Transportation In New England
Transportation was a viable avenue for England to rid itself of criminals. Many individuals and complete families where transported, first, to the American colonies and then to Australia and its surrounding islands of Van Diemen’s Land. Through this type of punishment the United Kingdom hoped to rid itself of variants and to begin colonization of a new colony in a distant land in hopes of further expanding the empire. By expanding the empire through transportation these convicts brought with them traditions and customs familiar to them, some positive and some negative.
In 1718 the Parliament passed the Transportation Acts, it did not begin the practice of transportation; rather it regulated the act itself.[1] After this regulation many more convicts were transported to the American colonies to serve their time as indentured servants for …show more content…
up to seven years in lieu of being burned or flogged.[2] Many of the convicts committed to transport were of the criminal type, those accused of crimes of petty thefts. Yet there were also a group of individuals that were a threat to the kingdom; political prisoners speaking out against the crown. They too were shipped out of London, Luddites, food rioters, radical weavers, Swing rioters all were transported in hopes of preventing them in becoming martyrs to their cause[3]
By 1787 the Empire had lost control of the American colonies and a new venue had to be located to continue the practice of transportation.
So on May 13, 1787, on eleven ships, 776 prisoners set course for an eight month voyage to the new frontier land of Australia.[4] Australia would be the new destination for all transport convicts till the end of transportation in 1853. And during this time frame, nearly 145,000 men and women would be sent to Australia as punishment for their crimes.[5] If they had survived the grueling eight month trip, convicts would serve out their sentence by working on a government plantation or leased out to a private landowner that had ventured to Australia in search of a new beginning. In essence the empire was beginning to expand its reaches to new corners of the world and soon it would begin to transform this desolate land to one of prosperity. With a high influx of convicts, some with valuable traits, Australia would begin to morph into a viable colony. A colony not only viewed as place for convicts but one which would begin to attract individuals in hope of a better life than in
Britain.
One man can be contributed to the building, and the structuring of South Wales. Governor Lachlan Macquarie brought vast knowledge with him after serving in India. Under his guidance the death rate on transport ships was reduced, allowed convicts with marketable traits to perform in similar capacities and began to wean the colony of its dependence of the United Kingdom for its survival.[6] Central to Macquarie’s plan was his implementation of Hyde Park Barracks, in which convicts with valuable craftsman skill would be located. With a vast surplus in skilled, labor free convicts Macquarie began to build an infrastructure in South Wales that would be essential for the colony to prosper. Drawing upon the technological advancements of the industrial revolution Sydney began to erect buildings essential to its survival. Here we see the benefits of a British engine, utilizing its technological superiority to lay a foundation, for present tenants and for future inhabitants, to survive while isolated away from home. Macquarie established towns near the Blue Mountains nestled on the banks of the Hawkesbury River, which were rich in agriculture and developed another vital staple to the growth of Australia, wool. Wool was essential to Australia because it had unique characteristics. It would not spoil while in storage, low in bulk thus easy to transport and it was in dire need in Europe.[7] Additionally, the meat produced by sheep would provide food for the people of the colonies, further becoming independent and not relying on goods imported from the empire to survive. After a convict had served their time they were allowed to sell their services to the highest bidder, while some began to make a new life on the land provided to them by becoming free citizens. Taking with them the knowledge, traditions and ideology of the British Empire to start a new life, Australia began to prosper and grow. This is a way in which transportation and the British Empire ideology positive affected the people and convicts of Transportation; allowing them to alter the landscape and direction of a continent
With an infrastructure established, goods available allowing for its survival and to trade Australia began to grow. With only 1 in fourteen inmates deciding to return to Britain by 1828 there were already more free individuals in New South Wales than prisoners.[8] A cycle had begun, the foundation developed by Macquarie was beginning to evolve and flourish. Australia had a robust economy which was no longer dependent on outside assistance, an ample supply of rich land providing a staple for survival and to thrive off.
