Convict Women and Orphans on Ships to Australia from 1787 to 1853
This program consist of 4 sessions of 45 minutes each plus 10 or so minutes discussion time afterwards.
It starts from Ireland and other UK cities where these women were born, what happened with them, what conditions they were under, why and how they ended up being transported to Australia, and what happened to them them after they arrived in the new colonies. Many of them came with their children but some children were forced to stay behind as orphans.
From 1787 to 1853 over 25,000 women, nearly half of them Irish were transported in the dark holds of ships on a 16,000-mile journey to the other side of the world as bonded labour. Arriving alone, or with small children in the colonies, these single, married and widowed women lived, loved, toiled and died under Australian skies. In a two-year period during the Famine, over 4,000 young orphan girls, inmates of the overcrowded Irish workhouses, were carefully selected and transported on what became known as the Famine Bride Ships to the colonies where men outnumbered women 10 to 1 in the Outback. The series will restore the historical importance of convict Irish women and the young orphan girls in building the Australian nation.
Prominent historians, professors and writers from different universities across Australia and Ireland were interviewed to enrich this program with their historical knowledge. Many relevant personal letters and newspaper articles are also shown throughout the program.
If you wish to register for this free program, please send an email to info@prayerstrategy.org