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Aboriginal deaths in custody in colonial Australia 1805-1860

journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-17, 12:59 authored by Kristyn HarmanKristyn Harman, Hamish Maxwell-StewartHamish Maxwell-Stewart
The majority of the 160,000 convicts transported to Australia in the nineteenth century were European, yet a small number of colonial subjects were also incorporated into Britain’s Antipodean penal settlements. These included Aboriginal prisoners from the New South Wales frontier. By the 1850s a few Aboriginal convicts were incarcerated at Cockatoo Island,Sydney Harbour, where their comparatively high rate of death attracted administrative attention. This article situates these deaths in custody within the broader history of convict transportation. As well as an analysis of comparative death rates it uses a series of case studies to explore the factors that contributed to the higher death rate experienced by Aboriginal convicts in colonial Australia.

History

Publication title

Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History

Volume

13

Pagination

1-20

ISSN

1532-5768

Department/School

Aboriginal Leadership

Publisher

The John Hopkins University Press

Place of publication

Baltimore, USA

Rights statement

Copyright 2012 Kristyn Harman & Hamish Maxwell-Stewart and The Johns Hopkins University Press

Repository Status

  • Restricted

Socio-economic Objectives

Understanding Australia’s past

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    University Of Tasmania

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