Send More Prostitutes: An Alternative View of Female Sexuality in Colonial New South Wales

Abstract

Women were often on the minds of officials and commentators in colonial New South Wales. Convict women, free women and immigrant women caused angst for many reasons, two of which were their behaviour and their scarcity. From first settlement through to the 1830s and beyond, debate raged about the merits of bringing women to the colony and the best methods of doing so. Once in the colony, debate continued to rage. Yet while many commentators deplored the morals of the women, claiming that they added to corruption in the colony, one man can be seen to have modified his opinion where free immigrant women were concerned. He believed that no matter how bad their backgrounds might be, such women played an important sexual role in New South Wales. It was better, he thought, to accept the existence of some vices if they prevented the practice of (in his eyes) even worse ones.