Caroline Chisholm
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Caroline Chisholm (1808 - March 25, 1877) was a progressive 19th-century English humanitarian known mostly for her involvement with female immigrant welfare in Australia.
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Early Life
Born Caroline Jones to a wealthy English farmer in Northamptonshire, her father died early in her childhood.
At age 22(?), Caroline married Captain Archibald Chisholm, an officer in the British Army thirteen years her senior. Like her, Archibald came from a relatively privileged background, descended from Scottish land-owning highlanders whose fortune had dwindled over the years. Unusual among many of her contemporaries, Caroline agreed to marry Archibald Chisholm under the condition that he treat her as an equal and support her in her philanthropic activities. She did, however, convert from Protestantism to her husband's religion, Roman Catholicism.
Life in Madras, India
In 1832, Captain Chisholm was stationed in Madras, India. As an officer's wife, Caroline enjoyed a lifestyle of comfort and luxury, which only highlighted the stark privation and squalor she observed on the streets of Madras. The dire poverty of children begging for food and sleeping in doorways particularly affected her.
When she discovered that some of the destitute street urchins she saw regularly were actually the children of enlisted British soldiers, Caroline Chisholm decided to take action. She established the Female School of Industry for the Daughters of European Soldiers with her husband, despite his initial misgivings about the effort. By removing these children from the streets and educating them, Chisholm hoped to eventually secure paid employment and better opportunities for them.
Life in New South Wales, Australia
On Captain Chisholm's furlough in 1838, Caroline and her family moved to Sydney in the colony of New South Wales in Australia.
Caroline often went for walks and was devastated by what she saw. Women littered the streets sleeping in door ways. Caroline saw how helpless they were, most of them had come from England only to find a life of begging before them. Caroline felt their pain and yet again decided it was God's plan for her to help the less fortunate girls of Sydney.
Caroline started her campaign by handing out pamphlets and writing to government officials. Word quickly spread and some of Caroline’s emotional writing was published in The Sydney Morning Herald.
People began to realise the problem that faced Sydney. They began to open their eyes to the women on the streets. Many kind people donated a tin of biscuits or cup of tea to the homeless girls, except Caroline felt that more was needed. She thought it was God’s plan for her to start a house to look after the girls.
Carolines first proposal for this house to Governor Gipps was denied, but Caroline went back twice to argue her point. Eventually Governor Gipps presented Caroline with the empty immigration barracks.
The immigration barracks when Caroline first visited them were terribly filthy, plagued with rats and vermin. Caroline concluded that she would have to make do with what the governor gave her.
Caroline worked hard to clean the barracks and when they were finished the girls started flooding in to be saved from a life on the streets. Caroline there taught them how to cook and clean, speak correctly, a little bit of numeracy and more.
When the girls were trained the next part of Caroline's mission arrived. Now that they were properly qualified for the job the girls had to find a place of work. Caroline saw potential in the bush farms of Australia, so she organised drays to deliver the girls to the farms to become paid farm maids.
Caroline continued to help the women of Australia for many years. After a while she felt her job was done. Now there were hardly any homeless girls left on Sydney's streets. She and Archibald returned to England in 1846 where Caroline worked with the English government on improving the conditions on ships destined for Australia.
Legacy
In Australia, Caroline Chisholm is widely known and celebrated as a pioneer and social reformer, and her image was previously featured on the back of the Australian five-dollar note. The Canberra suburb of Chisholm is named after her. A musical, Caroline, performed in 1971, was even written about her.
By contrast, in her native England, Caroline Chisholm has been largely overlooked and relegated to a historical footnote. She spent her waning years living in relative obscurity in England and died in poverty there in 1877.
Moreover, she has also been portrayed in somewhat less flattering terms in British culture. In fact, one of the most influential English figures of the Victorian era, Charles Dickens, purportedly based his character Mrs. Jellyby on Chisholm. In his novel Bleak House, Mrs. Jellyby is an enthusiastic philanthropist and activist while also being a slovenly housewife and negligent mother, apparently reflecting a rumour circulated about Chisholm at the time. Some have asserted that she did not receive due credit for her philanthropy in part because she was a Roman Catholic living in a predominantly Protestant country.
Her grave at Billings Road Cemetary in Northampton, England bears the inscription "The Emigrant's Friend." Lately, her reputation has undergone something of a renewal in England, especially in her native Northamptonshire. In September 2004, a school in Wootton Fields, Northampton, named "Caroline Chisholm School" was opened.
References
- De Vries, Susanna. Strength of Spirit-Pioneering Women of Achievement. Millenium Books 1995.
- Australians - Caroline Chisholm ABC Web Site
- Northamptonshire people: Caroline Chisholm from the BBC website
- Caroline Chisholm: Friend or Foe?, a subsection from the Gold! website on Australia's 19th century gold rushes
Other
- An enthusiastic appreciation page by some Australian schoolchildren