prostitute themselves to African men, and several cases of murder” (6) which were not only committed by the convicts but also by their supervisors. This plan did not work out and the British authorities were again facing the question of what to do with the growing number of convicts. Consequently, the discovery of the South-East coast of

Australia by James Cook was deemed to be a good substitute for the lost colonies of

North America. Having had positive information about living conditions in Australia, the British government decided to take a considerable risk and colonize the South-East coast of Australia, sixteen thousand miles away, with British convicts. However, a long time before the first fleet sailed away to Australia, the British government had already planned further: “In case the Botany Bay experiment would fail there were other

20

possible destinations considered as places for unwanted criminals such as Tristan da

Cunha (in the south Atlantic Ocean), New Zealand, Chile, Peru and New Caledonia”

(Christopher 335). Undoubtedly, there was an immense need to establish the colony with the presence of both sexes, men and women. In fact, the government created plans on transporting women to Australia in order to balance the sexes and therefore initiate the growth of the colony. Therefore “women played a crucial role in the founding and development of Australia”, but “the almost 25,000 female convicts were a distinct minority of the total 160,000 convicts” exiled to Australia from 1788 to 1868 (Forell 4).

Besides, Forell in her research about two female convicts further points out that there were dramatically different reasons for transporting women and men to Australia and their regulation. The men were viewed as responsible for Britain‟s “swelling wave of crime,” as criminals as opposed to female convicts who, again, “were viewed as purveyors of immorality” (7). In order to increase the number of women “who could serve as breeders for the empire's newest crown jewel, Australia” (Swiss XIII), the

British Parliament used the Transportation Act of 1718 which permitted them to ship prisoners anywhere in the world. This solution helped England “to include more women” and thus, “constables targeted and arrested female petty thieves in droves”

(Swiss XIII). Contrary to the transport to American colonies, women were allowed and encouraged to take their children with them, naturally the girls in particular, but the children suffered and were dealt with in the same way as their mothers, and so, like the convicts.

21

5 Voyage to Australia

On May 13, 1787 the First Fleet started on its way to Australia. The destination was the South-East coast of Australia, New South Wales, sixteen thousand miles away.

The specific destination was a place called Botany Bay, the place previously and unwittingly chosen by James Cook and confirmed by Joseph Banks when questioned by the British Government on its suitability as a place to establish a colony. However, they were in no position to accurately testify to its long-term suitability, a condition termed by Hughes as “the geographical unconscious” (43). Governor Phillips reported that the

First Fleet comprised eleven vessels with 548 male convicts and 188 female convicts, officers, crew and soldiers (qtd. in Gillespie 361). Having been appointed by George III, the Captain Arthur Philip became Governor of the territory called New South Wales.

The First Fleet was followed by the Second Fleet and this continued until 1856 when the transportation of convicts was abolished.

As shown in films such as Against the Wind or The Incredible Journey of Mary

Bryant, the convicts chained in irons were driven on board the ship, the women were spared no exceptions. Female convicts on the ships very often lived on board for some time before the ship sailed away as they had to wait for the delivery of all the convicts from the different parts of the British Isles. It was the last chance for the family to see their daughters, sisters and wives “whom they doubted they would see again. There were parents who had pawned their last possessions to provide their daughters with a few guineas” (Rees 60) as they hoped they could help them out at the early beginnings in the colony. Upon boarding, the women were also thoroughly examined not only by the superintendents in order to record names, ages and physical characteristics and health conditions of female prisoners, but also by the crew watching the line of female

22

prisoners who were “on display like a prize cow at a farmers' market” (Swiss 95). It was the time when the crew chose the women they liked the most as their objects for “a bit of fun”. Little chances did the women have to escape future harassment. As soon as the ship left the English shore, the rules of the sea settled on board. The crew, together with the high naval officers, chose among the female prisoners their “wives”. Some women accepted their new roles since “to be taken as a 'wife' by sailor sometimes offered protection from rape by other men” (Swiss 108). Moreover, as it happened in the case of

Sarah Whitelam transported on the ship Lady Juliana later nicknamed “The Floating

Brothel”, the women purposefully shared the bed and the cabin with the crew members in order to escape the misery with other convicts in the orlop. The Times reported in

August 1789 that “every seaman and officer on the Lady Juliana was entitled 'by law' to oblige the woman of his choice to serve him as 'mate' for the duration of the voyage”

(qtd. in Rees 86). The women usually had no other choice and refusal meant a severe punishment from the rejected crew member or officer. In the film Against the Wind,

Mary Mulvane dared to turn down an offer from a naval officer to spend time aboard together. This refusal was borne with displeasure on his side and therefore, had it not been for her escape from his cabin, she would have been raped by another member of the crew, at the naval officer's command. Hence, “so long as the prisoners arrived in one piece, anything the crew did was more or less forgivable. If they arrived pregnant, it was all the better” (Swiss 95). The Crown and the government wished to populate the new colony as soon as possible. Birth control was very primitive and therefore as a consequence, pregnancy during the voyage was no exception. Swiss concludes that

“crew members made many promises to their shipboard 'wives', but even if they wanted to marry the mother of their child, the captain rarely allowed them to leave his service”

23

(113). For this reason, many of the first born-in Australian children were actually raised without the presence of their fathers.

