Empire of Hell Religion and the Campaign to End Convict Transportation in the British Empire, 1788–1875
Book contents
- Empire of Hell
- Empire of Hell
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Tables
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Saints, Whigs and Penal Colonies, 1788–1822
- 3 ‘Hell upon Earth’: Sir George Arthur in Van Diemen’s Land, 1823–1837
- 4 Quakers and Convict Concerns
- 5 Christian Utilitarianism and Archbishop Richard Whately
- 6 Catholics, Protestants and the ‘Horrors of Transportation’
- 7 ‘Ocean Hell’: Captain Maconochie and Norfolk Island, 1837–1855
- 8 Probation in Van Diemen’s Land, 1839–1857
- 9 ‘Political Parsons’ and the Anti-Transportation Movement, 1847–1854
- 10 ‘Floating Hells’: Bermuda, Gibraltar and the Hulks, 1850–1875
- 11 ‘Reformatory Colony’: Western Australia, 1850–1868
- 12 Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
11 - ‘Reformatory Colony’: Western Australia, 1850–1868
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 March 2019
Book contents
- Empire of Hell
- Empire of Hell
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Tables
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Saints, Whigs and Penal Colonies, 1788–1822
- 3 ‘Hell upon Earth’: Sir George Arthur in Van Diemen’s Land, 1823–1837
- 4 Quakers and Convict Concerns
- 5 Christian Utilitarianism and Archbishop Richard Whately
- 6 Catholics, Protestants and the ‘Horrors of Transportation’
- 7 ‘Ocean Hell’: Captain Maconochie and Norfolk Island, 1837–1855
- 8 Probation in Van Diemen’s Land, 1839–1857
- 9 ‘Political Parsons’ and the Anti-Transportation Movement, 1847–1854
- 10 ‘Floating Hells’: Bermuda, Gibraltar and the Hulks, 1850–1875
- 11 ‘Reformatory Colony’: Western Australia, 1850–1868
- 12 Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Other than Gibraltar, Western Australia was the last location which received convicts direct from Britain anywhere in the empire. Convict colonization in Western Australia was affected by the decisive shift in government policy away from reformative and toward punitive systems of penal policy. Nevertheless, religion and reformatory methods were strongly invoked in the initial stages of the transport of convicts to Western Australia. This chapter will examine the attempt to create what Mathew Hale called a ‘reformatory colony’ rather than a ‘penal settlement’. It assesses the views of clergy and religious instructors drawn in to work with prisoners and how they slowly became disenchanted with convictism. This disillusionment was a factor in ensuring clergy supported moves to end the practice of transportation to even this distant outpost of empire.
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- Information
- Empire of HellReligion and the Campaign to End Convict Transportation in the British Empire, 1788–1875, pp. 282 - 305Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2019