Women in England mourning their lovers who are soon to be transported to Botany Bay, 1792

Transportation or penal transportation is the deporting^[1] of convicted criminals to a penal colony. Examples include transportation by France to Devil's Island and by the UK to its colonies in the Americas, from the 1610s through the American Revolution in the 1770s, and then to Australia between 1788 and 1868.

[edit] History

Transportation punished both major and petty crimes in Great Britain and Ireland from the 17th century until well into the 19th century. A sentence could be for life or a specific period. The penal system required the convicts to work, on government projects such as road construction, building works and mining, or assigned to free individuals as unpaid labour. Women were expected to work as domestic servants and farm labourers.

A convict who had served part of his time might apply for a ticket of leave permitting some prescribed freedoms. This enabled some convicts to resume a more normal life, to marry and raise a family, and a few to develop the colonies while removing them from the society. Exile was an essential component and thought a major deterrent. Transportation was also seen as a humane and productive alternative to execution, which would most likely have been the sentence to many if transportation had not been introduced.

In British colonial India, opponents of British rule were transported to the Cellular Jail in the Andaman islands.

[edit] North American transportation

This notice on a bridge in Dorset warns that damage to the bridge can be punished by transportation.

North America was used for transportation from the early 17th century to the American Revolution of 1776. In the 17th century, it was done at the expense of the convicts or the shipowners. The first Transportation Act in 1718 allowed courts to sentence convicts to seven years' transportation to America. In 1720, extension authorized payments by the state to merchants contracted to take the convicts to America. Under the Transportation Act, returning from transportation was a capital offence.^[2][3]

The gaols became overcrowded and dilapidated ships were pressed into service, the hulks moored in various ports as floating gaols. The number of convicts transported to North America is not verified although it has been estimated to be 50,000 by Dr John Dunmore Lang. These went originally to New England, the majority of prisoners taken in battle from Ireland and Scotland. Some were sold as slaves to the Southern states.^[4]

From the 1620s until the American Revolution, the British colonies in North America received transported British criminals, effectively double the period that Australian colonies received convicts. The American Revolutionary War brought that to an end and, since the remaining British colonies in what is now Canada were close to the new United States of America, prisoners sent there might become hostile to British authorities. Thus, the British Government was forced to look elsewhere.

[edit] Australia transportation

In 1787, the "First Fleet" departed from England, to found the first colony in Australia, as a penal colony. The arrival at Port Jackson, on 26 January 1788 (now Australia Day) is considered the founding event in the history of Sydney, as well as New South Wales and modern Australia in general. In 1803, Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) was also settled as a penal colony, followed by the Moreton Bay Settlement (Queensland) in 1824. The other Australian colonies were "free settlements", as non-convict colonies were known. However, Western Australia adopted transportation in 1851, to resolve a long-standing labour shortage. Until the massive influx of free immigrants during the Australian gold rushes of the 1850s, the settler population was dominated by convicts and their descendants.

Transportation from Britain/Ireland officially ended in 1868 although it had become uncommon several years earlier.^[5]

[edit] See also

• Exile
• Deportation
• Prison
• Devil's Island
• Millbank Prison
• Australian history before 1901
• Convictism in Australia
• Australian penal colonies
• Convict ship

[edit] References

1. ^ In the United States, penal transportation is legally distinguishable from deportation. "Strictly speaking, transportation, extradition, and deportation, although each has the effect of removing a person from the country, are different things, and have different purposes. Transportation is by way of punishment of one convicted of an offence against the laws of the country. Extradition is the surrender to another country of one accused of an offence against its laws, there to be tried, and, if found guilty, punished. Deportation is the removal of an alien out of the country, simply because his presence is deemed inconsistent with the public welfare and without any punishment being imposed or contemplated either under the laws of the country out of which he is sent or of those of the country to which he is taken." See: Fong Yue Ting v. United States, 149 U.S. 697, at 709 (1893).
2. ^ "Punishments at the Old Bailey". Old Bailey Proceedings Online. http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/static/Punishment.jsp#transportation. Retrieved 2008-04-20. 
3. ^ R v Powell, Sixth session Proceedings of the Old Bailey 10th July, 1805 t18050710-23, page 401 (Old Bailey 1805-07-10).
4. ^ Bound for America. The Transportation of British Convicts to the Colonies, 1718-1775 by A. Roger Ekirch.
5. ^ McConville, S, A History of English Prison Administration: Volume I 1750-1877 (London, Boston & Henley: 1981)pp.381-385 ISBN 0-7100-0694-2

• Pardons & Punishments: Judges Reports on Criminals, 1783 to 1830: HO (Home Office) 47 Volumes 304 and 305, List and Index Society, The National Archives, Kew, Surrey, TW9 4DU.

[edit] External links

• UK National archives
• Convict life - State Library of NSW
• Convict Transportation Registers
• Convict Queenslanders