Gehring, Thom

Journal of Prison Education and Reentry

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VCU Scholars Compass

Felons Transported to America and Australia

Journal of Prison Education and Reentry Vol. 4 No. 2, December 2017 FEATURE--VIGNETTEFelons Transported to America and Australiaby THOM GEHRINGCalifornia State University, San Bernardino, USA	 On	January	26,	1788	“a	fleet	of	eleven	vessels	carrying	1,030	people,	 including	548	male	and	188	female	convicts,”	entered	Sydney	Harbor,	Australia	(Hughes,	R.		[1987].		The Fatal Shore.  New York:  Al-fred	A.	Knopf,	p.	2).		Most	of	these	convicts	were	from	London,	and	431	of	them	were	exiled	or	transported	for	minor	theft	(Hughes,	1987,	p.	72),	and	were	35	years	old	or	less.		Typical	among	the	crimes	was	that	of	Thomas	Gearing,	“who	created	a	brief	sensation	in	Oxford	in	1786	by	breaking	into	the	chapel	of	Magdalen	College	and	stealing	some	ecclesiastical	plate.		For	this	sacrilege,	he	was	condemned	to	death,	reprieved	and	then	transported	for	life.”		(Hughes,	1987,	p.	73).Convict	 assignment	 in	Australia	 differed,	 in	 law,	 from	 its	 earlier	 form	 in	America.	 	Many	rspectable	Americans	railed	at	the	influx	of	felons,	which	they	thought	polluted	their	society.		‘In	what	can	Britain	show	a	more	Sovereign	contempt	for	us,’	wrote	an	irate	Virginian	in	1751,	‘than	by	emptying	their	Jails	into	our	settlements;	unless	they	would	likewise	empty	their	Jakes	[toilets]	on	our	 tables!’	 	But.	 .	 .most	 farmers	and	merchants	 in	Maryland	or	Virginia,	when	offered	a	chance	of	convict	labor,	grabbed	it—and	paid	handsomely	for	it.		The	American	colo-nist	owned	his	indentured	servants.	He	had	paid	for	their	transportation	across	the	Atlantic,	and	he	expected	to	be	safeguarded	against	financial	loss	if	they	were	set	free	by	some	‘unforeseen	exercise	of	the	Royal	Mercy.’		Convicts	were	capital,	like	slaves,	and	had	been	freely	traded	as	such	since	the	early.	.	.[17th]	century.		‘Our	principall	wealth	consisteth	in	servants,’	wrote	the	Virginia	settler	John	Pory	in	1619.		Under	the	transportation	acts	of	the	seventeenth	and	early	eighteenth	centuries,	therefore,	the	Crown	was	bound	to	pay	a	convict’s	owner	should	it	remit	his	sentence.	.	.	.Virginia	and	Maryland	were	not	penal	colonies,	but	free	ones	that	used	felon	slaves.		In	Australia,	which	had	been	settled	as	a	jail,	no	free	settler	ever	paid	for	a	convict’s	passage	from	England;	and	that,	in	the	official	view,	disposed	of	the	[free]	settler’s	claim	to	a	right	of	property	in	the	convict’s	labor.		All	such	rights	belonged	to	the	government.		Neverthe-less,	disputes	over	the	‘right’	of	settlers	to	sell	or	reassign	their	convicts	kept	raising	colonial	hackles	for	decades.		(Hughes,	1987,	p.	287;	emphasis	in	original).	 Transportation	of	felons	to	America	ended	with	the	American	Revolution,	and	it	took	the	English	years	before	they	realized	they	could	transport	prisoners	to	Australia.		However,	many	convict	sentiments	were	un-changed	in	remote	Australia.		By	1813,	when	drinking	contraband	liquor,	Australian	convicts	had	their	own	traditional	toasts.		London’s	“Newgate	[Prison]	was	called	the	‘whit’	or	‘wit,’	and	all	flash	lads	drank	to	its	destruction.		‘The	Wit	be	burnt,’	ran	a	common	criminal	toast,	‘the	Flogging	Cull	(flogger)	be	damned,	the	Nubbing	Chit	(gallows)	be	curs’d.’”		(Hughes,	1987,	p.	36).		Transportation	of	felons	to	the	Australian	penal	colonies	continued	until	1867,	when	the	colonists	 in	Western	Australia	refused	 to	accept	any	more	British	prisoners	(Barry,	J.	[1958].		Alexander Maconochie of Norfolk Island:  A Study of a Pioneer in Penal Reform. Melbourne:		Oxford	University	Press,	p.	36)._______________________________________________________________________________________Thom Gehring is	the	research	director	of	the	Center	for	the	Study	of	Correctional	Education	at	California	Correspondence:	Thom	Gehring,	Email:	gehringthom@gmail.com	(Accepted: 7/6/2017) ISSN:	2387-2306	doi:	http://dx.doi.org/10.15845/jper.v4i2.1235Except	where	otherwise	noted,	content	on	this	site	is	licensed	under	a	Creative	Commons	Attribution	4.0	International	License.Gehring/Journal of Prison Education and Reentry 4(2) 44State	University,	San	Bernardino.	His	scholarly	emphasis	is	on	the	history	of	correctional	education	and	prison	reform.	He	has	been	a	correctional	educator	since	1972.	Thom	did	his	Ph.D.	dissertation	on	the	correctional	school	dis	trict	pattern	of	organization.	He	serves	as	the	historian	for	the	Correctional	Education	Association.	Thom	is	a	professor	of	education	who	directs	the	EDCA	correctional	and	alternative	masters	degree	program.

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Felons Transported to America and Australia

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