Abandoned Women: Scottish Convicts Exiled Beyond the Sea

Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2015. First Edition. Softcover. Near Fine Condition. First impression. Size: 12mo Small. 231 pages. Text body is clean, and free from previous owner annotation, underlining and highlighting. Binding is tight, covers and spine fully intact. No foxing in this copy. All edges clean, neat and free of foxing. This book is available and ready to be shipped.. In the early nineteenth century, crofters and villagers streamed into the burgeoning cities of Scotland, and families splintered. Orphan girls, single mothers and women on their own all struggled to feed and clothe themselves. For some, petty theft became a part of life. Any woman deemed 'habite & repute a thief' might find herself before the High Court of Justiciary, tried for yet another minor theft and sentenced to transportation 'beyond Seas'. Lucy Frost memorably paints the portrait of a boatload of women and their children who arrived in Hobart in 1838. Instead of serving time in prison, the women were sent to work as unpaid servants in the houses of settlers. Feisty Scottish convicts, unaccustomed to bowing and scraping, often irritated their middle-class employers, who charged them with insolence, or refusing to work, or getting drunk. A stint in the female factory became their punishment. Quantity Available: 1. Shipped Weight: Under 500 grams. Category: History; Australian History; Australia; ISBN: . ISBN/EAN: 9781760290269. Pictures of this item not already displayed here available upon request. Inventory No: 7235. . 9781760290269