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N0KFQ > TODAY 26.01.15 17:47l 56 Lines 2433 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 45654_N0KFQ
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - Jan 26
Path: IZ3LSV<DB0ERF<OK0NAG<IK6ZDE<F1OYP<VK4TUB<N0KFQ
Sent: 150126/1446Z 45654@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQK1.4.62
Jan 26, 1788:
First Australian penal colony established
The first 736 convicts banished from England to Australia land in
Botany Bay. Over the next 60 years, approximately 50,000
criminals were transported from Great Britain to the "land down
under," in one of the strangest episodes in criminal-justice
history.
The accepted wisdom of the upper and ruling classes in 18th
century England was that criminals were inherently defective.
Thus, they could not be rehabilitated and simply required
separation from the genetically pure and law-abiding citizens.
Accordingly, lawbreakers had to be either killed or exiled, since
prisons were too expensive. With the American victory in the
Revolutionary War, transgressors could no longer be shipped off
across the Atlantic, and the English looked for a colony in the
other direction.
Captain Arthur Phillip, a tough but fair career naval officer,
was charged with setting up the first penal colony in Australia.
The convicts were chained beneath the deck during the entire
hellish six-month voyage. The first voyage claimed the lives of
nearly 10 percent of the prisoners, which remarkably proved to be
a rather good rate. On later trips, up to a third of the
unwilling passengers died on the way. These were not hardened
criminals by any measure; only a small minority were transported
for violent offenses. Among the first group was a 70-year-old
woman who had stolen cheese to eat.
Although not confined behind bars, most convicts in Australia had
an extremely tough life. The guards who volunteered for duty in
Australia seemed to be driven by exceptional sadism. Even small
violations of the rules could result in a punishment of 100
lashes by the cat o'nine tails. It was said that blood was
usually drawn after five lashes and convicts ended up walking
home in boots filled with their own blood--that is, if they were
able to walk at all.
Convicts who attempted to escape were sent to tiny Norfolk
Island, 600 miles east of Australia, where the conditions were
even more inhumane. The only hope of escape from the horror of
Norfolk Island was a "game" in which groups of three prisoners
drew straws. The short straw was killed as painlessly as possible
and a judge was then shipped in to put the other two on trial,
one playing the role of killer, the other as witness.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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