Describe The Life Of The Convicts

It was a struggle for the settlers to survive in the first years of the British colony in Australia. They had come from a developed country with buildings, roads, shops and hospitals and arrived in a country that was entirely unfamiliar to them. Not only did they have to contend with strange plants and animals but the soil was also very poor and the climate much warmer and drier. The early settlers were also wary of the Indigenous peoples. The colony almost failed in the early years, as the harvests failed, but gradually the colony began to expand.

Convicts

The life of a convict was very harsh. Many of the convicts sent to New South Wales were serving a 7 or 14 year sentence for crimes such as robbery. They were forced to work 10 hours each day, from sunrise to sunset. They were sometimes tied in chains and were fed meagre rations. As punishment they were flogged, and perhaps confined to dark cells. Some convicts worked for the governor, while others worked for freed convicts and free settlers. The male convicts built roads, bridges, buildings, and cultivated crops while the female convicts often wove wool or washed laundry. Refer Image 1 …show more content…
Sometimes they were granted pardons if they were well behaved. These convicts became known as emancipists. Most ex-convicts and emancipists were allowed to go home, but had to pay their own fare. If they stayed in Australia they were often given grants of land in the hope that they would grow their own food and stop relying on the government. Many emancipists provided a valuable contribution to the growth and expansion of the colony in New South