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Abstract
One of the bloodiest periods for public execution in New South Wales occurred under Governors Darling and Bourke from 1826 to 1836, with 363 executions taking place — almost all of whom were white men. This article examines how this striking tally can be understood in terms of the close relationship between the power exercised by the executive government to order executions, ostensibly to demonstrate its social authority, and public support for the sustained level of executions based upon fears about the level of male violence in the frontier colonial society. Evidence of this relationship is found not only in explicit reports and commentaries contained in the colonial newspapers, but also in the different attitudes apparent in relation to the execution of women and Aboriginal men at the time, and through the emergence of greater civility in public discourse towards the end of the period. This article was awarded the 2007 Max Kelly Medal by the History Council of NSW.
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Tim Castle
Tim Castle is a Sydney barrister who completed a BA (Hons) and was awarded a University Medal at the University of New England in 2007 for his thesis on capital punishment and mercy in colonial New South Wales. He was awarded the 2007 Max Kelly Medal by the History Council of NSW for this essay, based on that thesis. Other publications include ‘Constructing Death: Newspaper reports of executions in colonial New South Wales, 1826–1837 (Journal of Australian Colonial History 9: 2007) and a casebook co-edited with Professor Bruce Kercher, Dowling’s Select Cases, 1828 to 1844 (2005).