The living conditions on the ships were harsh and the convicts suffered from a lack of vitamin C, developing scurvy. Later, they were prescribed an allotment of lime juice which increased the health situation of the convicts. “At mid-afternoon, they were assigned to a mess of six women and fed salted beef, cabbage soup, and a biscuit. This meal needed to last them until breakfast the next morning” (Swiss 99). With a limited amount of drinking water and enormous heat, the salted meat which made them even thirstier put them in the situation to decide if it is better to be hungry or thirsty:

Little care was taken to furnish proper variation in the diet of salt meat

provided for the long sea voyage, thus sending them to the extremity of the

globe 'as they would be sent to America-a six weeks' passage'. In this

manner, great danger of a heavy death rate from scurvy was run.

Fortunately, due to Phillip's care, only thirty-two died on this first voyage,

but later voyages took extremely heavy tolls. (Louis Becke and Walter

Jeffrey qtd. in Gillespie 362)

Due to corruption at the hands of the crew, convicts often received even less than their expected rations and for pregnant women this frequently lead to acute cases of malnutrition.

There was hardly any space to move or to sleep and “the lower decks were as dark as the grave, as lanterns and candles were banned for fear of fire. The only fresh air the convicts got was from a windsail rigged to scoop a breeze down a hatchway” (Hughes

141). The life of convicts during the eight-month voyage could be compared to the transportation of slaves to America. In the lowest decks the tiers of berths occupied space in order to pack as many bodies as possible. Surviving the heat, cold, rain and 24

illnesses their only property were their clothes which they had on, and they were given

“a wooden bowl and spoon, a blanket, and a bed thick of heavy cotton filled with straw”

(Swiss 98). No lost or sold items were replaced for the rest of the journey.

The worst of all the physical suffering was the cruel punishments which did not exclude women convicts. Flogging and the fastening of the convicts in the pillory where they were displayed to the burning sun, let alone the mental abuse of cutting their hair short in order to degrade them to the lowest level of society were all common punishments. The following story was reported in the Cornwall Chronicle on 7th

October 1865 by one of the ship Surgeon Superintendents:

At that time nothing was more common on the caprice of a captain of a ship,

or possibly on the complaint of a second or third mate, to lash an

unfortunate creature up to the gangway, and flog her most severely, in

exactly the same manner that sailors are flogged in the navy; and so

common and so little thought of were these occurrences, that it was not even

thought worth while to enter them in the ship‟s log. (qtd. in “The Female

Convicts Research Centre”)

Even those women who retained at least a bit of dignity became tame and indifferent after being disciplined in such a way. The surgeon superintendents were supervising the punishments and were supposed to heal the wounds. Unfortunately, many of them were heavy drunkards who rarely provided the convicts with any help.

On top of that, during the Napoleonic Wars by 1795 England was short of surgeons who were needed on the battlefields, thus, some ships at that time had no surgeons aboard whatsoever. Hughes compares that whereas “the first six [ships] all had supervising agents, their death rate was one man in 55, one woman in 45”, but “the last group of six had no naval supervision of any kind, and one man in six died, and one woman in 35” 25

(148). The numbers show that the death rate of female convicts on the ships was nowhere near to that of men. The ships were contracted by naval companies and before

1815 when the system changed, the companies were provisioned by the number of convicts on board, no matter in what condition they were delivered to Australia, dead or alive. One of the ships from the Second Fleet transporting men was an old ship Surprise contracted by Camden, Calvert & King which were the previous slaving contractors and

“they had equipped the fleet with slave shackles designed for Africans on the infamous

'Middle Passage'” (Hughes 145). William Hill, the second captain in the New South

Wales Corps who sailed on Surprise, remarked that “the horrors of the slave trade were

'merciful' beside this” (qtd. in Hughes 146) and according to one of the convicts,

Thomas Milburn, “the convicts were chained together and laid beside those who died about a week which the prisoners kept in secret in order to get their allowance of food and water” (qtd. in Hughes 146). Also Reverend Richard Johnson, on visiting his new parishioners reported:

'The misery I saw among them is unexpressible' [sic], noting that many were

all but naked, were so ill they could hardly move and were 'covered over

almost with their own Nastiness'. One convict had ... 10,000 lice in his bed

and on his body; some had scurvy or dysentery, others 'violent fevers'. (qtd.

in Christopher 345)

On the contrary, the already mentioned ship Lady Juliana “had likewise delivered its passengers [female convicts] in astonishingly good health” (Christopher 345). The women willing to provide sexual services, albeit by their own decision or just a matter of protection and survival during the voyage, might have had an advantage which men did not have. On the other hand, the men did not suffer from constant sexual abuse, loss of dignity and unwanted pregnancy. 26

6 Arrival to Australia

Convict maid

To you that hear my mournful tale

I cannot half my grief reveal

No sorrow yet has been portrayed

Like that of the poor Convict Maidservants

Far from my friends and home so dear

My punishment is most severe

My woe is great and I'm afraid

That I shall die a Convict Maid (“Australian Folk Song”)

Upon the arrival of the First Fleet at Botany Bay after eight-months' long sail, thus

“the voyage [which] was one of the longest any Englishman, let alone woman, had ever embarked upon” (Christopher 338) on January 1788, Governor Phillip found out very soon that the living conditions for his 736 convicts, crew and officers were nowhere near as promising as those described by James Cook. Although they delivered European animals, seeds and plants for farming, the land of Australia had inhospitable conditions for its first white settlers. The soil was not as fertile as expected and the newcomers also underwent their first contact with Aborigines, the indigenous inhabitants of Australia.

