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The Puritans: Convicts in Australia

The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th-17th centuries who wanted to purify the Church of England from Catholic practices. Dissatisfied with the reforms, some Puritans and Separatists migrated to Plymouth, Massachusetts aboard the Mayflower in 1620. They established the Plymouth colony, which grew from less than 100 to over 3,000 people within 70 years.

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82 views2 pages

The Puritans: Convicts in Australia

The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th-17th centuries who wanted to purify the Church of England from Catholic practices. Dissatisfied with the reforms, some Puritans and Separatists migrated to Plymouth, Massachusetts aboard the Mayflower in 1620. They established the Plymouth colony, which grew from less than 100 to over 3,000 people within 70 years.

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Ana Žic
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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The Puritans

The Puritans were English Protestants in 16th and 17th century who wanted to
break away from the Church of England because they wanted to purify the
Church from its Catholic practises. At the time the Church of England was
reformed, but a lot of people thought their belief wasn`t pure enough, so they
wanted a change.

At the time there were two types of people who wanted something else in their
religion. First group is the Puritans who just wanted a change in which the
Church is pure. Second group is the Separatits who wanted to completely
seperate from their belief.

Both of the groups moved to Plymouth in New England in the North America.
The Puritans haven`t had the same rights as normal citizens so they decided to
move. On September 6th in 1620 a ship called the Mayflower left Plymouth,
England with 102 passengers and 26 crew members. On the ship were 51 men,
21 boys, 20 women and 10 girls. The Pilgrims were originally headed for the
Hudson River but they were blown off their course by the frequent storms.
Finally 66 days later, they sailed in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. They spent the
first winter onboard the ship while they built their homes in Plymouth Harbor.
Only 53 passengers and half the crew survived that first winter. When the
weather improved they established Plymouth.

On April 5th, 1621, Mayflower sailed back to England. The colony grew from
less then 100 to over 3,000 people in 70 years.

Convicts in Australia

Life in Britain was very hard. As new machines were


invented, people were no longer needed to do farming
jobs so they moved to the cities. The cities became
overcrowded. Many people didnt have a job and
were very poor. People stole things to survive. Minor
crimes such as stealing items worth more than 1
shilling (about a days wages for a working person), cutting down a tree in an orchard or stealing livestock were
punishable by transportation. The prisons quickly became full and prisoners were kept in old, rotting prison ships
called hulks. These ships were usually an old naval or merchant ship that could not go to sea anymore but could
still float safely in the harbour.

Conditions in these floating gaols were terrible. The hulks were over-crowded and cramped, often there wasnt
even room to stand up! A hulk could be up to 65 metres long. This is the same size as 6 buses placed end to end.
On board each hulk there could be up to 300 convicts. There were many diseases on board and convicts died.
Between 1776 and 1795 nearly 2000 out of almost 6000 convicts held on hulks, died. The majority died from
diseases such as typhoid and cholera. The convicts were not fed very well. The people in charge wanted to keep
costs low. The daily diet was often made up of ox-cheek, either boiled or made into soup, pease (peas), bread or
biscuits. The biscuits were often mouldy. Tobacco could be supplied as part of their ration as a reward for a job
well done or for good behaviour.

Convicts got up at sunrise and worked hard for up to 10 hours a day. All convicts were sentenced to hard labour
as part of their punishment and could be forced to work at just about any manual task such as timber cutting,
brick making or stone cutting.

On 18 August 1786 the decision was made to send a colonisation party of convicts, military, and civilian
personnel to Botany Bay under the command of Admiral Arthur Phillip who was to be the Governor of the new
colony. There were 775 convicts on board six transport ships. They were accompanied by officials, members of
the crew, marines, the families thereof and their own children who together totaled 645. In all, eleven ships were
sent in what became known as the First Fleet. Other than the convict transports, there were two naval escorts and
three storeships. The fleet assembled in Portsmouth and set sail on 13 May 1787.

The fleet arrived at Botany Bay on 20 January 1788. It soon became clear that it would not be suitable for the
establishment of a colony due to "the openness of this bay, and the dampness of the soil, by which the people
would probably be rendered unhealthy" and Philip decided to examine Port Jackson, a bay mentioned by Captain
Cook, about three leagues to the north. On 22 January a small expedition led by Phillips sailed to Port Jackson,
arriving in the early afternoon. There they established the first permanent European colony on the Australian
continent, New South Wales, on 26 January. The area has since developed into the city of Sydney. This date is
still celebrated as Australia Day.

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