First, the idea of executing tens of thousands of prisoners en masse is horrifying. I feel I must be blunt for a moment: whatever understanding you have of history is flawed. Monarchs would be unable enact such mass killings without an uproar. This especially because of those transported, most had not committed crimes serious enough to warrant capital punishment. Those that were guilty of such offenses were, well, executed. Even if the conditions were poor by modern standards, the ruling class thought of the lower class as their God-given responsibility to safeguard. Under feudalism, which continued throughout parts of Europe into the 19th Century, the peasants still had rights. They had rights to their property, rights to give advice to their liegelord, and rights to protection from outside threats. It is important not to apply preconceived notions from popular culture to the past.

So what crimes had these people committed? Debt, primarily. In the 18th Century falling into debt meant you could be sent to a debtors prison where you would be forced to work until your debt had been paid in full. Europe in general and Britain especially was experiencing a crisis of poverty in the Colonial Era. The British Isles had too few resources and too many people. However, the colonies that Britain acquired tended to have a large abundance of resources but few people. This gave power to the working class and in many cases allowed them to dictate their terms of employment. Thus, while still prisoners, they had the opportunity to work off their debts quicker, learn a trade, and then be realeased into a colony with a rapidly growing economy.

Theives, perjurers, and other such criminals were also present on the prison transports. Rather than working off a debt, they would work for a set time, typically 7 or 14 years although some were given life sentences.

The costs for exploration, ship building and maintenance, the supplies needed for such a voyage, and for the personnel to crew the ships and run the prisons were, of course, enormous. However, it wasn’t just about creating new prisons. By moving these prison laborers closer to natural resources, the chain of supply was made more efficient. Rather than sitting in a debtors prison waiting months for supplies, of which an incorrect amount may have been ordered or the ship never make it, the prisoners were now much closer to the raw materials they’d be working with. Thereby, only finished goods are returning from these penal colonies. Finished goods are easier and cheaper to transport than people. Therefore it was seen as a way to boost the British economy and better the lives of those who found themselves in a debtors prison. Unfortunately, this pleasant notion largely failed to turn a profit or reform criminals.

Prisoners who didn’t live in a debtors prison on the new colonies were sold at auction, typically to plantation owners. This group actually makes up the majority of convicts brought across the sea but the dynamic is much less complicated to explain. Roughly one quarter of the American population in the 18th Century had been sent as convicts.

For further reading, research James Oglethorp, the First Fleet, the Royal Naval Dockyard in Bermuda, and the Andaman Islands. The British are definitely not the only nation to have practiced penal colonies, however it is the nation I know the most about.

Sources:

America: A Narrative History by David Shi and George Tindall

Bound for America by Roger Ekirch