But the Crown did read his report of discovery with interest. Eighteenth century England's economic, social, and political system was based on the belief that you and your progeny were defined by your class. The upper class of Royal Blood, the lower class of working people, and the criminal class. Environment or circumstance was not a contributor, and mobility all but impossible.
During this period of economic displacement (think Tale of Two Cities and Les Miserable) British society found themselves awash in petty crime by people needing to survive. The government's approach with these undesireables was to ship them off to their colonies, thereby hoping to clense themselves of the criminal class at home. Unfortunately, they just lost their American colonies and needed a new place to "offshore" these individuals. Captain Cook's discovery provided just the place at the far end of the world"
The first transport ship arrived in 1788 in Botany Bay, just south of Port Jackson. This proved unsuitable and the site was moved to the Rocks in Sydney Harbor, where we stayed with our view of the Opera House and Vivid.
Original Settlement of Sydney Harbor and the Rocks
The historic Rocks today with Nineteenth Century buildings.
In addition to offshoreing their undesirables, England also continued their tradition of imperialism by claiming discovered land for the Crown by colonizing it. After the initial "transport ships" arrived, other ships brought individuals taking advantage of free land to settle the country. Thus, in a decade there ended up four types of British occupants: the convict, the emancipated (those that served their time, but could not afford, or be allowed to return), the soldier, and the free settler. Of course this ignores the original occupant, the Aboriginal People, whose land was being taken and given away.
Most convicts were essentially indentured servants. They were leased to settlers to work farms, used by the soldier/politicicans to build roads - thus the pass over the Blue Mountains in the previous post, and to build civic buildings. The celebrated architect Francis Greenway of Sydney's historic buildings was a convict.
Original Convict Barracks by Francis Greenway
Their treatment reminded me of how the blacks were treated as slaves in America. Starved and beaten in ways we can't imagine. "12 Years a Slave" provides a visual when they strip the flesh off the young woman's back by whipping for no reason other than they are free to exercise their basest nature. Of course a difference is that the convict might eventually earn freedom, however remote, where the slave could never. Regardless, a horrid life.
In addition to Sydney harbor, over the next 60 years, convicts were sent to Van Dieman's land (now Tasmania), Brisbane, Perth and for the most notorious, Norfolk Island (about 1500 miles off the east coast). Transport ended in the 1840s after over 160,000 individuals were sent abroad. For years Australia and the decendents were ashamed of their convict past. However, recently they embrace it as part of their history.
Our trip to Ireland last year was an unintentional prelude to Australia. There are museums in Southern Ireland about the transport of so many to Australia because they stole bread for their starving family, or other petty crime, and it is reflected in their haunting meloncholy ballads. And their melodies continue today in Australian folk music.
For more information on the Convict History read "The Fatal Shore" by Robert Hughes.
Next Post: Sydney - Parting Thoughts
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