Transportation, Post-Penal Identity and the Life Course: The Continued Control of Pauper-Emancipists

In a groundbreaking study, Watkins explores the post-transportation experiences and lives of people sent to Van Diemen’s Land. As a legacy of penal transportation, those labelled as ‘wasted’ and ‘unattractive’ were subject to emerging forms of institutional care. By using life-course analysis, this book successfully reveals the lives of women and men who entered and died within the walls of pauper establishments within an institutional context that severely tested their resilience. I don’t know any other book which combines this approach to examine this topic, and I greatly appreciated the depth and quality of the empirical research, as will students and researchers of this area.

Transportation, Post-Penal Identity and the Life Course is a triumph, in which Watkins has meticulously drawn from the archive to chart the lives of Tasmania’s colonial poor. Her skillful historical method allows Watkins to bring the people she writes about to life. This book is a masterclass in how to do life-course research on historical subjects and contexts, offering a robust demonstration of how this type of work can enrich our understanding of where we come from and challenge us to reassess our existing conceptions of the past.

Presenting new case studies that look at the whole lives of former convicts dying in poverty to understand the long-term effects of the convict transportation system, Watkins facilitates an exploration of a broader view of the charitable institutions and its connections with the penal system.

• | Author: Emma D. Watkins
• | Publisher: Emerald Publishing Limited
• | Publication Date: Dec 12, 2025
• | Number of Pages:
• | Language:
• | Binding: Hardback
• | ISBN-13: 9781804551981
• | ISBN-10: 1804551988