An ideology of superiority that allowed the original habitants of New South Wales to prosper in a desolate, different and strange environment would soon lead to committing atrocities to occur and allowing them to be justified. This ideology was showcased and focused on the native people of Australia. By the turn of the nineteen century the aborigines who inhabited the continent of Australia had gathered to an estimated group of 500,000, and divided into some 500 to 900 tribes a majority of them hunter and gatherers. [9] Key to the Aboriginal tribes was their ties to the land they inhabited. Aborigines believe that the land itself is built by ancestral spirits and totemic beings in a state known as Dreamtime. [10] Dreamtime can be reenacted through rituals of song and dance; and each generation is directed through these sessions of Dreamtime. It was also a site to which ancestors would return to and await to be reincarnation. Thus the land that the Aborigines inhabit is vital to their existence and the central point of struggle between the new inhabitants of Australia and its native tribes. With more and more convicts gaining their freedom and a desire to make a new life the boundaries of the frontier were beginning to be pushed farther from the center of the towns. Thus the Aborigines and British were heading towards a point of conflict with the Aborigines eventually losing.
To the British, the Aborigines were an easy target and were seen as lacking the essential tools in order to take advantage of the rich land. They were also seen as a disorganized group of individuals without a sense of law, religion and government; a strange group of individuals that a majority of the British did not want to understand but only to take the land for their own. This hostile takeover was easy due to the lack of organization, lack of will to fight for their land, and no modern weapons. [11] This made the Aborigines an easy prey for the many early white settlers of New South Wales, which constituted some of the least respectable elements of Britain’s population.
An event that characterized this lawless and lack of respect towards the Aborigines was the Myall Creek Massacre in 1839. In this incident eleven squatters and stockmen, many of them convicts, isolated a group of Aborigines and killed them. They were claiming a retaliation for cattle that was stolen from them. [12] The eleven perpetrators would eventually be hanged for their actions after two separate trials. Later settlers many of which were missionaries tried to educate and civilize the many Aborigines. But these efforts were fruitless, in part to the constant movement of the Aborigines and unwillingness to settle in one spot. Another factor impeding there civilization and a further point of focus for the British was the lack of communication and their barbarous ignorance of God.[13]
Not only were some of the British against the Aborigines but laws were enacted so that they would be held homeless and helpless. In 1840 the council of New South Wales enacted it law that outlawed the possession of firearms or ammunition by the Aborigines. [14] Thus many Aborigines where either pushed of their lands or forced to continue their way of live and face the possibility of trespassing on land that was taken from them and face further persecution. Later many Aborigines would be drawn into a semi-peonage and agree to work for rations of food to supplement their diet.[15] This type of behavior was centered on the premise that the British were superior and possessed the desire tools and industry to cultivate the land. Thus it was their responsibility to cultivate the land provided to them by God. Many British were following the logic of Aristotle in which he remarked that the Greeks should rule barbarians because they are capable of political life[16]
Thus transportation was an opportunity for the British government to remove vagrants from Britain; it allowed a colony to be planted and for a group of individuals to be preyed upon. For some it was a chance to start a new life, while for others it marked the end of their way of life; a change that allowed a group of people to behave in a manner that was believed to be appropriate and acceptable. The superiority ideology of the British allowed many of the acts on the Aborigines to be warranted and appropriate. The acts of the new settlers of Australia were ceremonially perpetuated or allowed when in 1887 the British Privy Council declared Australia to be a colony which consisted of a tract of land practically unoccupied without settled inhabitants or settled law and where there was no land or tenure existing at the time of settlement[17]
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[1] Bruce Kercher. Perish or Prosper: The Law and Convict Transportation in the British Empire, 1700-1850 Law and History Review Vol. 21, No. 3 (2003) http://www.jstor.org/journals.com (accessed February 19, 2008)
[2] Ibid., 530.
[3] Nial Ferguson. Empire: The rise and demise of the British World order and the lessons for global power. London Allen Lane. 2002, pg 85
[4] Ibid., 85.
[5] Ibid., 85.
[6] Ibid., 85.
[7] P.J. Marshall. British Empire. Cambridge. 1996. 127
[8] Ferguson. Empire. 87
[9] Hinchman, Lewis P.; Hinchman, Sandra K. Australia’s Judicial Revolution: Aboriginal Land Rights and the Transformation of Liberalism. Polity, Vol. 31, No 1 (1998) ) http://www.jstor.org/journals.com (accessed February 19, 2008)
[10] Ibid., 27
[11] Samuel Clyde McCulloch. Sir George Gipps and Eastern Australia’s Policy toward the Aborigine, 1838-1846. The Journal of Modern History, Vol. 33, No. 3 (1961) pp 261-269 ) http://www.jstor.org/journals.com (accessed February 19, 2008)
[12] Ibid., 264.
