*Convicts

Convicts in Australia

Key points > 
 * Convicts arrived in Australia in 1788, on the First Fleet.
 * Many convicts were sentenced to deportation for minor crimes as life became very tough in Great Britain.
 * Convicts formed a large percentage of the Australian population for the first few decades of settlement.
 * Governor Lachlan Macquarie encouraged reformed convicts to participate in society.
 * Many of Australia's early public works were completed by convict labour. 

Convicts
The life of a convict was very harsh. Many of the convicts sent to New South Wales were serving a 7 or 14 year sentence for crimes such as robbery. They were forced to work 10 hours each day, from sunrise to sunset. They were sometimes tied in chains and were fed meagre rations. As punishment they were flogged, and perhaps confined to dark cells. Some convicts worked for the governor, while others worked for freed convicts and free settlers. The male convicts built roads, bridges, buildings, and cultivated crops while the female convicts often wove wool or washed laundry.//Refer Image 1// > Convicts gained their freedom after they had completed their sentence. Sometimes they were granted pardons if they were well behaved. These convicts became known as emancipists. Most ex-convicts and emancipists were allowed to go home, but had to pay their own fare. If they stayed in Australia they were often given grants of land in the hope that they would grow their own food and stop relying on the government. Many emancipists provided a valuable contribution to the growth and expansion of the colony in New South Wales. > When Captain Arthur Phillip and the First Fleet arrived at Port Jackson in 1788, 751 convicts and their children disembarked, along with 252 marines and their families.

They made the eight month voyage from England, where the industrial revolution, overcrowding and unemployment had made life for the ordinary person very difficult and lead to poverty and increased crime rates. People could be deported for crimes such as vagrancy (being homeless and unemployed) or robbery of goods less than a shilling (about $50 today), while stealing goods worth more than a shilling meant death by hanging.

Between 1788 and 1868, 165 000 convicts were transported to Australia and formed the majority of the population for the first few decades of this penal colony. Under Governor Phillip, convicts were put to work according to their skills, building bridges, roads, hospitals and courthouses. The first female convicts arrived in Van Dieman's Land in 1803. Governor Lachlan Macquarie was the first Governor of New South Wales (1810-1821) to envisage the country as more than a penal colony, and encouraged reformed convicts to take up roles of responsibility within the community. Good behaviour meant many convicts were granted a Ticket of Leave before their full sentence was served.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #555555; font-family: arial,helvetica,clean,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">Convict life

 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #993a15; font-family: arial,helvetica,clean,sans-serif; font-size: inherit; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">Life on a convict ship
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #993a15; font-family: arial,helvetica,clean,sans-serif; font-size: inherit; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">Transportation
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #993a15; font-family: arial,helvetica,clean,sans-serif; font-size: inherit; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">First fleet rations
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #993a15; font-family: arial,helvetica,clean,sans-serif; font-size: inherit; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">A day in the life of a convict
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #993a15; font-family: arial,helvetica,clean,sans-serif; font-size: inherit; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">Convict life in NSW
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #993a15; font-family: arial,helvetica,clean,sans-serif; font-size: inherit; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">Cascades female factory
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #993a15; font-family: arial,helvetica,clean,sans-serif; font-size: inherit; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">Parramatta female factory
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #993a15; font-family: arial,helvetica,clean,sans-serif; font-size: inherit; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">Images of convict life
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #993a15; font-family: arial,helvetica,clean,sans-serif; font-size: inherit; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">Convict women in Port Jackson

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #555555; font-family: arial,helvetica,clean,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">Finding freedom

 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #993a15; font-family: arial,helvetica,clean,sans-serif; font-size: inherit; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">Tickets of leave
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #993a15; font-family: arial,helvetica,clean,sans-serif; font-size: inherit; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">Pardon and punishment
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #993a15; font-family: arial,helvetica,clean,sans-serif; font-size: inherit; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">Tales of Escape
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #993a15; font-family: arial,helvetica,clean,sans-serif; font-size: inherit; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">On the run - daring convict escapes
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #993a15; font-family: arial,helvetica,clean,sans-serif; font-size: inherit; text-align: left;">Convict escapes - Freemantle Prison

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