Hi Alan This seems to be an exhibition? Is the format objects with text panels? Is there a catalogue and how can we buy it? Is there a web site? Tour dates? Many questions! Julie ---- Original message ---- >Date: Fri, 8 Aug 2008 07:19:29 +1000 >From: "Marie Head" <marie.head@bigpond.com> >Subject: Re: [AUS-CON] Women Transported: Life in Australia's Convict FemaleFactories >To: "Alan Eade" <eade.alan@bigpond.com>, <aus-convicts@rootsweb.com> > >It is with great interest I read the above article, & look forward to >visiting the exhibition. >One point I wish to comment on "Unlike their male counterparts, they were >spared the lash." >An ancestor , Elizabeth Hayward, arriving on the 'Lady Penryhn" with the >First Fleet, a child of 13-14 yrs, sentenced 7years for theft, was assingned >to The Reverend Richard Johnson & his wife, as a servant, on arrival. >The chaplain charged her with insolence to his wife, & on 7th February >1789,she is sentenced to receive 30 lashes. >I have a copy of the written entry recording this, but have never found any >evidence that the sentence was carried out. Could the sentence be appealed, >or reduced in any way? >Any suggestions? >Marie Head. >----- Original Message ----- >From: "Alan Eade" <eade.alan@bigpond.com> >To: <AUS-CONVICTS-L@rootsweb.com> >Sent: Thursday, August 07, 2008 9:42 PM >Subject: [AUS-CON] Women Transported: Life in Australia's Convict >FemaleFactories > > >> "Women Transported: Life in Australia's Convict Female Factories," whose >> national tour opens Aug. 2 at the Parramatta Heritage Centre. Between 1804 >> and the early 1850s, some 10,000 British women served in one of the 12 >> female work houses - known as factories - in New South Wales and Van >> Diemen's Land (Tasmania). Theirs is a tale of dislocation and suffering of >> which few Australians have more than the sketchiest knowledge, yet it's >> hardly stretching things to call these women the mothers of a nation, or >> to suggest that it was partly through their struggles that elements of the >> archetypal Australian character were forged. >> A common misconception is that most of the convict women were illiterate >> whores from the criminal class. Not so, according to documents of the >> time. Prostitution wasn't illegal in Britain in the early part of the 19th >> century, so it wasn't grounds for transportation. The convicts were no >> more likely to be illiterate than the Britons who were coming to Australia >> by choice, and more than 60% of them were transported for a first offence, >> usually theft. Between them, they brought some 180 trade skills. >> For the most part, in other words, these people were not horrible. But the >> conditions they faced often were. In Parramatta, by the 1840s, a Francis >> Greenway-designed factory built to accommodate 300 was holding 1,200 >> women, who worked from dawn to dusk on tasks that included stone breaking, >> spinning, needlework and laundry. Unlike their male counterparts, they >> were spared the lash. But they were not spared solitary confinement or the >> indignity of being gagged or having their head shaved for serious >> misconduct. >> >> Now, a new exhibition entitled 'Women Transported - Life in Australia's >> Convict Female Factories' will provide a unique insight into this part of >> our nation's history. >> "Following their arrival in Australia, most female convicts were assigned >> as household servants. However, if they were being punished for bad >> behaviour or were simply ill, injured, pregnant, or waiting for an >> assignment, they were sent to workhouses known as female factories," said >> Associate Professor Liston. "The conditions were harsh and the women were >> forced to undertake physically hard domestic chores such as laundering for >> the military, sewing clothes for convicts, and making the yarn that was to >> be woven into the woollen and linen cloth that was used for the clothing. >> "In six months, the women sewed on 50,000 buttons; their work as spinners >> assisted the development of the wool industry; and many women went on to >> do the myriad of occupations that kept the country going, such as running >> farms and businesses and raising families." >> Women Transported - Life in Australia's Convict Female Factories' will be >> opened by the Governor on 7 August at Parramatta Heritage Centre, Church >> Street, Parramatta. >> >>>From November 2008, the exhibition will travel to the ACT, Tasmania and >>>Queensland as part of a national tour. >> >> >> ------------------------------- >> To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to >> AUS-CONVICTS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the >> quotes in the subject and the body of the message >> > > > >------------------------------- >To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to AUS-CONVICTS- request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message