[13] Ibid., 266
[14] Ibid., 267
[15] Hinchman, Lewis P; Hinchman, Sandra K., 32
[16] Ibid., 30
[17] Ibid., 29
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In 1718 the Parliament passed the Transportation Acts, it did not begin the practice of transportation; rather it regulated the act itself.[1] After this regulation many more convicts were transported to the American colonies to serve their time as indentured servants for …show more content…
up to seven years in lieu of being burned or flogged.[2] Many of the convicts committed to transport were of the criminal type, those accused of crimes of petty thefts. Yet there were also a group of individuals that were a threat to the kingdom; political prisoners speaking out against the crown. They too were shipped out of London, Luddites, food rioters, radical weavers, Swing rioters all were transported in hopes of preventing them in becoming martyrs to their cause[3]
By 1787 the Empire had lost control of the American colonies and a new venue had to be located to continue the practice of transportation.
So on May 13, 1787, on eleven ships, 776 prisoners set course for an eight month voyage to the new frontier land of Australia.[4] Australia would be the new destination for all transport convicts till the end of transportation in 1853. And during this time frame, nearly 145,000 men and women would be sent to Australia as punishment for their crimes.[5] If they had survived the grueling eight month trip, convicts would serve out their sentence by working on a government plantation or leased out to a private landowner that had ventured to Australia in search of a new beginning. In essence the empire was beginning to expand its reaches to new corners of the world and soon it would begin to transform this desolate land to one of prosperity. With a high influx of convicts, some with valuable traits, Australia would begin to morph into a viable colony. A colony not only viewed as place for convicts but one which would begin to attract individuals in hope of a better life than in
Britain.
One man can be contributed to the building, and the structuring of South Wales. Governor Lachlan Macquarie brought vast knowledge with him after serving in India. Under his guidance the death rate on transport ships was reduced, allowed convicts with marketable traits to perform in similar capacities and began to wean the colony of its dependence of the United Kingdom for its survival.[6] Central to Macquarie’s plan was his implementation of Hyde Park Barracks, in which convicts with valuable craftsman skill would be located. With a vast surplus in skilled, labor free convicts Macquarie began to build an infrastructure in South Wales that would be essential for the colony to prosper. Drawing upon the technological advancements of the industrial revolution Sydney began to erect buildings essential to its survival. Here we see the benefits of a British engine, utilizing its technological superiority to lay a foundation, for present tenants and for future inhabitants, to survive while isolated away from home. Macquarie established towns near the Blue Mountains nestled on the banks of the Hawkesbury River, which were rich in agriculture and developed another vital staple to the growth of Australia, wool. Wool was essential to Australia because it had unique characteristics. It would not spoil while in storage, low in bulk thus easy to transport and it was in dire need in Europe.[7] Additionally, the meat produced by sheep would provide food for the people of the colonies, further becoming independent and not relying on goods imported from the empire to survive. After a convict had served their time they were allowed to sell their services to the highest bidder, while some began to make a new life on the land provided to them by becoming free citizens. Taking with them the knowledge, traditions and ideology of the British Empire to start a new life, Australia began to prosper and grow. This is a way in which transportation and the British Empire ideology positive affected the people and convicts of Transportation; allowing them to alter the landscape and direction of a continent
With an infrastructure established, goods available allowing for its survival and to trade Australia began to grow. With only 1 in fourteen inmates deciding to return to Britain by 1828 there were already more free individuals in New South Wales than prisoners.[8] A cycle had begun, the foundation developed by Macquarie was beginning to evolve and flourish. Australia had a robust economy which was no longer dependent on outside assistance, an ample supply of rich land providing a staple for survival and to thrive off.
An ideology of superiority that allowed the original habitants of New South Wales to prosper in a desolate, different and strange environment would soon lead to committing atrocities to occur and allowing them to be justified. This ideology was showcased and focused on the native people of Australia. By the turn of the nineteen century the aborigines who inhabited the continent of Australia had gathered to an estimated group of 500,000, and divided into some 500 to 900 tribes a majority of them hunter and gatherers. [9] Key to the Aboriginal tribes was their ties to the land they inhabited. Aborigines believe that the land itself is built by ancestral spirits and totemic beings in a state known as Dreamtime. [10] Dreamtime can be reenacted through rituals of song and dance; and each generation is directed through these sessions of Dreamtime. It was also a site to which ancestors would return to and await to be reincarnation. Thus the land that the Aborigines inhabit is vital to their existence and the central point of struggle between the new inhabitants of Australia and its native tribes. With more and more convicts gaining their freedom and a desire to make a new life the boundaries of the frontier were beginning to be pushed farther from the center of the towns. Thus the Aborigines and British were heading towards a point of conflict with the Aborigines eventually losing.
