Fifty Years Under the Lash

Southern Cross, Volume 14, Issue 31, 29 September 1906, Page 2

Fifty Years Under the Lash

(Bt Charles White.) nthor of “Australian Bashiangiog,” “ The Story of the Blacks,” etc [All Rights Reserved.l

CHAPTER IV, THE FEMALE FACTORY. (Continued). 'A Magistrate of the territory when before the select committee of the House of Commons in 1837 —some twenty-two years after the descriptive letter I have quoted was written gave the following evidence : When a convict ship arrives with females they are assigned to as many settlers or emigrants as .apply. It is generally announced in the Gazette, and they apply, and then the .women who are not applied for are forwarded to the Factory. The Factory is a very large building, something like the poorhouses here (England), an excellent building, with a large garden attached to it, and courtyard ; and there the women remain until applied for as assigned servants or wives. I have known some of the sailors who have come out on the ship with a convict woman, and taken a fancy to her, got married immediately—there is no time required. Of those convict women who are employed by the settlers and others, if any behave ill, they are brought before a bench of magistrates, and punished according to the offence ; but they have no othee way of punishing them than sending them to what they call the third class factory, and they send them from one month to twelve months. I have never known twelve months exceeded. In the third class they are more strictly kept ; they are not allowed to be sent out or assigned again until their sentences have expired, and they have different food ; but after the time is out they are they removed to the second class, and remain there a short time, when they come back to the first class. No women are allowed to be assigned or marry except those in the first class. In August, 1836, there were 234 women in the third class ; 108 ’women nursing children, they having been returned to the Factory just before the birth of their children. It is a common joke in Sydney that it is not a Factory, but a lying-in hospital. There were 600 in the Facsory in the month named, and only 93 of them were assigned and w_aiting to be withdrawn, and 79 assignable. Female servants do not dread being sent to the Factory—the very reverse, they court it. It is a common practice, if a convict woman is assigned to a master she does not like, and particularly in the country, that she does everything she possibly can to annoy the master and the mistress ; and she makes use of the most horrid language, and generally finishes by saying : “Why d Q you not not send me to the Factory ? You know how to get rid of me. I do not like your place,’’ and other language that I should not like to repeat. The master is frequently compelled to take the women to the bench of magistrates, and charge her with insolence, or that she will not do any work, and then the magistrate passes sentence that she is to bo confined on bread and water for a certain number of days ; and they are very insolent when the magistrate passes sentence. I have been obliged to threaten to gag them, they have made sc of such horrid language, and some of them very young indeed. The magistrates ask the master : “Do you wish to have this woman returned, or to get rid of her ?;’ an'd some say ; “I wish to have her returned ;’’ and after being confined so many days in a cell, she is returned, much against her will : but if the master does not wish to have her again she is sent to a cell where she is kept for a certain time in solitary confinement and then returned to the Government.

When Judge Therry was AttorneyGeneral he had frequent opportunities of studying the character of tge factory girls, and this is the testimony he gave concerning them :

"Their violence at times was excessive. They destroyed often the furniture of their cells, broke plates and dishes, and threw everything provided even for their own convenience over the prison yard. This is not a matter for surprise when one considers that between 400 and 500 of the most abandoned women of the Empire were huddled together, like felons, in a gaol, but from regard to

PART 2.

their sex under less rigorous restraint. Occasionally their outrag’eous conduct assumed the character of ai rebellion on a small scale. The sort of miscellaneous work that devolves upon an Attorney-General in the colony may be imagined from the following Memorandum, on which, during my tenure of that office, I was called upon to deckle : “MEMORANDUM FOR THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL. ’'

