Convict Transportation
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Recent papers in Convict Transportation
"Scurvy is a deficiency disorder caused by a lack of fresh fruit and vegetables in the diet and specifically by insufficient vitamin C (ascorbic acid). It is not infectious and results from a combination of psycho-social and environmental... more
Examines convict life when Singapore was a penal colony between 1825 and 1873 and the unusual convict system where prisoners were their own warders. The magnificent buildings and construction that still stand today are a legacy of their... more
20-minute paper on the convict station at Bermuda. THE DIGITAL PANOPTICON: The Global Impact of London Punishments 1780-1925. Conference held at St George's Hall, Liverpool, 13-15 September 2017.
Madness stalked the colony of New South Wales, and tracing its wild path changes the way we look at our history. Bedlam at Botany Bay is a series of stories about what happened when people went mad in this place, told through the... more
France’s decision to introduce penal transportation in 1854 at precisely the moment that Britain was winding it back is a striking and curious fact of history. While the Australian experiment of penal colonization was not considered a... more
"Crime, as Michael Ignatieff suggests, was one means by which the poor rebelled against the constraints of the existing social order. In recent years histroians have extensively examined crime and punishment which has proved to be a rich... more
Emanuel Charles Greene was an extra-ordinary character: A creole who served as an officer under Napoleon at Waterloo, (unlike the British Army, the French did commission “people of colour”). Later remanded into Newgate Gaol, Greene was... more
Marcus Clarke's Journalism in 1860s-70s Melbourne.
Nicolas Battis, a man of colour, and a Private in the band of the 13th Light Dragoons, lived a life that included service at the battle of Waterloo and transportation to Australia as a convict. In May 2023 Nicolas Batise’s (sic) place... more
This short article is part of a special issue of the french heritage journal "monumental", dedicated to the "patrimoine de l'enfermement", the "heritage of incarceration". It concludes a chapter, p. 52-78, focusing on the french colonial... more
Also available online via the British Library 'Untold Lives' website:
http://blogs.bl.uk/untoldlives/2017/08/duncan-campbell-the-private-contractor-and-the-prison-hulk.html?_ga=2.165154554.418209765.1502361873-830840774.1499349697
http://blogs.bl.uk/untoldlives/2017/08/duncan-campbell-the-private-contractor-and-the-prison-hulk.html?_ga=2.165154554.418209765.1502361873-830840774.1499349697
A ticket of leave was the third stage of servitude for convicts sent to Western Australia, following periods of separate confinement (in Britain) and hard labour (in Britain or the colony). Unlike other convicts, ticket-of-leave men were... more
Between 1847 and 1853, Charles Brentani was a noticeable character around Melbourne. Today, few have heard of him. There are occasional references, usually in relation to an 1849 gold discovery, or to silverware supplied by his retail... more
As at 1993, the state of play for genealogical research on Duncan Campbell (1726-1803), the Overseer of the Thames Prison Hulks 1776-1803.
An examination into the lives of Joseph, William, and John Smith broadens our understanding of the colonial Chesapeake while deepening our knowledge of Gypsy history. Doing so allows Gypsies to be written into the historical narrative as... more
Edward White's statement, given in 1830 regarding what has become known as the 'Risdon Cove Massacre' is preferred over that of Lt. William Moore and Dr. Jacob Mountgarrett, as the likely 'truth' as to what exactly happened on the 3rd of... more
This article features a connected history of punitive relocations in the Spanish Empire, from the independence of Spanish America to the " loss " of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines in 1898. Three levels of entanglement are... more
On 15 March 1817 the convict ship the Chapman departed from Cork with 200 male prisoners on board. When it dropped anchor off Sydney Cove four months later, its prison doors opened to reveal 160 gaunt and brutalised men. Twelve were dead... more
The story of the convict ship Hashemy arriving at Sydney in June 1849 after being turned away from Melbourne has been repeated by many professional, amateur and popular historians. The arrival of the Hashemy, and subsequent anti-convict... more
A review of Aidan Forth 'Barbed Wire Imperialism. Britain's Empire of Camps 1876-1903'' and Clare Anderson 'A Global History of Convicts and Penal Colonies'. Published in Kritika 20/2 (Spring 2019): 390–403
Brief biographies of twenty-one convict women from places on the edges of the British Empire, who were transported to Van Diemens Land and New South Wales during the 19th Century. Research notes in preparation of an online Dictionary of... more
Introduction From the settlement of Van Diemen’s Land in 1803, to the cessation of convict transportation in 1853, over 69,000 male and female convicts were dumped on the colony’s shores. At any one time, thousands of convicts were... more
A narrative about Guy de Lusignan, ex King of Jerusalem, and sugar on Cyprus during Crusader times. (See the movie, Kingdom of Heaven.)
This paper will provide an institutional narrative of British prison hulks during wartime, tracking the shift in private to state control between the period 1776-1820. It will be divided into two halves; the first section will examine the... more
Many contemporary Australians have convict forebears, though their families may not know it. While transportation to New South Wales ended in 1840, Van Diemen’s Land continued to serve as a secondary place of confinement, with prisoners... more
Over the last three decades the convict as worker has become an increasingly studied aspect of the Australian transportation experience. With their insight into the landscapes and material culture of the convict experience, historical... more
"Introduction This article was written with the intent of placing the timber-getting operations of the Cascades convict probation station within the wider contexts of the Tasman Peninsula and the colony of VanDiemen's Land. Established... more
The essays in this volume provide a new perspective on the history of convicts and penal colonies. They demonstrate that the nineteenth and twentieth centuries were a critical period in the reconfiguration of empires, imperial... more
In 1850, settlers in the Cape Colony celebrated their victory over plans to land convicts from Britain and Ireland on their shores. Similar celebrations were held in Tasmania in 1853 upon news that convict transportation would finally... more
This is a story about how to insert a newly-discovered personage into an often-told historical narrative, involving the First Fleet of convict ships bound for "Botany Bay".
The woman known in Australian Convict Records as Sarah Payne was born in Portugal around 1812. She worked as a silk weaver in the Spitalfields district of London and it was there that she and her accomplice were caught stealing fabric.... more
This bibliographic essay seeks to contribute to the understanding of convict labour from a global and long-term perspective. First the conditions conducive to the emergence and transformation of convict labour are addressed by framing... more
Follows after discussion, a list of owners of convict ships to Australia, 160 names of which only about 60 can be researched, which is hardly good enough. Other discussion follows at list's end. This file is intended to updated from time... more
Literary London conference programme, 6-8 July 2016. Paper given in panel "Imperial Traffics: Movement, flows and borders between London and the Empire".