Mary Reibey Impact On Society

Mary Reibey was a convict with a very remarkable story. She was sent to Australia on a the Royal Admiral in 1972, and even at the tender age of 15, she still managed to make her unpleasant experience as a convict worthwhile and memorable, even today. The impact of the experience of imprisonment on the extraordinary life of Mary Reibey, will be further explored below.

The experience of being a convict left Mary Reibey greatly impacted, and she used this knowledge to make sure her children did not get into the same amount of trouble as she did. It is important to recognise that Reibey’s parents had passed and she was living as an orphan with her grandmother up until the age of 13, when her grandmother died. As a young girl with little to none …show more content…
There was only one way to get from one country to another, and that was by largely dreaded boat. Merely surviving the journey aboard the ship was incredibly heroic, given the conditions of the boats and the people Reibey was surrounded with. At this time, she would have been around 15 years old. So far in her life, the circumstances Reibey often found herself in would have not pleasant, as soldiers on board the vessel had little or no respect for convicts and women altogether, and a young girl of only 15 years of age would have been highly susceptible to rape. On arrival in Sydney, she was assigned a housemaid in the house of Major Francis Grose for seven years. Obviously, a standard convict experience was not enjoyable and it is only human nature to rebel against the tight restraints and limitations placed upon a household slave. Although however strong the urge to become insurgent may be, the consequences of running away or even planning a rebellion were too severe and excruciatingly painful. Common punishments used amongst women were to have their heads shaven, or even to be flogged. While there are no official records of Reibey being punished, it was not an uncommon feature between the prisoners and their owners. Despite all this injustice towards not just Reibey, but others that were convicted, Mary Reibey’s story stands out especially because she lived through these horrible times and came out the other side successful and thriving. To this day, her life is still commemorated through the printing of her portrait on the $20 bank note, and along with this she stands to serve as an inspiration for women around the globe who are have obstacles in their path of becoming