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2022 | Buch

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Unfree Workers

Insubordination and Resistance in Convict Australia, 1788-1860

verfasst von: Prof. Hamish Maxwell-Stewart, Prof. Michael Quinlan

Verlag: Springer Nature Singapore

Buchreihe : Palgrave Studies in Economic History

Enthalten in: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

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Über dieses Buch

This book examines how convicts played a key role in the development of capitalism in Australia and how their active resistance shaped both workplace relations and institutions. It highlights the contribution of convicts to worker mobilization and political descent, forcing a rethink of Australia’s foundational story. It is a book that will appeal to an international audience, as well as the many hundreds of thousands of Australians who can trace descent from convicts. It will enable the latter to make sense of the experience of their ancestors, equipping them with the necessary tools to understand convict and court records. It will also provide a valuable undergraduate and postgraduate teaching tool and reference for those studying unfree labour and worker history, social history, colonization and global migration in a digital age.

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Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter

Incarceration—Convicts, Unfree Labour and Colonial Capitalism

Frontmatter

Chapter 1. Unfree Labour, Dissent, Convict-Transportation and the Building of Colonial Capital

Abstract

This is a book on the subordination and resistance of convicts, by far the biggest and most important category of unfree labour in Australia’s history. As such it tries to place this Antipodean workplace struggle within a global context of capitalist development. This chapter sets the context for the book by examining the history and role of penal transportation as a tool designed to further the ends of criminal justice while simultaneously promoting colonization. It starts with a review of the history of resistance and collective action in the metropolitan and colonial world before moving on to map the use of convict labour as a tool of British imperialism. A key purpose of the chapter is to introduce the concept of ‘convictism’ and to explore the similarities between this and other means of justifying labour exploitation, including plantation racism.

Hamish Maxwell-Stewart, Michael Quinlan

Chapter 2. Approach, Sources and Methods

Abstract

This book focuses on Eastern Australia and particularly the colonies of New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land. While the vast majority of convicts arriving prior to 1850 were transported to these colonies a handful of skilled prisoners were sent to King George Sound in Western Australia in 1826 on the promise of indulgences. Despite the small size of this outpost, convicts colluded in an attempt to set work norms—threatening those who started their allotted task early and finished too quickly. Others absconded in the hopes of reaching the Swan River settlement where there were acute labour shortages or of joining sealing gangs.

Hamish Maxwell-Stewart, Michael Quinlan

Chapter 3. Convict Eastern Australia: Labour Bureaucracy or Police State?

Abstract

Initially the convicts transported to Australia experienced surprising degrees of freedom. This chapter describes how these were eroded following the end of the Napoleonic Wars. The introduction of new laws borrowed from the British Caribbean rendered any attempt by convicts to protest or speak out punishable by flogging, solitary confinement and hard labour. The main aim of these changes was to ensure that convict labour would generate profits for private sector employers. In order to further disincentivise protest, an array of government punishment stations were established. The chapter details the evolution of these sanctions and their associated systems of surveillance in the period to 1860.

Hamish Maxwell-Stewart, Michael Quinlan

Chapter 4. Battling the Bench

Abstract

Convict worker resistance is only comprehensible in the context of an oppressive regulatory regime whose severity was exacerbated by the operation of magistrates’ courts. The way in which conviction history was used to disempower convicts formed an important part of this process. Thus, while convicts had a ‘right’ to bring a complaint to a magistrate, such attempts often triggered counter charges. The chapter also explores the distribution of prosecutions. Convicts who lacked skills that were in colonial demand were more likely to be punished than others. Punishment rates also changed over time, reflecting labour market conditions. The chapter ends by exploring the impact of labour exploitation on convict lives.

Hamish Maxwell-Stewart, Michael Quinlan

Excarceration—Patterns of Resistance and Collective Action

Frontmatter

Chapter 5. Shipboard Mutinies

Abstract

Collective action by convicts began while they were en route to the Australian colonies. Convict vessels formed an important labour institution in their own right, organised so as to prepare prisoners for the experience of work in the penal colonies. This chapter looks at the many attempts by convicts to seize vessels during the passage to Australia. It also evaluates the considerable obstacles that stood in the path of such mutinous combinations.

