‘Girls are Wanted More Than Men’: A Gendered Experience of Child Migration in the Mid-Nineteenth Century

Abstract

Abstract On Christmas Day 1848 the Ramillies left England bound for Port Adelaide, Australia, carrying amongst its passengers a group of girls from London’s ragged schools and Marylebone Workhouse. An incidence of brutal punishment to which some of the girls were subjected on board ship went unreported in the British press at the time but became the subject of a heated debate in Parliament 12 months later. Through an examination of letters, press reports and official records, this article uses the journey of this one ship as a case study to illustrate the range of experiences, both negative and positive, faced by young poor female emigrants and demonstrates the ways in which those experiences were shaped by gender. It explores why emigration was seen as a particularly appropriate solution to the ‘problem’ of destitute girls and why the process itself was more challenging for them than for boys, using this analysis as a tool to bring into sharper focus some of the prevailing attitudes towards poor young women in the mid-nineteenth century. Finally, it shows how, whereas young women in similar situations are often portrayed as victims, some could, albeit operating within a restricted range of options, exercise at least some degree of choice. Early emigration schemes like this, operated by the Ragged School Union and others, have rarely figured in the historiography; this article will build on existing scholarship in gender, childhood and emigration studies and offer new insights into the life experiences of pauper girls in the mid-nineteenth century.