1.3 The Experience of Convicts

Task 3. Historical Skills: Understanding 'Empathy'

Historical skills-  Empathy. 

The term ‘empathy’ is used to describe engagement with past thought. The re-enactment of past thoughts and feeling is a greater challenge than constructing descriptions and explanations of the past. It requires an understanding of the past from the point of view of a particular individual or group, including an appreciation of the circumstances they faced and the motivations, values and attitudes behind their actions 

a) Imagine you are a doctor onboard the convict transportation ships. Use the information from the sources to write back to the authorities back in Britain describing the horror of the conditions. 

Introduction/overview:Although Convicts were sent very far from their homelands and often had to serve long sentences, many convicts complete their time and started a new chapter of their lives in this new land. There are lot of reasons why many convicts did not return to England. A few did. Once they had completed their sentences they were permitted to return to the UK - at their own expense. That was a lot of money - so they either had to do pretty well for themselves as freed settlers, or in a few cases have the skills to get a job on a ship for the return trip. This was pretty tough, so many had to stay and create new lives for themselves in Australia. Overtime, free settlers also arrives and contributed to the growth and increasing expansion of these European colonies into flourishing communities- of course this was at cost to the traditional way of life for Australia's Indigenous populations. 

Task: You will research TWO of the following convicts.

1, Mary Reibey 

2. Francis Greenway

Research Guide Questions:

a) What crimes did they commit in their place of origin?

b) When was their recorded date of arrival and place of disembarkment.

c) Provide details of their convict experience- for example, their sentence, types of activities they had to perform.

d) Explain how their life changed from being a convict to a more positive and active contributer of the early colony of Australia. 

Extension/challenging Task 

a) Watch the short introduction to Mary Reibey 

b) You will follow this link to the resources. The task will require you to work as historians and examine primary source material to draw conclusions about the way Mary's life changed from convict to business entrepreneur.