Hamish Maxwell-Stewart, Michael Quinlan

Chapter 6. Issuing Demands and Threats and Striking Deals

Abstract

This chapter explores a hitherto unconsidered aspect of collective action by convict workers, tacit bargaining and the issue of demands often backed by threats. This activity was extensive and covered a wide range of issues including the provision of wages, allowances, rest-breaks or shortened hours of work and better rations. Surviving court records describe instances where masters challenged practices that convicts considered customary. The chapter argues that most masters conceded to the demands of their unfree workers in the interests of preserving labour relations. For their part, convicts preferred such tacit negotiations to the ‘official channel’ of lodging a formal complaint before a magistrate, as attempts to prosecute masters were rarely successful and usually resulted in reprisals.

Hamish Maxwell-Stewart, Michael Quinlan

Chapter 7. Go-Slows, Strikes and Effort Bargaining

Abstract

This chapter focuses on methods used by convicts to exercise some control over their work, resist authority and secure concessions by organising go-slows or related forms of output restriction as well temporary withdrawals of labour or refusing work. Convicts struck on literally thousands of occasions and go-slows were particularly widespread, especially in government gangs and on large rural estates. This activity prefigured more formalised efforts to control work by unions. Fierce effort-bargaining was an effective form of resistance which considerably diminished the ‘cheapness’ of convict labour.

Hamish Maxwell-Stewart, Michael Quinlan

Chapter 8. Absenteeism, Absconding and Escape

Abstract

Both male and female convicts defended the right to their own time by walking off their place of employment after the end of the working day and on traditional holidays. They also ran away in impressive numbers. Collective absconding was particularly common amongst road gangs and women in female factories. Increases in the rate of absconding often occurred in the wake of other protests—a demonstration of the ways in which different forms of action were linked one to another. As well as charting rates of absconding and absenteeism, the chapter examines which convicts were more likely to ‘vote with their feet’ by quitting their place of employment.

Hamish Maxwell-Stewart, Michael Quinlan

Chapter 9. Compensatory Retribution

Abstract

Some forms of resistance were primarily designed to exact revenge on the managers of convict labour. These included assaults on masters or overseers and sabotage. This commonly occurred in the aftermath of other failed actions. In contrast to collective assaults, most forms of sabotage were difficult to prosecute. This was especially the case with the burning of barns and hayricks. Landholders noted for their harsh treatment of convict experienced more than their share of expensive fires. This practice, which drew on centuries’ old traditions, created considerable fear amongst landholders and often led to requests to replace unfree workers with fresh arrivals. On other occasions convicts helped themselves to their masters supplies and livestock when dissatisfied with the quantity and quality of their official ration.

Hamish Maxwell-Stewart, Michael Quinlan

Chapter 10. Riot, Bushranging, Piracy and Revolt

Abstract

This chapter dispels any notion that convicts failed to openly confront their penal managers. Riots were common in female factories. As well as attempts to seize vessels in order to quit the colony altogether, the chapter also documents numerous open revolts beyond the well-known Castle Hill, Norfolk Island, Bathurst and Castle Forbes uprisings. It documents how these collective explosions of unrest were connected to the same issues that triggered other forms of convict dissent.

Hamish Maxwell-Stewart, Michael Quinlan

Chapter 11. Nothing to Lose but Your Chains

Abstract

This chapter places the role of unfree workers in Australia’s economic development and their resistance to labour exploitation in wider perspective. It includes an assessment of the scale of protest actions that followed the changes made to the management of convict labour in the early 1820s. Comparisons are also made with the mobilisation of free workers (both informal and through unions) during the period to the creation of the Australian Commonwealth in 1901. It demonstrates that the resistance mounted by convict workers remained unmatched in Australian history until the titanic strikes of the early 1890s. The chapter highlights how convict resistance secured a number of important victories and shaped later industrial struggles. It also demonstrates how ex-convicts were integral to building unions and labour movement developments after 1850.

Hamish Maxwell-Stewart, Michael Quinlan

Backmatter

Titel: Unfree Workers
verfasst von: Prof. Hamish Maxwell-Stewart
Prof. Michael Quinlan
Copyright-Jahr: 2022
Verlag: Springer Nature Singapore
Electronic ISBN: 978-981-16-7558-4
Print ISBN: 978-981-16-7557-7
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-7558-4

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