From The Publisher. Since Robert Hughes' The Fatal Shore, The Fate Of British Convicts Has Burned Brightly In The Popular Imagination. Incredibly, Their Larger Story Is Even More Dramatic -- The Saga Of Forgotten Men And Women Scattered To The Farthest Corners Of The British Empire, Driven By The Winds Of The American Revolution And The Currents Of The African Slave Trade. In A Merciless Place, Emma Christopher Brilliantly Captures This Previously Unknown Story Of Poverty, Punishment, And Transportation. The Story Begins With The American War Of Independence, Until Which Many British Convicts Were Shipped Across The Atlantic. The Revolution Interrupted This Flow And Inspired Two Entrepreneurs To Organize The Criminals Into Military Units To Fight For The Crown. The Felon Soldiers Went To West Africa's Slave-trading Posts Just As The War Ended; These Forts Became The New Destination For England's Rapidly Multiplying Convicts. The Move Was A Disaster. Christopher Writes That Before The Scheme Was Abandoned, It Would Have Run The Gamut Of Piracy, Treachery, Mutiny, Starvation, Poisonings, Allegations Of White Women Forced To Prostitute Themselves To African Men, And Not Least Several Cases Of Murder. To End The Scandal, The British Government Chose A New Destination, As Far Away As Possible: Australia. Christopher Here Captures The Gritty Lives Of Britain's Convicts: Victims Of London's Underworld, Rife With Brutal Crime And Sometimes Even More Brutal Punishments. Equally Fascinating Are The Portraits Of Fante People Of West Africa, Forced To Undergo Dramatic Changes In Their Role As Intermediaries With Europeans In The Slave Trade. Here, Too, Are The Aboriginal Australians, Coping With The Transformation Of Their Native Land. They All Inhabit A Merciless Place -- A Tour De Force And Historical Narrative At Its Finest. Destinations For Britain's Transported Convicts, C. 1770-1800 -- West Africa, C. 1780-1822 -- Bound For America -- Mr. Jefferson And Patrick Madan -- London In Flames -- The Best Sacrifices For Death -- Africa -- The Battle For The Coast -- Deserting To The Enemy -- A Plantation With Slaves -- A Mutiny And A Most Peculiar Murder -- Trouble At Goree Island -- Naked And Diseased On The Sandy Shore -- Trying America Again -- The Once Mighty Are Fallen -- Lemane Island -- The End Of The African Disaster -- Afterword. Emma Christopher. First Published In Australia In 2010 By Allen & Unwin--t.p. Verso. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 367-412) And Index.

A merciless place : the lost story of Britain's convict disaster in Africa

Christopher, Emma, 1971-

Oxford Institute for Energy Studies

German Historical Institute London

New York: Oxford University Press

OUP Oxford

United Kingdom and Ireland, United Kingdom

New York, New York State, 2011

First British Edition, 2011

Oxford ; New York, 2011

1st Edition, 2011

"First published in Australia in 2010 by Allen & Unwin"--T.p. verso.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 367-412) and index.

432 p., [12] p. of plates : 25 cm
"First published in Australia in 2010 by Allen & Unwin"--T.p. verso
Includes bibliographical references (p. 367-412) and index
Destinations for Britain's transported convicts, c. 1770-1800 -- West Africa, c. 1780-1822 -- Bound for America -- Mr. Jefferson and Patrick Madan -- London in flames -- The "best sacrifices for death" -- Africa -- The battle for the coast -- Deserting to the enemy -- A plantation with slaves -- A mutiny and a most peculiar murder -- Trouble at Goree Island -- "Naked and diseased on the sandy shore" -- Trying America again -- The once mighty are fallen -- Lemane Island -- The end of the African disaster -- Afterword

In this book, the author has found the 'missing link' between the American Revolution and The Fatal Shore, and tells the extraordinary story - lost for two centuries - of how a failed British attempt to establish a penal colony in West Africa led to their eventual decision to abandon their African plans and establish a new colony in the recently discovered colony known as New South Wales.

2023-06-28