Transportation
Why transportation?
It is estimated that over 162,000 British and Irish convicts were transported to Australia between 1787 and 1868.
This massive movement involved hundreds of ships.
So why did they transport convicts to Australia?
After the defeat of the British in The American war of Independence in 1776. The English could no longer send their convicts to America.
They needed a new destination. and Captain Cook had just discovered Australia.
To do: questions
Describe the reasons the British government needed a solution to the ‘convict problem’.
What are three advantages of sending the convicts to Australia?
The Bloody Code
The Bloody Code imposed the death penalty for over two hundred, often petty, offences. Its aim was deterrence. Many juries practised ‘pious perjury’, often finding people not guilty or reducing the amount stolen to avoid the crime being a capital offence.
Many people didn’t have a job and were very poor. People stole things to survive. Minor crimes such as stealing items worth more than 1 shilling (about a day’s wages for a working person), cutting down a tree in an orchard or stealing livestock were punishable by transportation.
The prisons quickly became full and prisoners were kept in old, rotting prison ships called hulks. These ships were usually an old naval or merchant ship that could not go to sea anymore but could still float safely in the harbour.
Number of crimes carrying the death penalty
1688 - 50
1765 - 160
1815 - 225.
Source 1. Lord Sydney explaining the decision to transport convicts to Australia 1786
“The several gaols and places for confinement of felons in this kingdom being so crowded a state that the greatest danger is not only from their escape, but for infectious distempers which may hourly break out among them.”
To do: questions
Write a letter to the editor explaining the reasons for your opposition to the harsh sentences of the Bloody Code
The Who, What and Why of Transportation
The transport act made it very clear that transportation was in fact a deterrent to crime because it was quite difficult for someone to return home once they were transported.
It was also an effective means of supplying a colony with a labour force, so there’s an economic reason behind it as well.
Source 2. Lord Grenville letter to Governor Phillip 1788
“The return of the convicts to the country cannot legally be prevented. But as there is little hope that they will apply themselves in honest industry the chances of them engaging the owners of a returning vessel are low. Therefore every reasonable indulgence should be held out to induce them to remain in Australia.”
On the first fleet, 789 convicts left England. Only 756 convicts arrived. There were 43 deaths and 22 births amongst the convicts during the voyage to Australia.
Source 3. Watkin Tench. Describing letters from convicts for the censor. 1790
“…the constant language was an apprehension of the impracticalities of returning home, the dread of the sickly passage and the fearful prospect of a distant and barbarous country.”
Landing at Botany Bay
After 8 months, the fleet landed at Botany Bay on the 18th of January. The site was a poor choice, there was limited fresh water, no shelter and no possibility of farming.
Have a look at the Botany Bay landing site
Captain Phillip moved the settlement location to Port Jackson, Sydney Harbour 8 days later on the 26th of January
To do: questions
Write a diary entry for a convict who has just learned they will be transported to Australia the following day.
What do they know about the voyage, Australia and life in the new colony?
How do they feel about leaving England?
Activity 1: A Rapscallions Guide to Convict Transportation
The prison authorities have asked you to create an educational resource that can be used to deter potential rapscallions from committing crimes.
Use the following outline as a guide for your Convict deterrence resource.
Use abundant visual resources (pictures, maps etc) to support your warning.
Part 1. What is life like on an English prison hulk?
The convict hulks were huge floating prisons moored in the rivers and bays of England. Use the eyewitness account of Henry Adams to describe life on the prison hulks.
Describe life on the prison hulks in England using quotes and examples.
Insert some pictures of life in the jails of Victorian England (Online research)
Henry Adams personal account 1826
In 1826 convict Henry Adams made a series of allegations and complaints about his treatment on the York and the Antelope convict hulks.
Adams wrote that ‘Convict Hulks are totally forgotten Places teeming with every Crime that can degenerate a Man’.
Adams claimed that he was kept in double leg irons on the York, and that John Henry Capper, Superintendent of Convicts, read all of his letters for fear that Adams would expose the cruelties of hulk life.
‘Officers were Acting like Drunken Savages, the Antelope (A prison hulk anchored on the Thames) was, literally speaking, a floating Hell. This government knows and wish to suppress [the facts]’.
