1st Edition

Emigration and Empire The Life of Maria S. Rye

By Marion Diamond Copyright 1999
    324 Pages
    by Routledge

    324 Pages
    by Routledge

    Maria S. Rye, a woman motivated by both feminist and philanthropic ideals, devoted her life to the migration of women and girls out of England. This biography gives an account of Rye's activities from her early engagement with liberal feminism through her association with the Langham Place group in the 1850s, her work as a journalist and with the Society for Promoting Women's Employment, through to her efforts in women's and children's emigration Between 1861 and 1896, Maria S. Rye sent many hundreds of single women out to Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, and more than four thousand children to Canada, all with the promise of a better life in the British colonies than they could expect at home in England. Like many nineteenth century advocates of emigration, she saw it as a panacea for many social ills, taking people from impoverishment in the old world to the hope of better prospects in the new. Unlike other advocates, she linked this enthusiasm for emigration with the ideals of liberal feminism, arguing that women and girls should share the opportunities for advancement that the colonies offered to men and boys Rye played a central role in developing organizations to facilitate the migration of women and girls, starting with the Female Middle Class Emigration Society in 1861. After 1869 she concentrated on the migration of so-called gutter-children to Canada, where her pioneering efforts were followed by numerous other philanthropic associates, such as Barnardo This biography analyzes how feminism and philanthropy intertwined in her activities, and how her early concerns with the rights of women to economic opportunity came to be over-ridden by an authoritarian streak that led to the tragic excesses of her work in juvenile migration.

    Introduction, Marion Diamond; Chapter 1 A Chelsea Childhood, Marion Diamond; Chapter 2 With the Ladies at Langham Place, Marion Diamond; Chapter 3 Solutions for Surplus Women, Marion Diamond; Chapter 4 New Zealand, Marion Diamond; Chapter 5 Australia, Marion Diamond; Chapter 6 An Emigration Agent in London, Marion Diamond; Chapter 7 A New Field in Canada, Marion Diamond; Chapter 8 ‘Our Gutter Children’, Marion Diamond; Chapter 9 Our Western Home, Marion Diamond; Chapter 10 Emigration and Empire, Marion Diamond;

    Biography

    Marion Diamond

    "This meticulously researched biography provides a valuable corrective to the benign neglect. Marion Diamond's well-balanced picture of Rye depicts a woman inspired as much by Evangelical Anglicanism as by feminism. Diamond deftly handles the contradictions that result." -- Victorian Studies
    "Given her partial neglect and unfashionalbe obsessions, Rye makes a challenging subject for a biographer, and Diamond has risen to the challenge admirably. Diamond's relentless pursuit of her subject's trail in four countries is the distinctive mark of this engrossing biography. The book is an important contribution to the history of empire; those interested in the puzzling ways in which feminism, gender, religion, and philanthropy intertwined with the course of imperial development should not be without it." -- Victorian Studies