Black Velvet Band  
Transportation of convicts to the colonies was viewed by the English Parliament as  
a form of the “King’s mercy,” in lieu of execution, and it was marketed as a way for  
the chosen convicted felons to rehabilitate and start a new life in the colonies. In  
1615, in the reign of James I, a committee of the council had the power to choose  
which prisoners deserved a pardon from death and those eligible for transportation.  
During the Commonwealth period, Oliver Cromwell, overcame any objection to  
subjugating Christians into slavery or selling them into foreign parts, especially with  
military and other prisoners deemed to be deplorable in civil society to include the  
clergy. In the 1600s until the American revolution of 1776 Britain sent many  
criminals to American destinations primarily in the West Indies and into some  
American colonies on the mainland.  
Transportation to the American  
colonies was frequently carried out at  
the expense of the convicts or by the  
shipowners. The Transportation Act of  
1717 allowed the courts to sentence  
convicts to seven years transportation,  
and it also promulgated the buying and  
selling of “slaves” to get a return for  
profit which meant there would be no  
return. The number of Irish and Scots  
convicts sent to America was not  
verified, but estimated to be anywhere  
from 50,000 to 120,000 men, women,  
… and children.  
Convicted Prisoners for transportation from  
Plymouth, 1792.  
The American Revolution brought a halt to transporting prisoners to America, and  
Britain’s prisons became overcrowded once again. Dilapidated ships moored in  
various ports were pressed into service as floating gaols, (aka “hulks”).  
Transportation of prisoners was then diverted to Cape Coast Castle (modern  
Ghana) and Goree (Senegal) in West Africa. The authorities also turned their  
attention to transporting prisoners to New South Wales (modern day Australia.)  
In 1787, the First Fleet, a group of  
convict ships departed England to  
establish the first colonial settlement in  
Australia, as a penal colony. The fleet  
arrived at Botany Bay, Sydney on 18  
January 1788, and then moved to  
Sydney Cove (modern day Circular  
Quay) to establish the first permanent  
European settlement in Australia.  
Convicts were forced to work in the  
Australian frontier, and there were  
violent breakouts between the  
Painting of dilapidated ships (“Hulks”) on the  
indigenous Australians and the  
River Thames in 1814.  
“colonists.”  

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