He stated that the officers on the Antelope assaulted him when they found out about his complaints and he had fought back, for which he was sent to London for trial and held on the York (Another prison Hulk).
Writing about the York, he complains about the cold. When he applied for a blanket he was given a small old one, and when he applied for stockings he had to wait over two months: ‘nine weeks I wore a pair without washing but at length I had an old pair given me which I could get no worsted to mend… if I get wet I must remain in my wet clothes, its impossible to be clean as I am now situated’.
He had no tools to do the work expected of him and ‘what rations I get is shamefully small’.
Part 2: Conditions on the transport vessels
To do: Answer the following questions using the information at:
Convict transportation statistics information
How many people died on the eighteen month journey of the First Fleet?
What happened to the Guardian?
How many people died on the Second Fleet and the Third Fleet?
Explain the reasons why the second and third fleet journeys were more dangerous?
Insert and label a map that shows the route taken by convict transport boats from London to the new colony of New South Wales (Online research)
Insert a picture(s) and label it, of conditions on convict transport ships (Online research)
Part 3. Daily life in the new colony
Use the following site to describe conditions in the new colony using the headings listed below.
Day in the life of a convict - Sydney Museum
To do: questions
Clothes
a. Insert a picture of the clothes that convicts had to wear
b. What were their shoes like?
Food
a. Make a list with some examples of the food that convicts were given
b. Do you think there was always enough food in the new colony?
Language
a. Make a list of ten incredibly useful convict slang words
Punishment
a. What were some of the punishments given to wastrels and miscreants?
Rewards
a. List some of the ways convicts were rewarded for good behaviour.
Work
a. What sort of work did the convicts do?
b. List some of the jobs that people did?
c. What was the benefit for the new colony of having convicts to do the work
Source 4. Letter from Watkin Tench. 1793
'On arrival in Sydney, the women were washed and paraded in their best clothes. Some were chosen as servants by military officers and soldiers and others were taken by former convicts. The remaining women were sent to the Female Factory at Parramatta where they produced woollen cloth for winter clothing. Accommodation at the factory was limited and most women were obliged to lodge with local settlers. some women prostituted themselves to pay the rent'.
Part 4. Convicts
Use the following to research the profile of two convicts:
To do: questions
Create a box for each convict and answer the following questions .
a. What was their crime?
b. How long were they transported for?
c. What work did they do and were they married?
d. Did they remain in Australia or return to England?
Extra: When you finish your folio you can play the First Fleet Voyage Game
This year is 1830. You’re the Surgeon Superintendent aboard a convict vessel transporting its human cargo from Britain to the far reaches of the known world – Van Diemen’s Land. You’re charged with delivering several hundred convicts to the colony in the shortest time with minimum loss of life. This is the way to make money and further your reputation and position. Are you up to the task?
John JONES was the son of David Jones and Catherine (nee Ellis), and was a butcher in Shropshire. He was sentenced to life on suspicion of stealing a grey mare. On arrival in Australia lived and worked in Parramatta.
He was granted a conditional pardon in 1813 and married another convict, Ann Latham in 1815. They had six children, and ran a successful Butchery in the town for many years.
John and Ann died within 3 months of each other in 1833.
Film source: The incredible journey of Mary Bryant
Watch the film until the 40:00 minute mark, then answer the following questions using evidence from the film.
Mary has been convicted of theft and spent time on a prison hulk in Britain (mentioned but not shown),
She has been sentenced to transportation to New South Wales.
Use evidence from the film to support your answers
To do: questions
What do you learn about Mary's survival strategy while in captivity? (1)
What does this tell you about the dangers that women faced while in captivity. (1)
Use quotes to describe the official view of the convict women? (2)
Compare, using examples, the conditions for convicts and the officers. (2)
Using evidence, what did the convicts know about their destination? (2)
Describe the evidence for people suffering from disease on the boat? (1)
List the examples of the risks faced by the convicts on the first fleet. (2)
Provide examples of the punishment used on the voyage, do you think this was effective? (2)
Using examples, what do you think the Aboriginals thought about the new arrivals? (2)
Describe the two views of the new colony described by Mary and her friend when they land. (1)