Van Diemen's Women
Van Diemen's Women

Author: Joan Kavanagh

Publisher: The History Press

Published: 2015-10-05

Total Pages: 391

ISBN-13: 0750966661

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On 2 September 1845, the convict ship Tasmania left Kingstown Harbour for Van Diemen’s Land with 138 female convicts and their 35 children. On 3 December, the ship arrived into Hobart Town. While this book looks at the lives of all the women aboard, it focuses on two women in particular: Eliza Davis, who was transported from Wicklow Gaol for life for infanticide, having had her sentence commuted from death, and Margaret Butler, sentenced to seven years’ transportation for stealing potatoes in Carlow.Using original records, this study reveals the reality of transportation, together with the legacy left by these women in Tasmania and beyond, and shows that perhaps, for some, this Draconian punishment was, in fact, a life-saving measure.

The Rise of Caring Power
The Rise of Caring Power

Author: Annemieke van Drenth

Publisher: Amsterdam University Press

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 300

ISBN-13: 9789053563854

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This original study discusses the role of women in developing and dispersing caring power and, vice-versa, the role of caring power in constituting 'women' as modern social subjects, processes which began around 1800. Based on the historian-/philosopher Foucault's concept of pastoral power, "caring power" also takes into account the vital role played by gender. Both humanitarian and religious motives fostered the ideal of serving the well-being of individual 'others' and thereby the interest of society as a whole. With the rise of caring power, this book argues, women began to feel responsible for 'those of their own sex' and to organize themselves in all-female organizations. In the process they carved out new gender identities for themselves and the women in their care. The authors illustrate this profound historical change with the work of the reformers Elizabeth Fry (1780-1845) and Josephine Butler (1828-1906) and trace their impact in Britain and the Netherlands.

The Health of Prisoners
The Health of Prisoners

Author: Richard Creese

Publisher: Rodopi

Published: 1995

Total Pages: 198

ISBN-13: 9789051838176

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In eighteenth-century Britain, gaols were places of temporary confinement, where inmates stayed while awaiting punishment. With the rise of the 'penitentiary' from the early nineteenth century, custodial institutions housed prisoners for much longer periods of time. Prisoners were supposed to be reformed as well as punished during their incarceration. From at least the time of John Howard (1726-1790), the health of prisoners has been part of the concern of philanthropists and others concerned with the wider functions of prisons. The Victorians established a Prison Medical Service, and members of the medical profession have long been involved in caring for the mental and physical needs of prisoners. For two centuries, prison overcrowding has been identified as a major cause of mortality and morbidity in prisons. Historical debates thus often have a modern ring to them, which make the essays in this volume particularly timely.

The Excellent Mrs Fry
The Excellent Mrs Fry

Author: Anne Isba

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2010-04-29

Total Pages: 263

ISBN-13: 1441115323

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Elizabeth Fry, the great Quaker prison reformer of the nineteenth century, was just thirty two years old when she first entered the notorious women's gaol at Newgate. She was the mother of eight children and would go on to have three more. Yet, despite the demands of family, she would devote the rest of her life - over three more decades - to the welfare of female prisoners and convicts bound for Australia. When her efforts at last helped achieve changes to British law, Fry turned her attention to winning the hearts and minds of the great and good on continental Europe. She treated all people as equals, prisoners and princes alike. But her quiet dignity and magical voice hid a steely determination to do good wherever she perceived need. Her philanthropy extended to hospitals, schools, workhouses, asylums, orphanages and refuges; and she pioneered nursing training in Britain. Fry was the first woman in the country to bring private good works into the public domain, but at considerable to cost to her family and her own health.