“Dangerous Women” work together on the Rajah Quilt
Hope Adams was inspired to write a story about the Rajah Quilt when it was brought from the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra to be exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in 2009. Adams has peopled her gripping story with historical characters, interacting as they did in life with the women convicts. Readers also walk alongside her richly drawn characters in the restrictive society of the Victorian Era.
Protagonist Kezia Hayter enjoys more freedom than the prisoners she helps, but she too is heavily burdened by social expectations. Resisting the conventional path of an “advantageous” marriage elicits harsh censure. Her mother is uncomfortable and afraid for the fate of her unconventional daugher: ‘“Who will care for you? You’ll have no position, no money, no influence, not to mention no children if you constantly set your face against any young man to whom I introduce you.”’
As the story unfolds through the viewpoints of different women, the reader is introduced to “a patchwork of souls.” We learn of the womens’ crimes, what drove them to break the law, and how dismally society has failed to protect them and their children from irresponsible and violent men.
Concerned about the status of women, Kezia is deeply preoccupied with social issues. Reflecting that the law still defines many crimes as hanging offences, she broods over concerns of justice and mercy. She is certain that the woman who stabbed a man would have been hanged, even though she retaliated in self-defence after he raped her and killed the man who tried to defend her.
Unlike Kezia, the convict women have little time or energy for philosophical niceties. In sharp contrast to Kezia’s views, they find revenge acceptable, and “easier to understand than outrage at being treated as a whore.”
The behaviour of these lower class women contrasts sharply with Kezia’s cultured manners. Bawdy in speech, the convicts joke about sexual matters in a way that shocks her. They tease each other about crushes and casually refer to the gay couple among them as “dabblers,” a slang term that obliges the middle class lady to ask one of the rough “Newgate Nannies” for an explanation.
Still, the women warm to Kezia’s respect, kindness and fair treatment. In her presence, they refrain from commenting on her fondness for the captain, with whom she often strolls on deck. Behind her back, they speculate freely about the couple. When one woman suggests they are having sex, another is scandalized, saying such a God-fearing woman would “never let a man close” to her “without a wedding ring.”
Do Kezia and the captain get together? Is the woman who stabbed a fellow passenger on board found out and dealt with? What becomes of her little son? To learn the answers to these and many other story questions, you must board the Rajah and walk with Kezia and the convicts into shipboard life in the mid-1800s.
The historic outline of the story is factual. In 1841, Rajah sailed from London to Tasmania, then called Van Diemen’s Land, carrying convict women and a few children. Besides the captain and crew, the ship carried a doctor, a small number of passengers, and Miss Kezia Haytor, who worked under the aegis of Quaker social reformer Elizabeth Fry.
To encourage the women to acquire and hone skills that would improve their chances in the new land, Hayter organized the creation of a large patchwork coverlet. Under her guidance, many women worked on this together for the four-month duration of the sea voyage. Each convict was given a sewing kit, a Bible, aprons, a cap, a bundle of patchwork pieces, needles, thread and scissors. These items were intended to enable and encourage work and learning during the voyage, which would help them establish lives in the new land.
On arrival in Hobart, Kezia and her women presented the quilt to Lady Franklin, wife of Sir John Franklin. Then serving as the governor of Tasmania, Franklin would die six years later on an ill-fated expedition through Canada’s far north in search of the Northwest Passage. This last voyage is the subject of the ballad Lady Franklin’s Lament, here sung by John Renbourn. In the 1960s, this old ballad inspired Bob Dylan’s Dream, for which he used the same tune.
Two centuries after its inception, the Elizabeth Fry society continues as a non-profit organization, guided by its original goals “to support criminalized and marginalized women, girls and children in achieving their potential. With the right support, we know females from difficult circumstances can transform their lives – and those of their families – for the better.”
The Rajah quilt must be an inspiring sight. As Kezia says in the novel of the women who created it, “the work of their hands abides.” So, I feel, will this remarkable novel.