What would post-colonial and multi-ethnic histories and societies look like if they were written from the perspective of the descendants of non-European convict transportees? This question is the starting point for this new project, funded by the Leverhulme Trust. It focuses on six case studies in the former empires of Britain and France. For Britain, these are: (1) New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land (now, Australia), (2) Andaman Islands (India), and (3) Penang (Malaysia). For France: (4) French Guiana, (5) New Caledonia, and (6) Réunion Island (now French overseas territories). Managed by state legal systems, convicts are arguably the best documented migrants in world history, but in contrast to enslaved Africans and indentured Asian workers their inheritances and legacies remain opaque. And yet, all led to cosmopolitan and hybrid outcomes, so why is this so? In the past, there was a stigma attached to convict heritage, but changing social attitudes means that this is no longer the case. However, the multi-cultural punitive origins of many contemporary societies are currently unknown. This includes in former colonies which received non-European convicts.
The Asian, African, Indigenous, and Creole convicts included in this study were mainly transported for criminal offences (e.g., theft and murder), but a few were convicted following anti-imperial agitation or rebellion. The large majority were men (for our case studies, between 83 and 100 per cent), and they were of various ethnicities, cultures, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Because many settled in their punitive destinations after release, marrying and forging new lives for themselves, there are rich possibilities for studying the outcomes of their migration. These include issues such as the integration of diverse groups, and contributions to culture, society, and economy,.
The overall aim of the project is to find out what happened to the descendants of ‘colonial’ convicts transported by the British and French empires. It has two main goals. First, it will explore cultural transfers and transformations within and across generations. This includes continuities and changes in norms and traditions relating to language, marriage and family formation, naming practices, religious worship, birth and death rites, and connections with place of origin and ancestors. Second, it will consider economic and social outcomes. This tracks the social background and ethnicity of a first convict ancestor, and their descendants, in order to see whether they (and/ or convict heritage) were factors in shaping later patterns of landholding, education, employment, welfare, and offending. Overall, we want to know whether intra-colonial penal transportation created distinct convict-descended diasporas, and if so how these have influenced modern societies.
We will blog about our work several times a year, through to the end of the project in 2025, and invite you to follow our research as as it progresses!
Clare Anderson and Lorraine Paterson