Pack of Thieves? 52 Port Arthur Lives

by Hamish Maxwell-Stewart, Susan Hood

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George Arthur, Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen's Land from 1824-36 is credited with constructing an intricate system of convict management. The idea behind Arthur's grand plan was that convicts would sink or rise through the tiers of his multi-layered system accrding to their conduct. Thus, the intention was that the wicked would be punished for their sins and the good rewarded for unerring servile toil. In 1830 Arthur ordered the construction of a new penal station on the Tasman Peninsula show more named Port Arthur in his honour. This was to be the foundation stone of Arthur's scheme or regulating the lives of his colonial charges - a place to which prisoners who incurred the wrath of the convict administration could be sent as a lesson to all. Arthur likened his convict system to a prison without walls. This was because the lives of ordinary prisoners were regulated by paper work rather than guard towers and iron bars. Every detail that could be gleaned about a convict was entered into a set of enormous registers which were used to separate those considered worthy of indulgence from those whose conduct was thought to merit further punishment. At times Arthur appeared to sit astride his system like a colonial puppet master pronouncing judgement on his charges. This book charts the lives of 52 prisoners who served time at Prot Arthur in the 1830s. It looks at the impact of transportation upon their lives and charts the ways in which they negotiatied a passage through Arthur's labyrinthine penal colony. show less

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Susan Hood is a senior lecturer in TESOL and applied linguistics at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS), Australia, where she teaches postgraduate courses in discourse analysis, research perspectives and teaching EAP. She has taught, researched and published in the field of academic literacy in Hong Kong and in Australia.

Common Knowledge

Important places
Australia

Classifications

Genres
Nonfiction, History, General Nonfiction, Biography & Memoir
DDC/MDS
994.6402086927History & geographyOceania & Polar RegionsAustraliaTasmaniaEastern Tasmania
LCC
HV8950 .P6 .M39Social sciencesSocial pathology. Social and public welfare. CriminologySocial pathology. Social and public welfare.Criminal justice administrationPenology. Prisons. Corrections

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37
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781,223
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(3.00)
Languages
English
Media
Paper
ISBNs
1
ASINs
3