Penal transportation
From Wikinfo
In law and in history, particularly with reference to the history of Australia, the word transportation can refer to deporting convicted criminals to a penal colony.
A sentence of transportation could apply for "life" or for a specific period of time. The penal system expected convicts to work, either in institutions or sub-contracted to individual entrepreneurs in penal servitude.
A "transport" who had served part of his "time" might gain a ticket of leave permitting some prescribed freedoms. But exile remained an important component of the punishment. At one time, returning from transportation was a hanging offence.
Transportation punished both major and petty crimes in Britain from the 17th century until well into the 19th century. The British colonies in North America received transported British criminals in the 17th and 18th centuries, the biggest penal colony being Georgia which was opened in 1732. However, after the United States Declaration of Independence in 1788, the British standard destination of penal transportation became Australia.
See also Deportation
References
- Adapted from the Wikipedia article, "Penal_transportation" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penal_transportation, used under the GNU Free Documentation License
