Convict Heritage

[Tamrin]

One often hears dispersions cast on Australia's convict heritage. Where they come from Americans this is especially ironic,* as New South Wales was only established as a penal colony after the US War of Independence, following which Britain was no longer able to transport its convicts there.

People were destitute and dying in the wake of the industrial revolution, potato famines and the closure of common lands. Given the brutal, class-laden, Dickensian nature of British Society at the time, survival for some entailed criminality. As Anatole France wrote: "The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread."

The increase in convicts sentenced to transportation was to secure Britain's foothold in New South Wales (many skilled artisans were required for the new colony) more than arising from any increased criminality. Today people proudly proclaim convict ancestry. However, as in America, an overwhelming portion of our heritage derives from those who arrived with the gold rushes, whaling and in subsequent migrations.

* Of greater relevance might be a comparison of current crime figures and prison populations.

[maximus]

At any rate, we both kicked the British out of our respective countries.

[Tamrin]

The history of those the British judged to be ne’er-do-wells (disproportionately Irish men and women) and who were forcibly transported to the Americas, is clouded by racial sensitivities and misrepresentations. The British exiles were typically sold and assigned as “indentured servants” to colonial citizens.

On the one hand, racists have described these unpaid servants as “slaves”, seeking to equate them with African slaves. In effect, they argue that the history of slavery in the Americas was not exclusively African. Even if true, logically this would be a red herring, as the heritage of African-Americans remains radically different to that of Irish-Americans. On the other hand, those seeking to counter this misrepresentation, tend to err by understating the suffering of these unpaid servants.

One point of difference in the post transportation era was that the charge that a person held a white slave came to be seen as highly offensive, with the only defence being that the slave had some Black ancestry.* Thus, the distinction between Black slaves and White “servants” grew, with the consequence that the humanity of Africans was increasingly denied by their “Christian” masters, while the Irish-American heritage became mired in denials.

The Australian experience, casts light on this phenomenon. Following the American War of Independence, thousands of convicts (again disproportionately Irish men and women), who would previously have been transported to the USA, languished in gaols and prison hulks. Upon transportation to Australia, these convicts were typically assigned as indentured servants (that being a euphemism, as being unpaid, they were not “servants” in the usual sense of the word). Our history shows that after disembarking, the experiences of those transported were diverse. The treatment of many was brutal in the extreme. While transportation continued, the lives of these convicts were held to be cheap.

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*John Bailey, The Lost German Slave Girl, 2002, passim.

[Tamrin]

IRISH: THE FORGOTTEN WHITE SLAVES

Excerpt:

Many people today will avoid calling the Irish slaves what they truly were: Slaves. They’ll come up with terms like “Indentured Servants” to describe what occurred to the Irish. However, in most cases from the 17th and 18th centuries, Irish slaves were nothing more than human cattle.

As an example, the African slave trade was just beginning during this same period. It is well recorded that African slaves, not tainted with the stain of the hated Catholic theology and more expensive to purchase, were often treated far better than their Irish counterparts.

African slaves were very expensive during the late 1600s (£50 Sterling). Irish slaves came cheap (no more than £5 Sterling). If a planter whipped, branded or beat an Irish slave to death, it was never a crime. A death was a monetary setback, but far cheaper than killing a more expensive African.

The English masters quickly began breeding the Irish women for both their own personal pleasure and for greater profit. Children of slaves were themselves slaves, which increased the size of the master’s free workforce.

Even if an Irish woman somehow obtained her freedom, her kids would remain slaves of her master. Thus, Irish mothers, even with this new found emancipation, would seldom abandon their children and would remain in servitude.

In time, the English thought of a better way to use these women to increase their market share: The settlers began to breed Irish women and girls (many as young as 12) with African men to produce slaves with a distinct complexion. These new “mulatto” slaves brought a higher price than Irish livestock and, likewise, enabled the settlers to save money rather than purchase new African slaves.

This practice of interbreeding Irish females with African men went on for several decades and was so widespread that, in 1681, legislation was passed “forbidding the practice of mating Irish slave women to African slave men for the purpose of producing slaves for sale.” In short, it was stopped only because it interfered with the profits of a large slave transport company.

[Tamrin]

Transportation Act 1717

[Excerpt] The Transportation Act 1717 was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain that established a regulated, bonded system to transport criminals to colonies in North America for indentured service, as a punishment for those convicted or attained in Great Britain, excluding Scotland. The act, (4 Geo. 1 c. 11) is long titled An Act for the further preventing Robbery, Burglary, and other Felonies, and for the more effectual Transportation of Felons, and unlawful Exporters of Wool; and for declaring the Law upon some Points relating to Pirates. The act established a seven-year transportation sentence as a punishment for people convicted of lesser felonies (those under the benefit of clergy), and a fourteen-year sentence for more serious crimes, in lieu of capital punishment. Completion of the sentence had the effect of a pardon; the punishment for returning before completion was death. An estimated 50,000 convicts (women, men and children) were transported to the British American colonies.