question regarding convicts on the first fleet???

Question

At school i'm doing a project on the first fleet. The convicts who were sent on the ships and then farmed the land at the other end, would they have already served their time in jail and then come to Australia or would they just have certain restrcitions in australia until their sentence was up?

Please give me your source.

Answer 1

The were sentenced and punished to stay in Australia anywhere from 7 years to life in some cases. In other cases though they had their freedom after the time they served they did not have the money to return or they found a better life in Australia.

Answer 2

The convicts performed hard labour upon arriving in Australia - if you go to The Rocks, Parramatta etc you will see roads, houses, bridges etc that the convicts built. They were in no way whatsoever given "certain resrictions", they were severely restricted - they were prisoners, and trested accordingly in a brutal fashion. Life was hard for the convicts, many died from lack of sustenance, the working conditions etc and they were the ones that made the hard trip over from the UK.
After the convicts had served their sentence they were mostly given land and then became free settlers. These emancipated convicts were then free to clear the land and use it to their liking. This helped build this great country that we live in today because Gov Phillip knew that Australia, as a colony, would not be able to survive with free settlers only. If free settlers were the only to clear and farm the land and convicts returned to England, the colony would have failed due to lack of population, manpower etc.

Answer 3

Most convicts on the first fleet were sentence to the term of their natural life so they were never to return to mother England.There was a large number of men compared to women and the community descended into anarchy so the commander sent back to England urgently for a ship load of fit young women convicts who were shipped out to form a settlement the boat was called the floating brothel

Answer 4

The convicts who were included in the First Fleet (789 of them) came from British prison hulks, basically floating prisons. Therefore we can safely assume that they had already, in virtually all cases served some of their sentences.

The question arises then, whether these felons had been sentenced to 'transportation' originally (and were being held on the hulks while waiting for a destination to become available) or whether they had simply been sentenced to terms of imprisonment. I'm inclined to suspect the latter. In that case I'm wondering if they had to have their sentences 'amended' to include transportation, or whether New South Wales was simply considered gazetted as a 'prison', and their transfer became an administrative rather than a legal matter - virtually an inter-prison transfer.

Once in Australia their 'fate' depended upon the character of the crime they'd been sentenced for. The bulk were 'assigned' to work for free settlers or on public works. The use of leg irons and chains was not unusual. Some with 'skills' in agriculture or drawing (forgers were particularly useful) might be assigned to relatively comfortable jobs, others who were unskilled might find themselves in chain gangs building roads.

After a period of probation (and good behavior) these convicts might be given a 'ticket-of-leave' which allowed them to seek employment on their own terms, to marry, or to bring their family out from Europe. They were restricted in their movements and had to report to the police at regular intervals. After serving half of their sentence (and having a 'clean' record) they might be pardoned, which removed all restrictions except the right to return to England. Those sentenced to 'life' never regained the right to return, other pardoned convicts would have to wait the full term of their original seven year sentence. Most in any case could not afford to return.

On the other hand, if the convict 'got into trouble' (and this might include not doing anything the settler (or soldier) they'd been indentured to required), they could receive severe punishments included unlimited flogging or transportation to Norfolk Island or Port Arthur - places so grim that convicts drew straws to kill each other, thereby both attaining 'release' from their torments (the 'murderer' being subsequently executed by the authorities).

Curiously it was only in the 1970's that having convicts in your ancestry (in Australia) became something of a matter of pride. Prior to that it was generally held to be a severe social stigma.

Answer 5

sorry to the poster called Molly BUT most convicts were not sentenced for the term of their natural lives... MOST seem to have been sentenced for the average of seven years ( and multiples of ) depending on their crimes...

some were given tickets of leave IF they showed that they could be more valuable as freemen to the growing colony and many AFTER their sentence was up stayed as freemen and helped make this nation ... many returned home.
The so-called worst of the worst were sentenced to the term of their natural life. There was also the death sentence for the REALLY REALLY bad ones....