Everything about Convict totally explained
A
convict is "a person found guilty of a
crime and sentenced by a court" or "a person serving a sentence in prison", sometimes referred to in
slang as simply a "con". After a
conviction, convicts often become
prisoners. Persons convicted and sentenced to non-custodial
sentences often are not termed "convicts". An
ex-convict (or short:
ex-con) is a person who has been released from prison.
Historical usage
A particular use of the term in the English-speaking world is to refer to the huge numbers of criminals who clogged British
gaols in the 18th and early 19th century. Initially many were sent to the American colonies as cheap labour, but the
War of Independence brought that solution to an end.
British convicts were transported to the
Province of Georgia between 1733 and the
American revolution. After this, convicts could no longer be transported to America and Britain looked to the newly discovered east coast of Australia to use as a penal colony. Convicts were transported to
Australia in 1788 from the very start of European settlement and were used as labourers in five out of the six major colonies. Transportation was eventually abolished in 1868. In Australia, convicts have come to be key figures of social and cultural
mythology and
historiography. British convicts were also sent to
Canada and
India.
France also sent convicts to
French Guiana and
New Caledonia.
Russian criminals who were shipped to
Siberia can arguably be regarded as convicts.
1. “The convict system has been rightly called a ‘Gigantic Lottery’. The element of luck was greatly increased by the adoption of the assignment system, whereby many convicts were assigned to individual settlers to act as servants, shepherds, hutkeepers, or workers in some other capacity.”
Additionally, convicts were sent to unsettled Australia to form a prison colony by Europe due to overflow.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Convict'.
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