Edit position

Last set 2 weeks, 2 days ago. Manual moves override automatic placement until the next shelfie/spine match.

Transported : in place of death : convicts in Australia

by Christopher Sweeney

An illustrated account of convict life that includes discussion of the prejudice and harsh treatment experienced by Aboriginal people.

Accession 9780333337516 ISBN 9780333337516 Publisher Macmillan

Book Images

Reference and live side by side Hover to see live images

Reference

Transported : in place of death : convicts in Australia spine

Transported : in place of death : convicts in Australia cover

Live

No live

CONNECTIONS

No connections

State

on_shelf: True
position_updated_at: 2026-05-05 17:11
orientation: vertical

Details

Physical

binding_type: Hard Back
dimensions: none captured
spine_text: Christopher Sweeney TRANSPORTED: IN PLACE OF DEATH M PEN VI

LOCATION HISTORY

B 4 Current vertical

2 months, 3 weeks ago

B 4 vertical

3 months, 1 week ago

B 4 vertical

4 months ago

B 4 vertical

5 months, 1 week ago

Book Location

Updated 2 weeks, 2 days ago

Book Images

Reference and live side by side Hover to see live images

Reference

Live

No live

Vernon snapshot

Frozen copy of Vernon's record from the last sync. Fields tagged → flow back into the Pulse record.

Never synced from Vernon

Identity

name→ title

Transported : in place of death : convicts in Australia

vernon_id

—

accession_no→ accession_number

—

vernon_slug

—

Drives Pulse state

curr_loc_status→ on_shelf

—

location_name

—

location_reason

—

isbn_issn→ isbn (when valid)

—

Descriptive

production_date

—

object_type

—

object_status

—

brief_description

—

Subjects & people

authors→ author (initial fill only)

—

tags→ tags

—

subject_people

—

subject_objects

—

Topics and Themes

1. **Convict Transportation & the Penal System**
Sweeney's book centres on the British practice of sentencing criminals to transportation to Australia rather than execution — "in place of death." This explores how transportation functioned as a formal legal alternative to capital punishment, the mechanics of sentencing, and the administration of colonial penal colonies.

The core tension is: how did a legal system reframe exile and forced labour as mercy, and what did that mean in practice for those transported?

Connect to books about: penal history, criminal justice reform, capital punishment, colonial law.

---

2. **British Colonialism & Empire-Building**
The mass transportation of convicts was inseparable from Britain's imperial project — Australia's early colonial settlements were built substantially on convict labour. The book sits at the intersection of punishment and empire, where the penal system and territorial expansion were mutually reinforcing.

Connect to books about: British Empire history, settler colonialism, colonial administration, imperial policy.

---

3. **Crime, Class & Social Inequality in 19th-Century Britain**
The convicts transported to Australia were overwhelmingly drawn from the poorest strata of British society — many sentenced for minor property crimes such as theft driven by poverty. Sweeney's book implicitly interrogates who the criminal justice system targeted and why.

Connect to books about: Victorian poverty, class struggle, social history of crime, the working poor in Britain.

---

4. **Punishment, Rehabilitation & Carceral Philosophy**
Transportation raises deep questions about what punishment is *for* — retribution, deterrence, rehabilitation, or removal. Sweeney's framing of transportation "in place of death" foregrounds these philosophical tensions within penal theory.

Connect to books about: prison reform, carceral theory, Foucauldian discipline and power, the history of incarceration.

---

5. **Forced Migration & the Convict Experience**
At its human core, the book deals with people torn from their homes and communities and shipped across the world under duress. The convict experience encompassed the perilous sea voyage, arrival in an alien land, labour under coercion, and attempts to build new lives.

Connect to books about: forced migration, diaspora, the immigrant experience, trauma and displacement.

---

6. **Identity, Shame & Convict Heritage**
Transportation created a legacy of stigma that shaped Australian national identity for generations. Many Australians long avoided or denied convict ancestry; only recently has this heritage been reappraised and even embraced as foundational to the national story.

Connect to books about: Australian identity, memory and shame, genealogy and heritage, postcolonial national narratives.

---

7. **Gender & Vulnerability in the Convict System**
Among those transported were thousands of women and children, whose experiences within the penal system involved additional layers of exploitation, sexual vulnerability, and subjugation. Sweeney's account necessarily touches on how gender shaped the convict condition.

Connect to books about: women in colonial history, gender and incarceration, female convicts, patriarchy and the law.

---

8. **Colonisation & Its Impact on Indigenous Australians**
The convict settlements that grew into colonial Australia were established on Aboriginal land, and the influx of transported convicts directly accelerated the dispossession of Indigenous peoples. Any serious account of convict Australia must reckon with this dimension.

Connect to books about: Aboriginal Australian history, Indigenous dispossession, settler-colonial violence, land rights.

Transported : in place of death : convicts in Australia

Book Images

TAGS

CONNECTIONS

State

Details

LOCATION HISTORY

Book Location

Book Images

Vernon snapshot

Topics and Themes