England in the 1800s
Poverty, social injustice, child labor, harsh and dirty living conditions and long working hours were prevalent in 19th-century Britain. By 1765 London was overcrowded, filled with the unemployed, and flooded with cheap gin. Crime had become a major problem. Each parish had a watchman, but British cities did not have police forces in the modern sense. The Industrial Revolution led to an increase in petty crime due to the economic displacement of much of the population, building pressure on the government to find an alternative to confinement in overcrowded gaols. The situation was so dire that hulks left over from the Seven Years' War were used as makeshift floating prisons, this involved removal of the rigging, masts, rudders, and other sailing features and reconfiguring the interior with jail cells (64). Eight of every ten prisoners were in jail for theft. Lawmakers increasingly applied transportation as a more humane alternative to execution.
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Convicts
About 164,000 convicts were transported to the Australian colonies between 1788 and 1868 on board 806 ships. Convicts were made up of English and Welsh (70%), Irish (24%), Scottish (5%) and the remaining 1% from the British outposts. Political prisoners made up a small proportion of convicts. They arrived in waves corresponding to political unrest in Britain and Ireland Approximately 20% of the transportees were women. For protection, most quickly attached themselves to male officers or convicts. Women convicts were assumed to be most useful as wives and mothers, and marriage effectively freed a woman convict from her servitude (68) |
Convicts in the Colonies
Whatever their crime, convicts were employed according to their skills - as brick makers, carpenters, nurses, servants, cattlemen, shepherds and farmers. Educated convicts were set to the relatively easy work of record-keeping for the convict administration.. The discipline of rural labour was seen to be the best chance of reform. The assignment of convicts to private employers was expanded in the 1820s and 1830s, the period when most convicts were sent to the colonies, and this became the major form of employment. In the mid-1830s only around six per cent of the convict population were 'locked up', the majority working for free settlers and the authorities around the nation. |
Convicts were often subject to cruelties such as leg-irons and the lash (68). Convicts who misbehaved were often sent to a place of secondary punishment like Port Arthur, Tasmania or Norfolk Island, where they would suffer additional punishment and solitary confinement. If a convict was well behaved, the convict could be given a ticket of leave, granting some freedom. At the end of the convict's sentence the convict was issued with a Certificate of Freedom. He was then free to become a settler or to return to England (64).
Free Settlers
With increasing numbers of free settlers entering New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) by the mid-1830s, opposition to the transportation of felons into the colonies grew. A public movement commenced to establish free, civilised colonies in Australia. It began with a growing public disquiet about the transportation of convicts, which was likened to the slave trade that had only been abolished in 1833. These movements coincided with a drastic need in the colony for workers and, in particular, mechanics, craftsmen and agricultural labourers. The colony was developing rapidly, but progress had been slowed excessively by the shortage of such workers (67). Emigrants were required `to supply an abundance of cheap, honest and industrious labour', prompting some emigrants to lower their age to avoid the possibility of rejection. |
Emigration
Liverpool has played an important role as the port of departure for millions of people seeking new lives in the New World countries. Thousands of emigrants from the British Isles and mainland Europe left from Liverpool. The establishment of regular sailing packet lines from 1818 and the huge demand for raw materials, emigrants and manufactured products provided a useful return cargo. Irish emigrants crossed to Liverpool by steamship. By 1851 Liverpool had become the leading emigration port in Europe with 159,840 passengers sailing to foreign countries. The first formal assisted emigration schemes to the colony were established in the mid-1830's and operated concurrently.
Liverpool has played an important role as the port of departure for millions of people seeking new lives in the New World countries. Thousands of emigrants from the British Isles and mainland Europe left from Liverpool. The establishment of regular sailing packet lines from 1818 and the huge demand for raw materials, emigrants and manufactured products provided a useful return cargo. Irish emigrants crossed to Liverpool by steamship. By 1851 Liverpool had become the leading emigration port in Europe with 159,840 passengers sailing to foreign countries. The first formal assisted emigration schemes to the colony were established in the mid-1830's and operated concurrently.
The 'Government (1837-1840)' was directed and financed by the British Government and the 'Bounty Schemes (1835-1841)’, was organised by the colonial government of NSW on behalf of the settlers who were dissatisfied with British government. Prospective settlers were offered bounties as an incentive to emigrate. (67)
The gold rushes also caused a huge influx of people from overseas. Australia's total population more than tripled from 430,000 in 1851 to 1.7 million in 1871. Australia first became a multicultural society during the gold rush period. |
Regions of England and their Counties
NORTH WEST: Barnsley, Blackpool, Blackburn with Darwen, Bolton, Bury, Calderdale, Cleveland & Redcar, Cumbria, Darlington, Durham, East Riding of Yorkshire, Gateshead, Halton, Hartlepool, Kirklees, Knowsley, Lancashire, Liverpool, Manchester.NORTH EAST: Lincolnshire, Newcastle upon Tyne, North Lincolnshire, Northumberland, North Tyneside, North Yorkshire, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Sefton, St Helens, Stockport, Stockton, South Tyneside, Sunderland, Tameside, Trafford, Wakefield, Warrington, Wigan.
YORKSHIRE: Leeds, Sheffield, Bradford, Kington upon Hull, York, Huddersfield, Middlesbrough, Doncaster, Rotherham, Halifax.
EAST ANGLIA: Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, City of Peterborough, Essex, Hertfordshire, Lincolnshire, Luton, Norfolk, Southend-on-sea, Suffolk, Thurrock.
SOUTH EAST: Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, Kent, London, Medway, Surrey, West Sussex.
SOUTH WEST: Cornwall, Devon,Plymouth, Scilly Isles, Torbay.
SOUTHERN: Bracknell Forest, Hampshire, Hayling Island, Isle of Wight, Portsmouth, Reading, Slough, Southampton, West Berkshire, Windsor & Maidenhead, Wokingham.
WEST COUNTRY: Bath & North East Somerset, Bournemouth,City of Bristol, Dorset, North Somerset, Poole, Somerset, South Gloucestershire, Swindon, Wiltshire.
WEST MIDLANDS: Wirral, Cheshire, Staffordshire, Stoke on Trent, Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin, Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Gloucestershire.
WEST MIDLANDS METRO: Birmingham, Coventry, Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, Walsall, Wolverhampton.
EAST MIDLANDS: Derbyshire, Derby, Nottinghamshire, Nottingham, Leicestershire, Leicester, Rutland, Northamptonshire, Milton Keynes, Warwickshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire.
GREATER LONDON: Barking & Dagenham, Barnet, Bexley, Brent, Bromley, Camden, Croydon, Ealing, Enfield, Greenwich, Hackney, Hammersmith and Fulham, Haringey, Harrow, Havering, Hillingdon, Hounslow, Islington, Kensington and Chelsea, Kingston upon Thames, Lambeth, Lewisham, London, Merton, Newham, Redbridge, Richmond upon Thames, Southwark, Sutton, Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest, Wandsworth, Westminster.
HOME COUNTIES: English counties surrounding London, into which London has extended. Chiefly Essex, Kent, Surrey, and Hertfordshire.