Mortality under and after sentence of male convicts transported to Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania), 1840–1852

Abstract

This article reports on mortality in a cohort of 7084 English, Irish and Scottish-born convict men who were transported on 30 ships to Tasmania between 1840 and 1852. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first study of convict mortality that systematically traces the mortality of convicts after emancipation as well as under sentence. This pilot study investigates the relationship between pre-transportation characteristics, convict discipline, reactions to convict discipline, and mortality under and after sentence of the male convict population. The convict men were various in their origins but shared the experience of penal servitude under the gaze of a paper panopticon. Controlling for other factors, the authors find that the convicts were more likely to die under sentence if they were born in Scotland, London or an industrial-urban area; if they exhibited disturbed mental behaviour under sentence, such as tearing their clothes; or if they had more time in solitary confinement or more accumulated insults of their mind and body. For those who survived sentence, mortality was higher for those born in an industrial-urban area, those who had more alcohol-related offences under sentence, those with more time in solitary confinement under sentence, and those who were violent or threatened violence while under sentence.

Keywords::

• Van Diemen's Land
• Tasmania
• Australia
• convict history
• mortality
• nineteenth century

Acknowledgements

We thank Hamish Maxwell-Stewart and Deborah Oxley for the use of their transcribed convict data. We thank our volunteer researchers, who have spent many hours in painstaking research tracing the life courses of Tasmanian convicts. They are the checkers and researchers: Nola Beagley, Geoff Brown, Tricia Curry, Lance Dwyer, Alison Ellett, Jennifer Elliston, Leanne Goss, Dr Cheryl Griffin, Jan Kerr, Maureen Mann, Garry McLoughlin, David Noakes, Teddie Oates, Judith Price, Steve Rhodes, the late Dr Cecile Trioli, Colin Tuckerman and Jenny Wells; at the Female Convicts Research Centre: Colette McAlpine and Dr Trudy Mae Cowley; and the Ships Project researchers: Colleen Aralappu, Maureen Austin, Vivienne Cash, Dianne Cassidy, Glenda Cox, Kathy Dadswell, Margaret Dimech, Brian Dowse, Ros Escott, Barry Files, Peter Fitzpatrick, Dr Janet Gaff, Professor Nanette Gottlieb, Stuart Hamilton, Jane Harding, Robyn Harrison, Graeme Hickey, Margaret Inglis, Bronwyn King, Dr Jenny Kisler, Darryl Massie, Elizabeth Nelson, Margaret Nichols, Rosemary Noble, Keith Oliver, Maureen O'Toole, Margaret Parsons, Annette Sutton, Robert Tuppen, Rob Weldon, Lyn Wilkinson, Glad Wishart, Jacqueline Wisniowski and Judith Wood. We also thank Sandra Silcot, Claudine Chionh and Robin Petterd for IT systems construction and management, and the anonymous reviewers for their very constructive comments on earlier versions of the article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

Funding for this research was provided by the Australian Research Council.