Hughes argues that Governor Phillip recognized very quickly that a new colony could not be established in Botany Bay and he left to explore Port Jackson, a few miles to the

North (84). Today Port Jackson is called Sydney Harbour. Forell further claims that they decided to move the fleet and finally settle in Sydney Cove in “New South Wales

27

(NSW) with Sydney as its colonial capital. NSW included VDL [Van Dieman's Land], which today is the island state of Tasmania. Its largest town, Hobart, became VDL‟s colonial capital when it became a separate colony in 1825“ (6). Finally, after raising the flag on the land of Australia, the British colonization project started.

Furthermore, it took some time before the women‟s feet first touched the land on which of the majority of them stayed until the end of their lives. Christopher says that after the crew and male convicts went ashore “three days later things were thought organised enough for the first women convicts to go ashore. Most were dressed in their most attractive outfits and the sailors requested extra rum to 'make merry' with them”

(342). Swiss believes that later transports were “less barbaric than in the early days of transport, when a man could buy a bonnie lass right on the spot in exchange for a bottle of rum” (122). Fortunately, for women and the future development of the colony,

Governor Phillip had a great sense of order and was strict with his decisions, hence, the next morning he announced that “he would stand no repetition of the last night's orgy, any prisoners who tried to get into the women's tents would be shot” (Hughes 89). This restriction did not apply to the crew and officers who could take advantage of a woman as they wished. But there was another problem which the women of the First Fleet faced. According to The Female Convicts Research Centre “up until the opening of the

Cascades Female Factory, convicts were assigned from the ship when they arrived, or in the very early years, left to find their own accommodation” (“Disposal on Arrival”).

There was nothing built in Australia and “the female prisoners were left to fend for themselves” (Swiss 122). Suffering from extremely different weather with no possibility to even change their clothes, women again, deliberately sought for the company of men.

To make things worse, there were two years of starvation in front of all the people from the voyage, the convicts and their supervisors. The European seeds refused to 28

grow in an alien land, the convicts were unwilling to work even though among them there were a few who were capable labourers, gardeners, house builders and even butchers: “Now the hard work began, and it soon became clear that the colonists were wretchedly ill-equipped for it. Not only was there a dearth of skilled labour, but tools were short and, Phillip complained, 'the worst that ever was seen'” (Hughes 90).

Moreover, “only a third of the prisoners could work” as the rest of them were “too feeble from age and incurable illness to work at all, and many others – slum-rised, utterly ignorant of farming” (Hughes 97). The rations they had were not enough and people were getting only a limited ration consisting of beef, pork, dried peas, oatmeal, hardtack, cheese, butter and vinegar. The men got two thirds of what the sailors, marines and naval officers received, “while female convicts got two thirds of the male ration, or slightly less than half the naval standards” (Hughes 96). The rations were shrinking proportionally to the growth of the hunger. The famine stopped two years later when finally the harvest became sufficient for the new colony, they were self- supportive and eventually a long-expected supply vessel anchored at Sydney Cove. Sue

Balley believes that the reason why “the colony survived and progressed is due almost entirely to the arrival of the Second Fleet in June 1790. The arrival of these ships saved the colony from starvation and certain death” (17). The Second Fleet brought essential supplies as well as a cargo of new female convicts.

6.1 Life Under “The System”

With the arrival of the Second Fleet “the female slave market” continued with the development of “The System”, a term used to describe the regime which controlled the convicts, chose their punishments and determined their lives, operating on British 29

colonies in Australia. According to Convict Creation Portal after disembarkation “the women were lined up like cattle to be selected as servants or wives. If they didn‟t become either, a life of prostitution was their only real hope for survival” (“Female

Convicts”). Therefore the female convicts tried their best to be picked up by good accompany so they “washed for the occasion and dressed in the remnants of their

English finery” (Hughes 253). Quite expectedly, “military officers got the first pick, then non-commissioned officers, then privates, and lastly such ex-convict settlers as seemed 'respectable enough' to obtain the governor's permission to keep a female servant”( Hughes 253). In case a woman was not chosen by a settler, then “she was forced to find lodging of her own” (Swiss 122). In other words, it was truly in a woman's interest to become her master's mistress as it gave her a good deal of protection and the chances of her survival in the colony substantially increased. Elliott further points out that

landmark studies by Anne Summers and Miriam Dixson in the 1970s

argued that the women who were transported as criminals were

trapped in the whore and prostitute stereotype; because of the conditions in

the new colony, they were often forced into cohabiting with men for

economic and safety reasons and then condemned for it. (164)

Either way, the word “prostitution” did not have the same meaning those days. It meant “cohabitation”, thus living with a man without being married. As Hughes claims

“some [female convicts] were prostitutes in the real sense of the word – that is, they survived by selling their sexual services” (244), but most of them did not have any other option during the early years of the new colony. Starting with the Second Fleet, the women were brought over from the British Isles mainly for to provide sexual services and bear children and to a large extent, that is what they did. Also, Prof. Lucy Frost 30

from the University of Tasmania declares in the documentary video “Fallen Women” that “the number of born children in the colony shows that there was a lot of sex going on”. Hughes further supports this by saying that it was the Governor of New South

Wales, Arthur Phillip, who encouraged the idea of having more convict women in the colony “not for their labor but because he wanted the felons to marry one another and so raise a native-born yeomanry” (245), but as it happened, the result was to the contrary:

“'Prostitution' and 'concubinage' flourished in early colonial Sydney, as marriage did not” (Hughes 246). Ironically, the women could have lived and thus, “cohabited” with men for many years, bore many children to him, but they were still considered as concubines. There was a fine line among the upper class and middle class people between what constituted cohabitation of two not married people and real prostitution.

