REASONS WHY CONVICTS IN ENGLAND ARE SENT TO AUSTRALIA
The Life of the Prisoners in England has been very hard because of over population. In most of their prison cell where people is believed to be among those who are very poor, although there are also some noted personalities who have found to be included, they stole food and livestock and things to survive, cut down illegal logs, and they do various crimes and so the prisons was always full. History shows that as early as 17th centuries that from various countries including England their convicts were transported to America but at the end of American War in 1783 the American Government denied the acceptance of such convicts so England will have to look somewhere else to send their prisoners and they have found New South Wales as their new destination.
They have also considered Africa but the place was unsuitable, they have also considered India but the place has also been over crowded so the Botany Bay in New South Wales has presented a good condition for most prisoners. The British colony would also help their empire to provide a good presence in South Pacific for economic trade advantage to England, they believed that sending convicts to this place will strengthen their power to colonize the Australian land that has been undermine by the France colony. In order to solve their overcrowded prisoners they have sent their people to explore the place, England also wanted the natural resources and raw materials of Australia so they sent their convicts in this land.
Extra prisoners are sent to large ships and vessels they called “Hulks” these ships stays in oceans and bodies of water for a long time they just float safely within the harbor. The conditions of most prisoners are like animals in the cage during those times that they will need to change position to get there sleep. There are about 300 prisoners in a hulk that just about the size of 5 or 6 buses most of them experienced diseases until they died including cholera and typhoid and most of them are hardly fed to reduce the cost of their budget. Upon landing, convicts will need to get up early in the morning to cut some timber, woods and bricks to work for 10 hours every-day and if they have done good manner in a day’s work they will be rewarded with tobacco and additional cookies or soup as a part of their meal.
The period of 1788 up to 1868 there are about 160,000 convicts were sent to Australia, New South Wales. Additional prisoners were transported from 1790 to 1793 that reaches to additional 5000 more convicts and most of them are poor men and women who are illiterate in their law and in their society so then again they have experienced the same scarcity and hardship in this country since they are not included in the government budget allocation and the land that they were brought to are not good enough for agriculture. This has become their path ways to freedom that prisoners who shows good behavior and manner will have the opportunity to be granted for conditional pardon or a complete freedom depending on their findings.
If a prisoner who have found to be guilty in misbehavior they will be sent to another place for a secondary punishment. In 1803 the British expedition led to Tasmania to establish a new penal colony. There were also prisoners who were sent to Norfolk Island there were also prisoners who suffer solitary confinement as an extreme case of imprisonment that includes psychological torture when they were in prison for a week or two. There are also women prisoners who have been convicted from various crimes some of them are assigned from production factories and some are kept as household servants, wives or mistress of the settlers in those communities. In the year of 1830 they have thought of stopping the transportation. Poverty has become the main reasons for the transportation of people of England to Australia.
In 1824 John Oxley an English explorer and surveyor have suggested to include Moreton Bay Queensland as a good location for temporary settlements of convicts until 1839 when they have discontinued the transportation of convicts when Brisbane penal settlement was closed then later on June of 1859 when Queensland has become another colony just like New South Wales. There was also transportation of convicts in Western parts of Australia during those times of 1850 to 1868 of about 9668 prisoners.
References:
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_did_Britain_first_use_Australia_for_convicts http://www.hht.net.au/discover/highlights/kids_fact_sheets/why_were_convicts_transported_to_australia
http://members.iinet.net.au/~perthdps/convicts/con-wa.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convicts_in_Australia
Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com
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