To the British, the Aborigines were an easy target and were seen as lacking the essential tools in order to take advantage of the rich land. They were also seen as a disorganized group of individuals without a sense of law, religion and government; a strange group of individuals that a majority of the British did not want to understand but only to take the land for their own. This hostile takeover was easy due to the lack of organization, lack of will to fight for their land, and no modern weapons. [11] This made the Aborigines an easy prey for the many early white settlers of New South Wales, which constituted some of the least respectable elements of Britain’s population.
An event that characterized this lawless and lack of respect towards the Aborigines was the Myall Creek Massacre in 1839. In this incident eleven squatters and stockmen, many of them convicts, isolated a group of Aborigines and killed them. They were claiming a retaliation for cattle that was stolen from them. [12] The eleven perpetrators would eventually be hanged for their actions after two separate trials. Later settlers many of which were missionaries tried to educate and civilize the many Aborigines. But these efforts were fruitless, in part to the constant movement of the Aborigines and unwillingness to settle in one spot. Another factor impeding there civilization and a further point of focus for the British was the lack of communication and their barbarous ignorance of God.[13]
Not only were some of the British against the Aborigines but laws were enacted so that they would be held homeless and helpless. In 1840 the council of New South Wales enacted it law that outlawed the possession of firearms or ammunition by the Aborigines. [14] Thus many Aborigines where either pushed of their lands or forced to continue their way of live and face the possibility of trespassing on land that was taken from them and face further persecution. Later many Aborigines would be drawn into a semi-peonage and agree to work for rations of food to supplement their diet.[15] This type of behavior was centered on the premise that the British were superior and possessed the desire tools and industry to cultivate the land. Thus it was their responsibility to cultivate the land provided to them by God. Many British were following the logic of Aristotle in which he remarked that the Greeks should rule barbarians because they are capable of political life[16]
Thus transportation was an opportunity for the British government to remove vagrants from Britain; it allowed a colony to be planted and for a group of individuals to be preyed upon. For some it was a chance to start a new life, while for others it marked the end of their way of life; a change that allowed a group of people to behave in a manner that was believed to be appropriate and acceptable. The superiority ideology of the British allowed many of the acts on the Aborigines to be warranted and appropriate. The acts of the new settlers of Australia were ceremonially perpetuated or allowed when in 1887 the British Privy Council declared Australia to be a colony which consisted of a tract of land practically unoccupied without settled inhabitants or settled law and where there was no land or tenure existing at the time of settlement[17]
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[1] Bruce Kercher. Perish or Prosper: The Law and Convict Transportation in the British Empire, 1700-1850 Law and History Review Vol. 21, No. 3 (2003) http://www.jstor.org/journals.com (accessed February 19, 2008)
[2] Ibid., 530.
[3] Nial Ferguson. Empire: The rise and demise of the British World order and the lessons for global power. London Allen Lane. 2002, pg 85
[4] Ibid., 85.
[5] Ibid., 85.
[6] Ibid., 85.
[7] P.J. Marshall. British Empire. Cambridge. 1996. 127
[8] Ferguson. Empire. 87
[9] Hinchman, Lewis P.; Hinchman, Sandra K. Australia’s Judicial Revolution: Aboriginal Land Rights and the Transformation of Liberalism. Polity, Vol. 31, No 1 (1998) ) http://www.jstor.org/journals.com (accessed February 19, 2008)
[10] Ibid., 27
[11] Samuel Clyde McCulloch. Sir George Gipps and Eastern Australia’s Policy toward the Aborigine, 1838-1846. The Journal of Modern History, Vol. 33, No. 3 (1961) pp 261-269 ) http://www.jstor.org/journals.com (accessed February 19, 2008)
[12] Ibid., 264.
[13] Ibid., 266
[14] Ibid., 267
[15] Hinchman, Lewis P; Hinchman, Sandra K., 32
[16] Ibid., 30
[17] Ibid., 29
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