Vigilante Justice: Women of the Sydney Ducks Gangs on the Barbary Coast, circa 1851

• In Event: Roundtable: Gangs

Abstract

In 1851, a Committee of Vigilance was founded to deal with law and order issues in San Francisco. According to the Committee, there was a break down in a reliance and trust in police, court and jail authorities to apprehend, trial and jail alleged ex-convicts from Australia’s penal colonies. In four months the Committee arrested 91 people, of which 67 were alleged ex-convicts from Australia’s penal colonies. Committee records identify 22 women, many subjected to deportation orders on the basis that their husbands were alleged ex-convicts.
Little has been said about the role of women in this tumultuous period, historically named as the Barbary Coast and identifying, perhaps, an early gang in San Francisco – the Sydney Ducks. This paper begins to trace the records of 22 women, allegedly involved with the Sydney Ducks, from their court sentences prior to transportation to Australia’s penal colonies to their activities in San Francisco, some years later. The paper concludes with evidence-based research about early San Francisco ‘unsavoury’/criminal activities involving women and the extent to which they were seen to be necessary for California’s development.

Author

• Garry Frederick Coventry, James Cook University