Emigrants in chains : a social history of forced emigration to the Americas of felons, destitute children, political and religious non-conformists, vagabonds, beggars and other undesirables, 1607-1776 /
The forced emigration of convicts, destitute persons and children, "undesirables", and non-conformists from England to the Americas.
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
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Baltimore, Md. :
Genealogical Pub. Co.,
[1992]
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Table of Contents:
- Ch. I. The Convicts and Their Background
- Poverty and crime encouraged by legislation
- The growth of villainy and criminal gangs
- Environmental and economic inducements to law-breaking
- Ch. II. The Prisons
- Contemporary descriptions of London and provincial prisons
- Punishments inflicted
- Exactions of prison keepers
- The power of money to relieve punishment
- Ch. III. The Dispensers of Justice
- The development of criminal justice systems
- The power of judges
- The prevalence of political corruption and venality
- Humanitarian reliefs
- Ch. IV. The State Monopoly Early Days
- State-administered schemes for transporting pardoned felons to the colonies
- The extension of such schemes to vagrant children, beggars, drunks and political and religious misfits
- Private enterprise and the practice of spiriting
- The American colonies begin to protest
- The collapse of the early system of transportation
- Ch. V. The Age of the Contractors
- New law on criminal transportation of 1718
- Appointment of contractors for the Transports
- Reactions of the colonies
- Free trade in convicts from 1772
- The official end of the trade and introduction of the Hulk Act in 1776
- Some dismal experiments after the Peace of 1783
- Ch. VI. Transportation as a Business
- The official contractors, their commercial and maritime affairs
- Difficulties at home, at sea and in the plantations
- Profits and losses
- A contractor's summary of his activities
- Ch. VII. The Scottish Experiment
- Widespread practice of kidnapping in the Scottish Highlands
- The complicity of civic authorities
- Exposure of the illicit trade in plantation servants
- Poverty the cause of a tidal wave of Scottish emigration
- Government alarm
- Ch. VIII. His Majesty's Seven-Year Passengers
- Conditions of shipboard life for transported felons
- Personal reminiscences
- Brutality of captains and crews
- Shipboard security measures
- Dangers to women at sea
- Ch. IX. The New Immigrants
- Accounts of living conditions for transported "Servants"
- The preparation and sale of human cargoes
- Escapes and punishments
- Monied exiles, impostors and cheats
- Ch. X. Some Thumbnail Sketches
- Biographies and autobiographies of transported felons
- Their experiences in the American colonies
- Their life and times in England
- Ch. XI. The Twilight Years
- Objections to the Hulk Act
- Frustrated attempts to revive the transportation trade
- American and British reflections on the effects of criminal transportation
- App. I. Pardons on Condition of Transportation
- App. II. Summary List of Principal Gaol Delivery and Assize Records
- App. III. An Act... for the More Effectual Transportation of Felons
- App. IV. Specimens of Legal Documents
- App. V. Convict Ships Contracted from London to the American Colonies 1716-1775
- App. VI. Convict Ships Contracted by Assize and Quarter Session Courts
- App. VII. Convicts Pardoned for Transportation 1660-1699 (graph)
- App. VIII. Convicts Pardoned for Transportation 1700-1775 (graph)
- App. IX. Benjamin Franklin on the Subject of Transportation.