Wednesday, February 4, 2009 Note: This post is part of a series on Convict Transportation to the American colonies. Once the convict merchant was ready to make the trip to America, the convicts were released from prison and loaded onto the ship, along with dry goods and perhaps a few indentured servants. Convict voyages were generally timed to leave [...]
Thursday, January 22, 2009 Note: This post is part of a series on Convict Transportation to the American colonies. Convict transportation was conceived as a relatively easy means of emptying British prisons and punishing repeat petty criminals without having to resort to a death sentence. Most convicted criminals facing potential execution were probably relieved to receive a reprieve from [...]
Thursday, January 15, 2009 Note: This post is part of a series on Convict Transportation to the American colonies. Convicted criminals who were tried at the Old Bailey in London and received a sentence of transportation began their journey to the American colonies in the notorious Newgate Prison. Like those sentenced to transportation at other prisons, they waited for [...]
Tuesday, October 28, 2008 Note: This post is part of a series on Convict Transportation to the American colonies. With the passage of the Transportation Act in 1718, Britain became the only European country after 1700 to transport convicts as part of a major governmental policy. The sentence of transportation was popular among judges and quickly became the preferred [...]
Note: This post is part of a series on Convict Transportation to the American colonies. As stories of crime and criminals captured the attention of the eighteenth-century reading public and English jails continued to fill beyond capacity, the need to find a new form of institutionalized punishment grew. Citing the fact that current punishments had [...]
Wednesday, October 8, 2008 Note: This post is part of a series on Convict Transportation to the American colonies. Before 1718, England’s criminal justice system provided only two sentencing options for criminals convicted of capital crimes: “Benefit of Clergy” for first-time offenders, which sent criminals back out on the streets after receiving some form of corporal punishment, or death. [...]
Note: This post is part of a series on Convict Transportation to the American colonies. Richard Wood On February 11, 1718, Richard Wood wandered the Newgate Market at 10 o’clock at night, carefully studying the people around him. The often crowded market was located between the notorious Newgate Prison and St. Paul’s Cathedral, and it [...]
Thursday, October 2, 2008 Note: This post is part of a series on Convict Transportation to the American colonies. Thief-Taker General Any discussion of the state of England’s criminal underworld in the early 18th century must include Jonathan Wild, the self-described “Thief-Taker General of Great Britain and Ireland.” Wild had his hand in almost every facet of England’s criminal [...]
Monday, September 29, 2008 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 [...]
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