Life As a Female Convict: Cascades Female Factory

JOHN REARDON:

The female factory, uh, primarily was a prison for females, but it was also a factory. These women had to make money and earn money for the government. Better behaved women would be acting as nurses in the hospital, taking care of the children in the nursery. Some were, uh, making blankets that the government would sell, uh, spinning and carting of wool. The third class, which was what they called their crime class, the worst behaved women, they were doing the more intense labor jobs, such as doing the washing, the laundry for the factory. Of course, they had to do the work for the prison here, but also the government institutions, the women would be doing all that, uh, all that laundry. Stooped over wooden wash tubs all day scrubbing away on wooden washboards using a very hardcore soap in their bare hands, and of course, a lot of that water was going down the front of that, that heavy dress. So, conditions for the women were extremely cold here in the, in the middle of winter. And, a lot of respiratory problems, a lot of respiratory disease among the women and children here because of those cold, wet conditions. This whole female factory was in a terrible position for a prison. Winters were extremely cold. Uh, very little sun. We, uh, would be snowfall here, uh, quite a bit of the winter, but also the frosts would settle in these yards, extremely cold place in winter. And, uh, in summer it would be bitterly hot in these yards. The walls were a lot higher then because of the buildings that were all around the perimeter, two story buildings. So in the middle of winter, very little sunlight got into Yard One.

JOHN REARDON:

The majority of the women were assigned out to the free settlers here. Now their job in that household would be as nannies. If those free settlers had children, also was basic housemates. So they'd be doing all the work, uh, all the household work for those settlers. And in return, the settlers were basically responsible for the welfare of their convict. So they had to clothe them, feed them, house them and that freed the government up of the responsibility of paying for the, uh, for the convicts. The opportunities for male convicts at places like Port Arthur were very good. If a convict down there behaved himself, he could learn one of 40 trades, but unfortunately with the standing of women in that era, um, the best hope for a female convict was just simply to marry well. Marry a man that might treat you well, have a house, raise children. Basically that's as good as it ever got for a female convict.