Authors: Jan Gothard
ISBN-13: 9780522849585, ISBN-10: 052284958X
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Melbourne University Publishing
Date Published: October 2001
Edition: (Non-applicable)
"Women are like blue china: beautiful and fragile, but worthless once damaged or broken." -Unidentified Canadian emigrationist, writing in the 1890s.Between 1860 and 1900, nearly 100,000 single working-class women emigrated from Britain to the Australian colonies. They were the largest single category of immigrants to be given colonial government assistance. The book is a study of Australian immigration policy generally. Its strength lies in the breadth of this research. While showing how individual colonies differed in their approach to female immigration, it also highlights the common factors in the female immigrants' experiences, and stories of individual women's experiences add further life and color to a very accessible text.
Preface | ||
Abbreviations | ||
1 | Emigrating Women | 1 |
2 | Manchester Cottons and Bermondsey Boots | 18 |
3 | 'A reward for good conduct, not banishment for bad' | 51 |
4 | 'A season of industry' | 89 |
5 | 'Gliding over the great waves' | 109 |
6 | 'No worse than might have been expected' | 144 |
7 | A Compromise with Conscience | 166 |
8 | 'Free agents these domestic damsels...' | 203 |
App.: Immigration Tables | 209 | |
Notes | 241 | |
Select Bibliography | 266 | |
General Index | 283 | |
Name Index | 295 |