Transportation punishment, also known as exile or banishment, refers to the act of forcing an individual to leave a particular geographic area or region. This type of punishment has been used throughout history as a way to deal with criminals, political dissidents, and other individuals considered undesirable by the ruling authorities.
One of the earliest examples of transportation punishment can be found in ancient Rome, where individuals convicted of certain crimes were forced to leave the city and relocate to an island or colony. This punishment was seen as an alternative to execution or imprisonment, as it allowed the offender to start a new life and potentially reform their ways.
In modern times, transportation punishment is less common, but it is still used in certain circumstances. For example, some countries have laws that allow for the deportation of non-citizens who have committed crimes. In these cases, the individual is forcibly removed from the country and returned to their home nation.
There are a number of arguments for and against the use of transportation punishment. On the one hand, proponents of this punishment argue that it serves as an effective deterrent for crime, as individuals are less likely to engage in illegal activity if they know they could be exiled as a result. Additionally, transportation punishment can also be seen as a more humane alternative to imprisonment, as it allows the offender to start over in a new location rather than being locked up in a cell.
However, there are also several criticisms of transportation punishment. One concern is that it can be used as a tool of oppression by governments or other authorities to silence dissent or punish individuals for political reasons. There is also the issue of reintegration, as individuals who are exiled may struggle to adjust to life in a new location and may face challenges finding work or building a new support system.
In conclusion, transportation punishment has been used throughout history as a way to deal with criminals and other undesirable individuals. While it may serve as an effective deterrent for crime and can be seen as a more humane alternative to imprisonment, it also carries the risk of being used as a tool of oppression and can create challenges for those who are exiled in terms of reintegration into a new community.
transportation
They were able to follow who was being tried in English courts and for what crimes. Get Help With Your Essay If you need assistance with writing your essay, our professional essay writing service is here to help! From the seventeenth to twentieth centuries, approximately 380,000 transportation convicts journeyed to and around locations across the British Empire. Though they never reached the numerical peaks of European transportations, Asian convict flows show a similar pattern with regard to the rises and falls in annual numbers. As a conditional pardon with a remission component built in, tickets-of-leave were extended to permit further reductions and the availability for speedier conclusion if the holder performed special works in the interests of the colony, such as the capture of an outlaw. The youngest criminal was a 9-year-old boy who had stolen some clothes and a pistol. Transportation benefitted England and that was sufficient for the practice to continue.
This method was used for criminals, debtors, military prisoners, and political prisoners. New British prisons, patterned after American penitentiaries, made the costly transportation of convicts halfway around the world less attractive to the government. They obtained a contract from the sheriffs, and after the voyage to the colonies they sold the convicts as The penal system was also influenced by economics: the profits obtained from convicts' labour boosted the economy of the colonies and, consequently, of England. This included the authority to establish courts, proclaim martial law, and award grants of land in the new colony. After 1718 and the Transportation Act of that year, sending criminals from England to America became more formalized and the numbers of transports increased greatly. Women tended to commit less serious crimes and were accorded greater leniency at trial and sentencing than men. N45 Mfiche 54797 Transportation and Penal Servitude.
England And Penal Transportation To America History Essay
Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History. Retrieved 8 September 2017. The tribe also promised to build the victim a new house and pay his medical bills. London; Washington: Leicester University Press 1997. Juries would often not convict people and judges would find excuses not to hang people. Previously, Bianca also worked with various state and local corrections agencies, including New York City, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts.
Where did transportation as punishment originated?
Due to the distance and opportunities, most former convicts stayed in their new homes, not being able to afford to return to Britain. Why transport a convict to the other side of the world when they could be imprisoned at home and rehabilitated? The Virginia Gazette reported on the trials at the Old Bailey for its readers who would soon be host to felons from London and district, and the Maryland Gazette kept its readers apprised of events in Bristol and the West Counties from whence came the majority of their transported felons. There were sharp peaks in metropolitan and Irish convict flows, including in the years immediately after the occupation of Australia, and during the period when convicts were first sent to VDL and WA. From simple essay plans, through to full dissertations, you can guarantee we have a service perfectly matched to your needs. Australia was then chosen as the main settlement because it at that time had recently been discovered 1770 so it would be deserted and available for labour. By 1866 there were over 40,000 such tokens in circulation in the Islands. The nouveau riche especially feared property crimes and perhaps for good reason.
