Transportation to North America

• This was introduced during the reign of James I, when North America was a new English colony.
• Prisoners would be used on the east coast of America for tough manual labour like clearing trees or doing farm work.
• If you were transported instead of being executed, you would serve 14 years. Lesser offences would typically be given a 7 year term.
• At the end of the term, prisoners would be free to return home in theory, but in reality would be unlikely to have the money to do so.
• An estimated 50000 to 80000 people were transported to America in the period up to c1770. This included some vagrant children.
• Transported children were called ‘duty boys’, although about a quarter of them were girls.