This is the first major study of the convict in the Atlantic world of the eighteenth century. It concentrates on the diverse characters of the transported men, women and children, and their fate in the colonies, exploring at the local level the contrasts in sentencing, shipping and settlement of convicts in America. The central myths about transportation prevalent in the eighteenth century, particularly that most felons returned, are examined in the context of the burgeoning print culture of criminal biographies and newspaper stories. In addition, the exchange of representations between the two sides of the Atlantic, and the changing American reaction to convicts, are placed within the growing transatlantic debate on transportation before the American Revolution. Above all, the realities of escape, of convicts running away and returning to England, are subject to systematic investigation for the first time.

Autorentext

GWENDA MORGAN is Reader in American History and American Studies at the University of Sunderland. She has published a number of articles and essays on law and society in early America, penal reform in the young republic, as well as a monograph on Richmond County, Virginia. PETER RUSHTON is Reader in Historical Sociology at the University of Sunderland. He has published widely on aspects of the personal and social relations of early modern England, as revealed in legal and administrative records of north-east English countries. He has written on witchcraft, problems of marriage and family life, the poor law and the care of the mentally disabled. More recently Gwenda Morgan and Peter Rushton have worked on a number of joint projects in the area of crime and punishment in the eighteenth century. The have published Rogues, thieves and the rule of law: the problem of law enforcement in north-east England, 1718-1800 (UCL Press, 1998)

Zusammenfassung
The transportation of English convicts to the American colonies in the eighteenth century was a judicial, cultural and social phenomenon. This study examines the way that thousands of convicts were sent from the regions when circuit judges and county authorities adopted the penalty after 1718. As transportation became more common, so did the necessity of organizing regular shipments to America. Every region developed a transatlantic traffic in convicts, thus creating a criminal Atlantic alongside that of slaves and servants. The print culture of the eighteenth century, particularly the exchange of news stories about crime, produced a common knowledge of convicts on both sides of the Atlantic. As some convicts escaped from the colonies and returned, so the myths and narratives of the failure of transportation grew. At the end of the colonial period, Americans railed against the British, their criminals, and the criminal behaviour of their politicians, while the British showed their contempt for the American 'race of convicts'.

Inhalt

Introduction - - the Formation of the Criminal Atlantic Pedlars in the Outports: Transportation, the Locality and the Atlantic Cities, Regions and their Criminals Gangs, Gentlemen and Gypsies: Narratives of Transportation Flight, Escape and Return Panics and Recriminations: Convergence and Divergence and the Criminal Atlantic Conclusion