Convict Creation Portal also adds that

it is believed by historians that because the women carried a very negative

stigma, moral crusaders often tried to educate them regarding the folly of

their ways. Women who simply stood in an 'immoral' pose risked having

their heads shaved and being forced to wear a collar around their neck as a

mark of disgrace. (“Female Convicts”)

On the top of that the corporal punishments of female convicts continued ashore as well and were almost as severe as those meted out to men. Hughes in his book Fatal

Shore reveals the letter of the political prisoner Michael Hayes sent to his sister mentioning the punishments which were “similar to the barbarous treatment of adulteresses in Puritan societies” and owing to their “weaker constitutions” they could not have been “flogged as severely as men” (254). Hayes further describes that he witnessed some women having been

31

flogged at the Tryangl, more led through the Town [with] a rope round their

waist held by the common Executioner, and a label on their necks denoting

their crime. The mode of punishment mostly adopted now was shaving their

heads and Ducking, and afterwards [they are] sent up to Hard Labour with

the men. (qtd. in Hughes 254)

Not even women were spared the punishment of hanging. In 1830 Mary

McLauchlan was convicted of killing her newborn baby which was “either stillborn or died soon after birth” (Swiss 125). However, without any direct evidence against her,

Mary “was the first woman executed in Van Diemen's Land” (Swiss 25). No wonder that The Times in 1789 unscrupulously reported that “the very savages in the wildest parts of the world pay respect to their females, whilst Great Britain selects their tender bodies as the only objects fit for excruciating torture” (qtd. in Rees 70). The lives of the female convicts ran according to the System which was developed by the British government in order to domesticate the women as loyal, tamed and devoted wives who would bear children so much needed to raise the population in Australia.

6.2 Female Factories

The Convict Female Factories Research Association states that in the early years of the new colony the convicts were assigned to build the infrastructure and the the female convicts were generally employed as servants in the families of the officers and the crew (“Convict Female Factory Women”). There was a much greater freedom of movement for female convicts even though it meant their own responsibility for survival. The women who refused obedience and revolted were held in a room in the

Hobart Town Gaol with hardly any space to move due its dimensions of three by four

32

metres. For women who were used to more harsh condition in English prisons and below deck during the voyage, this was by such standards certainly tolerable, however, the authorities called for the building of much larger institutions, and thus, between

1804 and 1856 Female Factories (FF) were built with strict rules and regulations.

According to Convict Female Factories Research Association there were thirteen female factories developed in the colonies of New South Wales and Van Diemen's

Land: two in Parramatta, Bathurst, Newcastle, two in Port Macquarie, two in Moreton

Bay, Hobart Town, Georgetown, Cascades, Launceston and Ross (“Convict Female

Factory Women”). If, after their arrival, the women were not lucky and were not chosen to be assigned as housemaids to the hospitals or orphanages in the colony by the settlers, be them officers or freed former convicts, they were placed in a Female Factory whilst awaiting their next assignment. Despite the name Female Factory, they practically served the purpose of a prison and with the true sense of the word it was a prison having nothing common with a factory except for the “working space”.

Furthermore, the experience varied from woman to woman because each factory had different rules, living conditions and as Convict Female Factories Research Association asserts “being sent to a different location was also a form of punishment” (“Convict

Female Factory Women”). The numbers of incarcerated women in factories differ due to an acute lack of record keeping and also due to the fact that in many institutions there were more female convicts housed than was the designated capacity. Nevertheless,

Parramatta FF Precinct Association estimates that “two thirds of the 12,600 or so convict women sent to the colony spent time in the Factory” (“Parramata FF”). The approximate numbers also vary within each factory. For instance, The Convict Female

Factories Research Association states that Launceston FF in Van Dieman's Land, built in 1834, was originally planned to house between eighty to one hundred women, but 33

ended up as an overcrowded place housing two hundred and fifty women in 1842

(“Convict Female Factory Women”). It was further claimed that in Parramatta FF, in which were assigned to work more than half of all female convicts of all factories, worked “up to 200 women but could only house about 30 at night. If the women did not have bedding with them they did not get a bed” (“Convict Female Factory Women”).

They would have to find their own bedding somewhere in Parramatta or sleep on the floor.

As already mentioned, although the living conditions varied according to the sort of Female Factory and kind of punishment handed down to each convict, all of them meant another isolation within isolation run under its own system. The historian Tony

Rayner after his investigation found out that in Hobart Female Factory

fifty-five people were crammed into two sleeping rooms which were not

only cramped and crowded but were also unventilated. There was only one

yard for the use of the Factory, consequently no possibility of classification

or keeping some women separate from others. The yard was in full view of

executions in the gaol next door. Communication through and over the

walls, both to the gaol and to the streets outside, was absurdly easy. The

crowded conditions and lack of separate rooms and other areas meant there

was no space that could be used for work. (117)

The problem with the ventilation and circulation of the fresh air was not recognized and focused on during the development of the first factories. Therefore, the sealed rooms and wards increased the spread of diseases and gaol fever in particular, despite the fact that the authorities already had experience with cramped and closed spaces during the voyage. After the opening of the Ross Female Factory, working and living conditions slightly improved, at least regarding the circulation of fresh air 34

throughout the wards and rooms. Evans argues that owing to “fear of 'gaol fever' (later identified as typhus) combined with pre-modern concepts of infectious contamination, penal designs began to incorporate meticulous detail on the cleansing circulation of air and water through the institution” (qtd. in Casella 51). Nevertheless, it seemed to be driven more by the worry of losing female labour and sex rather than by a real concern for the health situation of human beings.

