The Bloody Code – continued... By the 1700s you could expect a death sentence or transportation for all of the crimes below such as begging (vagracy), witchcraft (first stated to be a capital crime in 1542) and poaching (hunting animals on someone elses land!). Execution alone was not enough as courts were refusing to use the punishment as it was considered too harsh for some of the crimes. So they needed something more and here is where transportation comes in...

When and why was transportation introduced? ACT OF PARLIAMENT in 1718 stated that Transportation should be more widely used. REFORM is a key word here. This reached a peak in the 1780s. The first convicts were landed in Australia in The Home Secretary William Pitt ensured that Settlements sprung up in Botany Bay, Norfolk Island and Port Jackson. Transportation was now used for a wide range of more minor offences like stealing shrouds from a grave or fish from a pond! 80% of convicts transported were firs time offenders. Or people involved in Social uprisings LIKE THE MERTHYR RISING. People of all ages were transported from ! One in six were women!

What was it like on the ships? Be under no illusion, this was no holiday boat to Australia! The trip over to Australia would have been horrific – cramped, unpleasant conditions. Men were chained up in steel cages for months on end with poor food. It took eight months to get to Australia and some died on the way!

Was it good or was it bad? Listen to the following sources and let me know whether you think transportation was good or bad. When the reached Australia the convicts would be assigned to a settler and they would work for them. Did this help them to reform at all? A letter from Henry Tingley to his Father in 1835: ‘We have as much to eat as we like, as some masters are a great deal better than others. All a man has got to mind is to keep a still tongue in his head, and do his Master’s duty, and then he is looked upon as if her were at home; but if he don’t, he may as well be hung at once, for they would take you to the magistrates court and you would get 100 lashes and then sent to Port Arthur to work in the irons for 3 years. I am doing a great deal better than ever I was at home, only for the wanting of you with me.’

From a Humanitarian Select Committee who discussed transportation in the House of Commons in 1837: ‘Most people are ignorant of the real amount of suffering inflicted upon a transported felon, and underrate the severity of the punishment Transportation...those convicts who write to their friends an account of their own fate are generally persons who have been fortunate in the lottery of punishment and describe their lot in flattering terms....Transportation actually embraces every degree of human suffering and torture.’

Good points Better than execution because: Hanging was too extreme – with judges and juries not using it as they thought it was too harsh. It was a better alternative to hanging as it gave criminals an opportunity to reform and yet still removed these ‘bad influences’ from society. It was cheaper!...It relieved the pressure on England’s prisons. Population increased at this time and before the age of prison building (1840s on) there was no room for the criminals. It was a good deterrent – people were scared of being sent to the ends of the earth with wild savages and alien lands. Some of them really reformed via work and new skills and this helped to develop the colonies of the British Empire.

Bad points Some families of those transported were left destitute (penniless) and had to be supported by local tax payers. Strong humanitarian arguments against transportation These were discussed in House of Commons throughout 1800s. They argued that this was a cruel, drawn out punishment (lots died on the boats over alone! Some argued it was not a good deterrent – People knew very little about the life led by convicts – some even thought it was better! The colonies were fed up of being used as a ‘dumping ground’ for criminals. By 1839 New South Wales Government refused to accept anymore. By 1867 Transportation was stopped.