The small sandstone island of Cockatoo Island in Sydney Harbour is best known as a convict stockade which held the ‘worst’ of the convict system: former Norfolk Islanders and bushrangers are its most famous inhabitants. However, from the 1850s onwards Cockatoo Island acted primarily as a local prison for those Continue Reading
Genealogies of Enslavement and Convictism in the British Empire
In a former blog, I wrote about the enslaved girl Constance Couronne, who in 1834 with her cousin Elizabeth Verloppe was transported from the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius to the penal colony of New South Wales. The two children had been convicted of attempting to poison their mistress. Constance lived Continue Reading
Histories and legacies of intra-colonial transportation: an introduction
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 Continue Reading