Transportation

1780 - The British government had faced a crisis

• Transportation had already been in use as a punishment for 100 years
• Government could no longer transport convicts to America because the colonies there had won their independence
• Prisons and Hulks were rapidly becoming overcrowded

The British government was desperate for another colony to take its criminals

• Several colonies including the west indies were considered
• The last was the scarcely known Australia, discovered in 1770 by James Cook
• A little possibility of sending anyone to find out whether Australia would be a good convict settlement:
  • It took 8 months for a round trip
• The first fleet set sail for Australia in May 1787
• Eleven ships left Portsmouth carrying 1026 people, 736 of whom were convicts sentenced to transportation for seven years, fourteen years or life.
• Youngest was nine, oldest was 82 years old
• Next fleet was two years later

Why did the government introduce Transportation to Australia?

• An alternative was needed to hanging
  • Hanging was widely seen to be extreme for minor crimes
  • Courts were unwilling to convict people
  • Imprisonment costed a lot
  • Transportation was seen as the middle 'Punishment between the extremes of execution and the…