In the majority of transportation cases, the offender was convicted of petty theft or larceny. They pointed out that this was a violent crime, which caused serious injury to the victim, and they argued that the perpetrators deserved punishment, not special treatment. Evidence shows that new shops and warehouses in the cities were an unavoidable temptation for the many displaced rural labourers who had come to the cities looking in vain for work. Gold mining in Queensland 1869, Wikimedia Commons From the free settlers' point of view, transportation became a major issue. The first Act dealing with transportation was that passed in 1597 39 Elizabeth, cap. Reports of the careers of transported criminals moved back and forth across the Atlantic. The criminals would learn skills from the forced work that would benefit their future as a person.
Articles with the Crossref icon will open in a new tab. Gang of convicts in Sydney 1830, Wikimedia Commons Who was transported to Australia? If successful, the experiment would empty the hulks along the Thames, solve the riddle of what to do with criminals, and even deter people from committing crimes. Not only was it hard to prevent immigrants from deserting their work, he stated, but convicts were more accustomed to working in gangs, and their labour was far more skilled. Presumably these men were also physically healthy and employable in the colonies. There had been other sharp rises during the Poligar wars 1799—1801 , second Anglo-Maratha war 1803—5 , Anglo-Sikh wars 1845—6, 1848—9 , and Santal rebellion 1855. Before the end of that summer of 1617, Christopher Potley, Roger Powell, Sapcott Molineux, Thomas Middleton, Thomas Chrouchley and George Harrison followed John Browne into the custody of Sir Thomas Smith to be transported beyond the seas.
Full article: Transnational Histories of Penal Transportation: Punishment, Labour and Governance in the British Imperial World, 1788
The overwhelming majority were male comprising over eighty percent of the totals for the period. For those not so well behaved, the punishment was ruthless and harsh. Although merciful in comparison to certain execution, it must be remembered that the punishment was still harsh, with many of the condemned prisoners dying of illness on the harsh voyage. There are indications that a substantial number of transports from England were Irish immigrants who had crossed to England to either look for work or evade Irish authorities. Conversely, a vibrant group of colonies was established and thereby created permanent economic and geopolitical advantages for England into the twentieth century.
In Burma, for instance, administrators preferred convicts as an apparently cheaper and more efficient, and certainly a more flexible and controllable, alternative to local or seasonal migrant labour. I seek to compare some of the features of European and Asian convict flows as a means of exploring the penal and colonising intentions of transportation across contexts, appreciating its role as a form of colonial governmentality, and understanding convict work. N6 F67 1996 Forster, Colin. All commentators are agreed that the Australian penal colonists were overwhelmingly comprised of the very poor urban lower classes from the British Isles. Library has an incomplete collection. In response, Parliament passed the Transportation Act of 1718 to create a more systematic way to export convicts.
London: His Majesty's Stationery Office. Reprint microfiche, 19th Century Legal Treatises: Woodbridge, Ct. There are further connections to be made between enslavement and convictism in EIC Asia. Asian transportations peaked much later than European ones, in 1859, after which their annual number remained higher than during the first half of the nineteenth century, even in the years immediately preceding the end of transportation in 1939 Meantime, the Indian penal settlement in Mauritius presents an interesting case of the combination of factors that produced convict flows. Quantifying convict flows and mapping convict destinations across the Empire including British India provides important insights into the trans-imperial use of transported labour, its role as a tool of managing political contingency, and its intersections with other labour flows.
The American colonies were closed to convicts following the declaration of Independence in 1776, and for a short time transportation continued to the forts and trading posts of West Africa, which received in total about one thousand convicts. The numbers increased from about one hundred per year by 1720 to nine hundred per year by 1775. Rule, superintendent of convicts Bencoolen, to Edward Presgrave, officiating secretary to government Bengal, 7 January 1825. The Convict Ship and England's Exiles. These hulks usually consisted of old prison or navy ships moored on the Thames and were just as cramped and uncomfortable as the prison ships themselves. Statistics showing the numbers of offenders and criminal convictions for which a sentence of transportation was handed down are difficult to compile.
