Female Factories

As morality is not uniform across all peoples, it has always been difficult to judge someone as being of “good” morals. This was particularly evident in Australia’s Convict era. It was an era in which beacons of “morality” from the church thought nothing of depriving a man of his life for petty theft, but concerned themselves greatly if a woman didn’t show great diligence in the preservation of her chastity.

The conflicting moralities were put proudly on show in 1838 at the Cascades Female Factory in Hobart. The governor of Van Diemens Land visited the factory and attended a service in the chapel. Entertaining the governor was the Reverend William Bedford; a morals campaigner whose hypocrisy had elicited the lady's scorn. Keen to impress the governor with a fine speech, the Reverend addressed the women from an elevated dais, then:

"the three hundred women turned right around and at one impulse pulled up their clothes showing their naked posteriors which they simultaneously smacked with their hands making a loud and not very musical noise. This was the work of a moment, and although constables, warders etc. were there in plenty, yet 300 women could not well be all arrested and tried for such an offence and when all did the same act the ringleaders could not be picked out."

This cheeky behaviour 'horrified and astounded' the Governor and the male members of the party. As for the ladies in the Governor's party, it was said, in a rare moment of collusion with the Convict women, 'could not control their laughter'.

The butt of ridicule

On one occasion, Reverend William Bedford was crossing the courtyard of the Female House of Correction, when "some dozen or twenty women seized upon him, took off his trousers and deliberately endeavoured to deprive him of his manhood. They were, however, unable to effect their purpose in consequence of the opportune arrival of a few constables who seized the fair ladies and place them in durance vile. "

Solidarity

The women were reported to be 'singing and dancing and making a noise'; refusing to cease despite several requests for them to do so. When the matron entered the room, the women squatted down and refused to give the names of the ringleaders. The women 'shouted and clapped their hands, stamped and made noise with their feet and this took place to such an extent that I conscientiously say it was a riot'. The superintendent attempted to persuade them to name the leaders but did so with little effect.

The tumult continued each time the superintendent left the room. The police were called in to contain the calamity and the 'hurrahing' but the women 'kept up a tremendous clatter with their tongues'. Continued efforts were made to encourage the women to distance themselves from agitators in the group, however in a display of solidarity, the women chanted 'We are all alike, we are all alike'.

Singing against authority

Singing and dancing was an effective means of challenging authority. The matron, Mrs Hutchinson reported to the inquiry into Convict discipline that their songs are sometimes 'very disgusting'.

John Price, a police magistrate, observed that the women Convicts were in the habit of 'composing songs ridiculing the authorities'. In the context of the prisons, this laughter and play was a potent way of subverting a system which was so emphatically designed to deny the expression of such intemperance.

Having fun

The True Colonist reported in 1837 that while the 'horrors of the crime class' had shocked the inhabitants of Van Diemen's Land, what was more disagreeable to moral evangelical sensibilities was the fact that many women prefer this class to the others, because it is more lively! There is more fun there than in the others; and we have been informed, that some of the most sprightly of the ladies divert their companions by acting plays! "

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