Notwithstanding a separation of thousands of miles, the class system so ingrained in the British Isles survived and began to flourish in all spheres of interest in

Australia, including the Female factories. The classification of convicts influenced not only the type of work assigned, but also their living situation, including clothing, food, hygiene and the possibility to visit their own children. The class system, again, varied in each Female factory and depended on the type of punishment, volition of the supervisor and matron who looked after the ward. For instance, the Parramatta FF Precinct

Association states that “until 1826 women were distinguished as either the Merit Class or the Crime Class” (“Parramatta FF”). They further inform that later “this was refined to a Three class system with First class women eligible for assignment, a Second

'probationary' class and a Third class either on secondary punishment or serving time for offences committed while on assignment”(“Parramatta FF”). The Merit Class women were assigned tasks such as needlework, laundry, cleaning duties and weaving which were contracted for officers, free settlers and colonial businesses. Their payments were very small and food was rationed, but after some time of fairly good behaviour they were rewarded with a probation period as “hiring class”. That meant that in this class the women could expect work from the local colonists outside the factory.

Moreover, as Casella claims that “hiring class convicts waiting for employment held supervisory positions within the factory, in such roles as turnkey, nursery assistant or 35

hospital assistant” (4). On the other hand, third class women or “crime class” were assigned to menial tasks or even worse, hard labour including stone breaking and oakum picking. Oakum picking was an extremely painful task, because after a couple of hours it caused the bleeding of fingers. Gay Hendriksen states that third class women included those punished for offences such as “prostitution, highway robbery, continued drunkenness, pregnancy, bodily harm, theft of property with value (clothing, watches, etc.) or murder” (“Women Transported: Myth and Reality”), which in the case of prostitution was a new type of tort since prostitution was not considered as a transgression in the British Isles. On top of that, the most serious offences led to solitary confinement where convicts were condemned to “decreased food rations, distinctions in prison uniforms, and public humiliation, including headshaving and periods of bondage in an iron collar” (Casella 4). The shaving of heads was extremely humiliating and Gay

Hendriksen further adds that “they would sooner lose their lives than their hair”

(“Women Transported: Myth and Reality”). Thus, no wonder some women would have rather been somebody's mistress than put under hard work. However, the women in the factory had at least some kind of freedom within an institution even though they were inside the factory and after their working hours were over, they could spend their free time as they wished. Hughes also argues that even though in the factory “the minds of the women convicts rotted through lack of anything to do, although most of them preferred this stagnant leisure, punctuated by bouts of inefficient taskwork at the hand- loom, to being 'treated like dogs and work like horses' by some abusive master”(263).

Also Forell agrees that “women were confined to the house and on call twenty four hours a day, seven days a week”, and in addition “there was a risk that her master would take sexual advantage of her” (17). This happened in the unfortunate case of Mary

McLachlan who very likely became pregnant with her master and was executed for 36

killing her baby which had never been proven. Swiss further adds that “the adulterer label was attached to every unmarried convict mother, regardless of her circumstances”

(208). For all authorities these females were “sinners”, no matter whose victims of rape they were. They were sent immediately into the factory to be labelled as “crime class”.

The children were taken from the mothers no matter whether they were born during their incarceration or brought with their mothers from England. All of them were sent to orphanages, as soon as they were weaned or at least two years old. Gay Hendriksen says that at Parramatta female factory “the girls went to the Female Orphan School and the boys to Liverpool. Some women never saw their children again” (“Women Transported:

Myth and Reality”). He also remarks that “if the women were sent on assignment from the factory, they sometimes were not able to take their children with them. This was at the discretion of the master” (“Women Transported: Myth and Reality”). However, little babies could be with their mothers together and the women were even allowed to breastfeed them. Swiss points out that there were two reasons why the mothers were separated from their children:

First, it was surmised that if a prisoner spent time on parenting, it reduced

her hours of productivity and therefore her economic value. Second,

separating girls from their mothers fell under Britain's master plan for a pure

moral pedigree in the expanding colony. (195-6)

Furthermore, if the woman was well behaved and finished all her work on time, she was allowed to visit her child in the orphanage once a month. Notwithstanding this occasional reunion of mother and a child, even if a woman was lucky and got permission to see her child once a month, in many cases this was hardly frequent enough to prevent a feeling of alienation by the child. According to Ballyn “if the mother had regained her freedom she could claim her children back to live with her, the 37

problem being, of course, that she be able [sic] to actually house and feed them” (22).

Thus, very often the children had to return back to the orphanages.

Oddly enough, despite the original purpose of developing the female factories in order to correct the female behaviour and morality, some women seemed to show a kind of resistance to the System and refused to follow the requirement of blind obedience.

