Penal Transportation

The British were the only people to really embrace transportation because of the Irish. Its the only way to control them.

The British began transportation as a result of possibly two changes crime in Britain. Firstly increased urbanisation brought extra poverty and that led an increase in petty crimes such as stealing and forgery.

Secondly, perceptions to punishment had changed drastically. Public humiliation as a punishment was no longer seen as effective and thus incarceration was seen as the preferred method of keeping criminals out of society and as a way of deterring crime. As we know it wasn't that effect.

So, because of these two factors, gaols were overflowing with petty criminals and thus transportation was seen as a two fold solution. To firstly punish the criminals and to provide much needed labour in colonial endeavours. Australia was chosen after the loss of America because it was feared that the Dutch or the French could claim parts of the continent and the British were afraid of losing it.

The common misconception was that murderers and rapists were sent to Australia but this was rarely the case. Those men who committed these crimes were mostly execute by hanging in Britain and the majority sent to Australia were thieves and forgers.

>Why was transportation so prevalent?
Why not?

- Gets rid of criminals
- Costs less than keeping them locked up
- Provides you with cheap labor

Tbh I'd be all for it today. Shipping crooks to some inhospitable wasteland is a good way to make sure they won't be committing crimes inside of your country any more.

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>>2194137
>people actually spell "jail" as "gaol" in the real world
I thought this was a Bloodborne thing

>>2194179

Not everyone is American

>>2194030
>Why was there such a need for transportation?

See >>2194137 urbanisation and the problesm that come with large communities combined with economic problems leading to nasty crime rises.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Act for instance

>Why was there such a need for transportation?

It was cheaper and easier than building new prisions or initiating social reform

>The founding of colonies in Australia was a direct consequence of the American Revolution leading to Britian not being able to export it's criminals to some of it's other colonies.

It helped motivate it but it wasnt a direct consequence there were plenty of other much closer colonies they could have sent them in North America and Africa if it was only a problem of getting rid of prisoners.

>Is it slavery?
It was closer to indentured labour in the way that yes they lost their liberty and were forced to labour for no direct wages but it was for the term of their sentence (after which they would get free passage home or the option to stay and get to work for wages and later on a land grants and was not something that would pass to their children.

I think something else most people seem to forget is that there was a genuine desire by the UK government and its politicians to rehabilitate criminals through work and the opportunity to become landowners -something which would have been impossible for most of these people0.