Necessary servitude: contrasting experiences of convicts in Virginia 1615-1775 and Australia 1800-1840

© 2014 Dr. Jennie JeppesenThere is a fascination in Australia with our convict history. From the pride in convict ancestors, to keeping Port Arthur and Hyde Park Barracks alive as tourist locations, Australians acknowledge and revel in their convict past. Historians have examined Australian convict histories from many angles, including gender, work, and punishment. What is missing however, is a comparison to the earlier Transportation of convicts to North America. Although convicts arrived in America for 161 years between 1615 and 1776, this forced migration remains largely understudied and has not been compared to convict experiences in Australia. This thesis makes some of those comparisons, enhances existing studies, and enriches both national historiographies and the imperial convict narrative. It examines the private control of convicts in Virginia, and the public control in Australia, to demonstrate the importance of type of control on convict lives. Studying a form of unfree labour that was present in both colonies highlights the ways in which government control instead of private control changed the uses of unfree labour and outcomes for the labourer. This places American convicts within the larger narrative of convict experiences and illuminates their often forgotten place in history. I argue, both American and Australian historians have felt that the private (merchant) or public (government) foundations of each system was known and not needing further exploration. While the public nature of the convict trade to Australia and the private nature of the trade to the American colonies are known to researchers in their own countries, the contrast has not been examined comparatively. Nor has it been used as a starting to point to argue that the public or private nature was a factor in the economic, legal, and familial development of each system and that it directly affected the lives and experiences of the convicts themselves. This thesis examines the labour assignment methods of convicts, laws that surrounded them, the coercive or incentive motivator used to drive them to work, marriage, illegitimacy, their status as chattel/non-chattel, and finally examines the lack of outcries about convict in America. Each of these themes was impacted by the private/public shift in control