They gathered in so called Flash Mobs and rioted for various reasons. Undeniably, in some cases the women were real troublemakers and hardened criminals who became even more hardened after the experience with the voyage and cruel living conditions in the colony. Other women just ran out of patience with the system which wanted to take the rest of their dignity. Also Parramatta FF Precinct Association claims that “most riots occurred as a result of overcrowding and inequitable arrangements” rather than caused by the natural desire for rebellion (“Parramatta FF”). One way or another, all of them ended in failure and resulted in diminution to the third, “crime class” or solitary confinement for a period of time determined according to their measure of guilt in the rebellion. In this confinement they were fed on bread and water and their hair was shaved in order to complete their humiliation. Some women sharply protested which as

Hughes points out “was seen as the action of a crazed termagant, not the protest of a woman whose physical rights were brutally transgressed” (258). Moreover, solitary confinement was a truly miserable place which tamed even the strongest personalities after a couple of weeks in the dirty, cold and isolated cell. The prisoners became glum and disoriented from the lack of daylight, sometimes chained and hooded in order to increase their sense of isolation.

38

7 Freedom

Before the abolition of transportation of British convicts to Australia in 1856, there were three possibilities to gain the freedom. As Convict Trail Project argues, the first possibility: escape from custody or assignment, was the least probable one due to the isolation of the colony and the shortage of food and water (“Gaining Freedom”). In the early beginning, they could only survive with the help of bush rangers. The prospect of successful escape was even less possible for women. However, there is a known case of Mary Bryant from the First Fleet who managed to persuade other male convicts in the colony including her own husband and their two children to take a risk and escape.

Despite the fact that they were later caught again, Mary was finally freed in England.

Secondly, the prisoners could serve their sentences and become free Emancipists.

The sentences were seven or fourteen years long and in some cases were long-life and hence, for these convicts it was hardly possible to become free unless they married a free settler, or asked for a pardon. The third way of gaining freedom was a Ticket of

Leave or a Pardon. Tickets of Leave were issued to those who presented good behaviour before they finished their full sentence. Convict Trail Project informs that “generally they [Tickets of Leave] were eligible after four years of a seven year sentence or after six years for fourteen year sentence or after eight years for a life sentence” (“Gaining

Freedom”). Also State Library of New South Wales states that “the holder of a ticket-of- leave was permitted to work for themselves and to acquire property on condition of living within a specified district and reporting regularly to a magistrate. However, the ticket could be withdrawn for any misbehaviour” (“Pardons and Tickets-of-leave”).

Thus, any sign of misbehaviour or not staying out of trouble led to the forfeiture of their

Ticket of Leave. Moreover, the holders were obliged to carry the ticket at all times and

39

everywhere. The loss of the ticket meant their return to the convict system. If a convict married a free settler or an Emancipist who was actually an ex-convict, at that moment she was also considered as a Ticket of Leave holder. So that implies that women had better prospects of gaining a freedom than men. Also, Rees argues that “the privileges of marriage worked both ways; if a woman had judged her man correctly and he turned out to be a humane keeper and steady provider, her life in the colony would be more comfortable than if she remained single” (196). She adds that “those who had wed emancipists had already become free on marriage, in an automatic calculation of a woman's status according to her husband's” (207). Women who were given a Ticket of

Leave achieved a certain kind of freedom, but still were considered as prisoners. They were unable to leave their husbands for any reason during the duration of the sentence unless they received a pardon which was of two types: a conditional pardon and an absolute pardon. Convict Trail Project asserts that being given a conditional pardon gave a convict freedom on condition of living in the colony whereas an absolute pardon gave a convict a certificate of freedom with no restrictions (“Gaining Freedom”). So, emancipists and freed convicts could return back to England provided they had earned enough money to pay for the journey. For many reasons, not many did, women in particular. Firstly, Rees argues

it was more difficult for a woman to raise the substantial sum of money

required than it was for a man; women earned less and, if they were married

or in a relationship which had produced children and domestic duties,

owned neither their own money nor the time necessary to earn it. (209)

Secondly, the authorities in the colony provided the ex-convicts with land as a part of their plans for colonization. Notwithstanding the cruel experience during their sentences, the majority of freed women might have known, and very likely did, that 40

they could not expect a better live after their arrival back in the British Isles. They found a new life in Australia with all its advantages. Walsh in his article in Australian

Dictionary of Biography demonstrates that if a woman was lucky, she could easily rise from rags to riches. For instance, Mary Reibey from England, who stole a horse at the age of fourteen after she ran away from her master, was sentenced to seven years and expelled to New South Wales in 1792. After two years, she married Thomas Reibey and together they were granted a small allotment of land to the north of Sydney. After her husband's death, Mary was left with her seven children, but she demonstrated a sense for business and progressed a great deal. In 1825 she became one of the governors of the Free Grammar School and at that time she was considered as one of the most honoured women in the colony and she is still displayed on the Australian $20 banknote

(“Reibey, Mary”). Convict Records display another story of Esther Abrahams, who at the age of seventeen, stole a piece of black lace and was transported to Australia on board the Lady Pernhyn. As she was a good-looking girl, she caught the eye of

Lieutenant George Johnston. They lived together for twenty-five years not married and she bore him seven children. Johnson became later Governor of the colony and finally married Esther 1814 (“Esther Abrahams”). Thus, from the petty-thief she became a governor's wife. As Bergman contributes, “destiny had allowed her to climb from the depths of degradation to the heights of social respectability” (“Johnston, Esther”). Also

Swiss claims that “women who were banished by their home country saved a new colony from collapse, accelerated social change, and were among the first in the world to gain the right to vote and to own property (XVIII). The abolition of transportation in

1856 ended the plight of exiled women who became free for good. The mothers of the new nations created a new generation of Australian people despite and perhaps also

41

owing to the cruel and inhuman treatment after their forced withdrawal from their homeland.

