Forced Separations

Abstract

The British Empire’s global expansion during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries led to considerable cross-cultural pollination, which in turn significantly influenced social, political, and legal decision-making across the colonies. To maintain law and order, Mauritius, a British colonial possession in the Indian Ocean, introduced intra-colonial convict transportation, adding to the coerced labour pool circulating between colonies. For families of transported convicts, the separation was enduring and most often permanent. The Mauritian convicts shipped to the Australian penal colonies also lost their cultural and social frameworks. Subsequently, their experiences and life trajectories in the penal colonies often depended on their ability to forge new social connections, form personal relationships, or find patronage.