“The women in the factory continue in a disorderly state, and those in the cells break every thing that is given to them for their convenience. The police magistrate (who will probably apply to you) wishes 1 to know how far he will be authorised in putting them in handcuffs or irons. He also washes to know how far he may be justified in using violence against the women when they themselves are violent, or making attempts to escape.—G.G.’’ “The Local Act for the punishment of female felons did not authorise their being put in irons ; and though it did, I certainly should have been loath to advise the putting of manacles on the ankles of these bold Amazons. I ventured to suggest that the keeping of the ladies on bread and water for three days, which the local Act sanctioned, would probably be the best mode of starving the g’arrison into a surrender. The case, however, soon became very urgent. There was threatening of “Bella, horrida bella.’’ The besieged warriors menaced the demolition of the Factory, and threatened to use up the matron and her small band of assistants as materials for a bonfire. In this dilemma, without waiting for the application of the Sangrado remedy I suggested, recourse was had to an ingenious though not successful method of frightening them. Accordingly a sergeant’s guard from the Grenadier company of the regiment in town were marched into the gaol-yard of the Factory. It was supposed that the sight of formidable fur caps, loaded muskets with mounted bayonets, would frighten the besiegers half out of their wits. No such thing ! —the Party of soldiers engaged in this strange service were told (instructions which the brave fellows little needed) that, though they might carry muskets, they were to use none. As soon as they entered the gaol-yard of the factory, the insurgents, undaunted by their presence, and pretty confident, no doubt, that the military party would not touch a hair of their heads, commenced a volley of stones and staves from their brokrn-up furniture. In a few minutes the Battle of the Amazons was fought (the only fighting being on their side), and won by the women. The soldiers fled, laughing and scampering back to their barracks, and left the conquerors in possession of the field. The retreat of the Federal Army at Bull’s Run was not more rapid. Other measures, however were resorted to ; a strong body of police, without using unnecessary violence,, got possession of the place ; the ringleaders were picked out and punished ; a reduction in the supply of the little comforts allowed them, in a few days, broke the strength and spirit of the combination ; and all again was peace.’’ The severest form of punishment to which the unruly members' of this wretched sisterhood were subjected was solitary confinement in the cells 1 , with only bread and water diet, and having their heads shaved. In some of the old court records which have passed through my hands the leaves are plentiful which carry the account of women convicted, and the laconic sentence at the foot of the record, “Seven days cells, bread and water, and to have head shaved. And there was more in this shaving in the earlier days of the System than appears at first sight. Building operations were being carried on with vigour to meet the demands of the growing population. Mortar was needed to connect the (bricks or stones, and hair was needed to make the mortar strong. Horses and cattle and goats were too scarce to furnish the requisite supply, and the hair from the heads of the factory girls became a marketable commodity. The Government officials found a ready sale for it by the pound, the builders and plasterers being the pur-

chasers ; and there are buildings still 1 standing at Parramatta and Sydney, the mortar and plaster of which was made “strong" by human hair. In 1839 the Factory was remodelled, extensive alterations and additions being made, under the order of Governor Gipps. The number of cells was increased to seventy-two, and they were built on the plan of the American separate system. The total cost was £3,767, and the Governor reported that under a new Act that was passed for the better regulation of female prisons, order, cleanliness, perfect obedience, and silence prevailed in the establishment to a degree scarcely surpassed in any prison in England. His Excellency also endeavoured to find profitable employment for the women, first intro-' ducing the dressing and manufacture of New Ztealand flax, and net-making therefrom ; but the venture did not -pay, and the manufacture was given up. He also tried the manufacture of articles of needlework for sale, and Lady Gipps and her housekeeper personally superintended the work ; but as the sales did not realise more than £3O in three months, that also was given up. He then caused a return to the old plan of taking in needle-work for the public, and reported that the result was very satisfactory, although not more than sufficient work to keep one-third of the women employed could be procured. The averag-e receipts were about £7OO per annum. As an encouragement to the women, the Governor allowed one-sixth part of 11 the money earned by them to be retained by them ; but it was only the well-conducted prisoners who thus benefited ; the others were not allowed to work for the public in this way, being ky-pt at other and harder work, for which no payment was made. Two classes of needle-women were thus created, and they were rewarded or degraded by being passed from one class to the other. The first class consisted of about 120 women, divided into parties of nine, ten, or eleven, each woman in a party being responsible for the good conduct of the whole. The washing for the military barracks and hospital at Parramatta was done at the Factory, and washing was also taken in for the public. His Excellency further introduced the manufacture of straw hats and bonnets, but at the time he made his report it had not proved profitable. The only other employment for the women in the factory was the picking of oakum, which was not bad work for those who were either unskilled of sullen ; but owing to the difficulty of procuring a sufficient supply of material, the whole of the profit was absorbed. (To be continued).