42

8 Conclusion

Despite the prevailing opinion that British female convicts in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were cunning prostitutes and who sold their bodies to anyone if there was an opportunity to do so, this analysis concludes that this assertion is only true to a limited extent. Also, the term “prostitute” or “concubine” probably included women who were cohabiting with a man but not officially married, and thus have become wildly unrepresentative of their true meanings in this case. The fact that many female convicts at that time sold themselves is unquestionable, but it is also important to include that for many of them it was the only possible income especially when they were sometimes the only bread winners with a lot of children of their own to feed.

This work further acknowledges that the majority of the women were petty criminals stealing mostly in their early youth and this criminal misdemeanour was driven by their desperate hunger. Predominantly they did not get into this situation owing to their lack of responsibility or unwillingness to earn money, but because of the missing social net which the British government and the Crown turned a blind eye to.

There was also a huge gap between the upper class and working class people who were very often looked upon as “the garbage” of the society which needs to be got rid off.

The research shows that within society the women were divided into two groups, the good ones and the bad ones, with nothing between and that it is how they were perceived.

That is, unfortunately, how they were treated in court, in front of a Judge and

Prosecutor. Rarely did the Judge look at mitigating circumstances and the hardened criminals very often received the same punishments as the women who committed a petty crime. Ironically, however, meeting Mrs. Christopher Fry in the prison, who for 43

some of the women was the only person in their lives unselfishly helping them, changed the life of a lot of female convicts in a positive way.

In order to populate a new colony in Australia, the government was in a great need of women. It knew that at the early beginning of the settlement they would be unable to persuade women to leave their homeland to travel so far to the other side of the globe with a different climate. However, the government knew where to find the women; among the convicts. It undoubtedly influenced the decisions of the Judge and more women were punished by transportation to Australia instead of receiving a death penalty. They became a part of the system which intended to exploit the women in order to populate the colony and also to appease the situation in the male-oriented Australia. It already started during the voyage when the female convicts were chosen by the crew which usually ended with pregnancies. However, this guaranteed special treatment and protection for women which in the case of men was unthinkable.

The sexual abuse continued on land as well, although some women might have wished to become somebody's mistresses rather than be in servitude or in a female factory. Moreover, their situation was worsened by the fact that in Australia they were extremely outnumbered by men and thus, highly desired, they became pregnant out of wedlock very often which was harshly punished regardless of the circumstances. Due to this, their punishment was not only transportation, but also a forced whore-dom, a punishment which ironically often saved them from a worse fate in the workhouses.

However, majority of the female convicts who were forcibly exiled and condemned by their own country found their freedom and happiness in the new land.

Having been originally maidens in distress, teenage mothers or hardened street criminals, many of them were able to sink into a new society in Australia and start a new life. The same women who roamed dirty streets of London or Glasgow or other 44

cities, hungry and mostly abandoned, or desperate mothers of many children became the founding mothers of a new nation after serving their penalty. If they were so immoral as described by British society, they would surely have continued in their criminal path in

Australia as well. Some of them perhaps did, but most of them settled down and continued their lives as honourable women.

45

Works Cited and Consulted

Against the Wind. Prod. Ian Jones. Perf. Jon English, Bryan Brown, and Gerard

Kennedy. Umbrella Aussie DVD, 1978. DVD.

Ballyn, Sue. “The British Invasion of Australia. Convicts: Exile and Dislocation.”

Lives in Migration: Rupture and Continuity. Universitat de Barcelona, 2011.

Australian Studies Centre. Web. 3 May 2013.

Bergman, G. F. J. “Johnston, Esther (1767–1846).” Australian Dictionary of

Bibliography. Australian National University, 2006. Web. 6 Aug. 2013.

Casella, Eleanor Conlin. “To Watch or Restrain: Female Convict Prisons in 19th-

Century Tasmania.” International Journal of Historical Archaelogy 5.1.

(2001): 45-72. Academic Search Complete. Web. 10 Aug. 2013.

“Convict Female Factory Women.” Convict Female Factories. Convict Female

Research Association, n. d. Web. 1 Jun. 2013.

“Convict Maid.” Folkstream.com. Australian Folk Songs, n. d. Web. 14 Aug. 2013.

“Disposal on Arrival.” Femaleconvicts.org.au. The Female Convicts Research Centre,

n. d. Web. 20 Aug 2013.

Ekirch, Roger A. “Bound for America: A Profile of British Convicts Transported to the

Colonies, 1718-1775.” The William and Mary Quarterly 42.2. (1985): 184-200.

JSTOR. Web. 20 Aug. 2013.

Elliott, Dorice Williams. “Convict Servants and Middle-Class Mistresses.” Literature

Interpretation Theory 16: (2005): 163-187. Academic Search Complete. Web. 10

Aug. 2013.

“Esther Abrahams.” Convict Records. Convict Records of Australia, 2013. Web. 28

July 2013.

46

“Fallen Women.” Narr. Prof. Lucy Frost. Youtube.com, 28 Nov. 2012. Web. 28 July

2013.

“Female Convicts.” Convictcreations.com. Convict Creation Portal, n. d. Web. 20 Aug

2013.

Forell, Caroline. “Convicts, Thieves, Domestics, and Wives in Colonial Australia: The

Rebellious Lives of Ellen Murphy and Jane New.” Social Science Research

Network, 9 June 2012. Web. 1 Sep. 2013.

