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Monthly Archives: September 2008

The Need for a New Punishment: England’s Criminal Justice System

Note: This post is part of a series on Convict Transportation to the American colonies. Government officials became increasingly alarmed by the rise in crime in early eighteenth century England, but its criminal justice system was woefully inadequate in stopping crime and in handling the number of criminals passing through its system. Law Enforcement Even […]

The Need for a New Punishment: Crime in England

Note: This post is part of a series on Convict Transportation to the American colonies. Why did England decide to ship its convicted felons across the Atlantic to America? To answer this question, we need to look at the changes in crime and its occurrence in early eighteenth-century England. The Rise in Property Crime The […]

Convict Transportation to America: Introduction

Note: This post is part of a series on Convict Transportation to the American colonies. On a winter’s day in 1723, James Bell, a tailor of age 20 with a dark complexion, wandered the narrow London streets not far from where the notoriously rank Fleet Ditch emptied out into the River Thames. He paused in […]

About this Website

The history of crime in early America has received scant attention, especially when compared with the vast treatment of crime history that England has received for the same time period. Unfortunately, when the topic of crime in early America is raised, the discussion almost immediately turns to witchcraft trials or unusual punishments handed out to […]