“Gaining Freedom.” Convicts in NSW. Convict Trail Project, n. d. Web. 8 Jun. 2013.

Gillespie, James Edward. “The Transportation of English Convicts after 1783.”

Journal of the American Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology 13.3.

(1922): 359-81. JSTOR. Web. 3 Sep. 2013.

Godfrey, Cox David. “„The Last Fleet‟: Crime, Reformation, and Punishment in

Western Australia After 1868.” Australian & New Zealand Journal Of

Criminology. 41.2 (2008):236-258. Academic Search Complete. Web. 22. Aug.

2013.

Hendriksen, Gay. “Women Transported: Myth and Reality.” Social History. The

National Archives of Australia, n. d. Web. 2 Jul. 2013.

Hughes, Robert. The Fatal Shore: The Epic of Australia's Founding. New York:

Random, 1988. Print.

Christopher, Emma. A Merciless Place: The Lost Story of Britain's Convict Disaster in

Africa. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2010. Print.

Marjie Bloy, Phd. “The Maintenance of Law and Order before 1829.” The Victorian

Web. The Metropolitan Police, 2001. Web. 20 Aug 2013

“Pardons and Ticket-of-Leave.” The Convict System. State Library of New South

Wales, 2011. Web. 6 May 2013. 47

“Parramatta Female Factory.” Parramatta Female Factory Precinct. Parramatta Female

Factory Precinct Association, n. d. Web. 4 Sept. 2013.

Rayner, Tony. Female Factory Female Convicts. Esperance P., 2005. Print

Rees, Sian. The Floating Brothel: The Extraordinary True Story of an Eighteenth

Century Ship and Its Cargo of Female Convicts. New York: Hyperion, 2002.

Print.

Simpson, Thomas. Memoirs of Mrs. Elizabeth Fry. NY: Stanford and Swords, 1847.

Print.

Sturma, Michael. “Eye of the Beholder: The Stereotype of Women Convicts, 1788-

1852.” Labour History 34. (1978): 3-10. JSTOR. Web. 15 Sep. 2013.

Swiss, J. Deborah. The Tin Ticket: The Heroic Journey of Australia's Convict Women.

New York: Penguin, 2010. Print.

The Incredible Journey of Mary Bryant. Dir. Peter Andrikidis. Perf. Romola Garai, Jack

Davenport, Alex O‟Loughlin, and Sam Neill. Granada Television, 2005. DVD.

Tim Hitchcock, Robert Shoemaker, Clive Emsley, Sharon Howard, and Jamie

McLaughlin, et al. “Trial Procedures.” The Old Bailey Online. The Proceedings of

the Old Bailey,1674-1913. Ver. 7.1., Apr. 2013. Web. 20 Aug 2013.

---. “Punishments at the Old Bailey.” The Old Bailey Online. The Proceedings of the

Old Bailey,1674-1913. Ver. 7.1., Apr. 2013. Web. 20 Aug 2013.

---. “The Register of Verdicts and Punishments.” The Old Bailey Online. The

Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674-1913. Ver. 7.1., Apr. 2013. Web. 7 Aug

2013.

Walsh, G. P. “Reibey, Mary (1777–1855).” Australian Dictionary of Bibliography.

Australian National University, 2006. Web. 6 Aug. 2013.

48

Williams, John. “Irish Female Convicts and Tasmania.” Labour History 44. (1983): 1-

17. JSTOR. Web. 19 Aug. 2013.

49

9 Resume - English

This paper highlights the life and circumstances of convicted women in British overseas colonies, focusing not only on the common hardships suffered by all convicts but particularly on the abuse inflicted from all sections of the male-centred societies sprouting thousands of miles from home. Particular attention is paid to the predicament of the female convicts sent to colonise Australia, a solution to the problem presented to the British following the American War of Independence and the disastrous attempt to colonise the West African coast.

Despite the label “convict”, this paper explores the background of these people, their helpless situation in the British Isles and the unforgiving judicial system which consigned so many people to a terrible fate of transportation which in many cases, ironically delivered them to a more hopeful future.

Using example from other sources, this paper demonstrates how the punishment of convicted women was ridiculous and unfair, mostly leading to intended exile to the

Parts Beyond the Seas in order to answer the needs of a new colony – Australia.

50

10 Resume – Česky

Tato práce klade důraz na život a situaci odsouzených žen žijících v britských koloniích; soustředí se nejen na běžné útrapy, které stíhaly všechny odsouzence, ale zejména na špatné zacházení se ženami, které přicházelo ze všech oblastí společnosti vybudované mužskou částí populace tisíce mil od domova. Značná pozornost je věnována tíživé situaci odsouzených žen poslaných do Australie za účelem osídlení této země. Kolonizace Austrálie bylo nové řešení pro Brity, kteří ztratili Americké kolonie po prohře ve Válce o nezávislost a dále byli neúspěšní v pokusu o kolonizaci zapádního pobřeží Afriky. Navzdory tomu, že byli nazýváni zločinci, tato práce prozkoumává původ těchto lidí, jejich bezvýchodnou situaci na britských ostrovech a také nelítostný právní systém, který odkázal mnoho lidí deportaci, což pro ně v mnoha případech ironicky znamenalo krok k lepší budoucnosti.

Za použití příkladů z jiných zdrojů tato práce demonstruje, že tresty odsouzených

žen byly často absurdní a nespravedlivé a ve většině případů vedly k exilu do zámoří, aby byly pokryty potřeby nové kolonie – Australie.

51