Editing History of Australia (section)

===Convicts and colonial society===

==== Convicts and emancipists ====
{{Main|Convicts in Australia}}
[[File:Black-eyed_Sue_and_Sweet_Poll_of_Plymouth_taking_leave_of_their_lovers_who_are_going_to_Botany_Bay.jpeg|left|thumb|upright=1.4|''Black-eyed Sue and Sweet Poll of Plymouth, England mourning their lovers who are soon to be transported to Botany Bay'' (published in London in 1792)]]

Between 1788 and 1868, approximately 161,700 convicts were transported to the Australian colonies of New South Wales, Van Diemen's Land and Western Australia.<ref>Jan Bassett (1986) p. 258</ref> The literacy rate of convicts was above average and they brought a range of useful skills to the new colony including building, farming, sailing, fishing and hunting.<ref>Karskens, Grace (2013). p. 93</ref> The small number of free settlers meant that early governors also had to rely on convicts and emancipists for professions such as lawyers, architects, surveyors and teachers.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hirst|first=John|title=Australian History in 7 Questions|publisher=Black Inc.|year=2014|isbn=9781863956703|location=Melbourne|pages=31}}</ref>
Convicts initially worked on government farms and public works such as land clearing and building. After 1792, the majority were assigned to work for private employers including [[emancipist]]s. Emancipists were granted small plots of land for farming and a year of government rations. Later they were assigned convict labour to help them work their farms.<ref>Karskens, Grace (2013). pp. 91–97, 104</ref> Some convicts were assigned to military officers to run their businesses. These convicts learnt commercial skills which could help them work for themselves when their sentence ended or they were granted a "ticket of leave" (a form of parole).<ref>Karskens, Grace (2013). pp. 91–97</ref>

Convicts soon established a system of piece work which allowed them to work for wages once their allocated tasks were completed.<ref>Karskens, Grace (2013). p. 113</ref> By 1821 convicts, emancipists and their children owned two-thirds of the land under cultivation, half the cattle and one-third of the sheep.<ref>Karskens, Grace (2013). p. 104</ref> They also worked in trades and small business. Emancipists employed about half of the convicts assigned to private masters.<ref>Hirst, John (2014). p. 44</ref>

A series of reforms recommended by J. T. Bigge in 1822 and 1823 worsened conditions for convicts. The food ration was cut and their opportunities to work for wages restricted.<ref>Hirst, John (2014). pp. 39–40</ref> More convicts were assigned to rural work gangs, bureaucratic control and surveillance of convicts was made more systematic, isolated penal settlements were established as places of secondary punishment, the rules for tickets of leave were tightened, and land grants were skewed to favour free settlers with large capital.<ref>Karskens, Grace (2013). pp. 116, 122–125</ref> As a result, convicts who arrived after 1820 were far less likely to become property owners, to marry, and to establish families.<ref>McCalman, Janet; Kippen, Rebecca (2013). "Population and health". ''The Cambridge History of Australia, Volume I''. p.&nbsp;296–97</ref>

==== Free settlers ====
[[File:Caroline Chisholm.jpg|thumb|The humanitarian [[Caroline Chisholm]] was a leading advocate for women's issues and family friendly colonial policy.]]

The Bigge reforms also aimed to encourage free settlers by offering them land grants in proportion to their capital. From 1831, the colonies replaced land grants with land sales by auction at a fixed minimum price per acre, the proceeds being used to fund the assisted migration of workers. From 1821 to 1850, Australia attracted 200,000 immigrants from the United Kingdom. However, the system of land allocations led to the concentration of land in the hands of a small number of affluent settlers.<ref>Ford, Lisa; Roberts, David Andrew (2013). pp. 122, 126–7, 131, 135–36</ref>

Two-thirds of the migrants to Australia during this period received assistance from the British or colonial governments.<ref>Haines, Robin, and Ralph Shlomowitz. "Nineteenth century government-assisted and total immigration from the United Kingdom to Australia: quinquennial estimates by colony." ''Journal of the Australian Population Association'', vol. 8, no. 1, 1991, pp. 50–61. ''JSTOR'', www.jstor.org/stable/41110599. Accessed 20 July 2021.</ref> Families of convicts were also offered free passage and about 3,500 migrants were selected under the [[English Poor Laws]]. Various special-purpose and charitable schemes, such as those of [[Caroline Chisholm]] and [[John Dunmore Lang]], also provided migration assistance.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Richards|first=Eric|title=How Did Poor People Emigrate from the British Isles to Australia in the Nineteenth Century?|jstor=176082|journal=Journal of British Studies|volume=32|issue=3|date=July 1993|pages=250–279|doi=10.1086/386032|s2cid=162223882}}</ref>

====Women====
[[File:ElizabethMacarthur.jpg|thumb|left|Businesswoman [[Elizabeth Macarthur]] helped establish the merino wool industry.]]

Women comprised only about 15% of convicts transported. Due to the shortage of women in the colony they were more likely to marry than men and tended to choose older, skilled men with property as husbands. The early colonial courts enforced the property rights of women independently of their husbands, and the ration system also gave women and their children some protection from abandonment. Women were active in business and agriculture from the early years of the colony, among the most successful being the former convict turned entrepreneur [[Mary Reibey]] and the agriculturalist [[Elizabeth Macarthur]].<ref>Karskens, Grace (2013). pp. 94, 112.</ref> One-third of the shareholders of the first colonial bank (founded in 1817) were women.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Frost|first=Lionel|title=The Cambridge History of Australia, Volume I|year=2013|pages=323|chapter=The economy}}</ref>

One of the goals of the assisted migration programs from the 1830s was to promote migration of women and families to provide a more even gender balance in the colonies. Caroline Chisholm established a shelter and labour exchange for migrant women in New South Wales in the 1840s and promoted the settlement of single and married women in rural areas.<ref>{{cite book|last=Iltis|first=Judith|title=Biography – Caroline Chisholm – Australian Dictionary of Biography|publisher=Adbonline.anu.edu.au|chapter=Chisholm, Caroline (1808–1877)|access-date=14 July 2011|chapter-url=http://adbonline.anu.edu.au/biogs/A010208b.htm}}</ref><ref>Macintyre (2020). p. 89</ref>

Between 1830 and 1850 the female proportion of the Australian settler population increased from 24 per cent to 41 per cent.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2014|title=3105.0.65.001 Australian Historical Population Statistics, 2014, Table 1.1|url=https://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/DetailsPage/3105.0.65.0012014|access-date=21 July 2021|publisher=Australian Bureau of Statistics}}</ref>

==== Religion ====
The [[Church of England]] was the only recognised church before 1820 and its clergy worked closely with the governors. [[Richard Johnson (chaplain)|Richard Johnson]] (chief chaplain 1788–1802) was charged by Governor [[Arthur Phillip]], with improving "public morality" in the colony and was also heavily involved in health and education.<ref name="adbonline.anu.edu.au2">{{cite book|author=K.J. Cable|title=ADBonline.anu.edu.au|publisher=ADBonline.anu.edu.au|chapter=Johnson, Richard (1753–1827)|access-date=14 July 2011|chapter-url=http://adbonline.anu.edu.au/biogs/A020018b.htm}}</ref> [[Samuel Marsden]] (various ministries 1795–1838) became known for his missionary work, the severity of his punishments as a magistrate, and the vehemence of his public denunciations of Catholicism and Irish convicts.<ref>{{cite book|author=A.T. Yarwood|title=ADBonline.anu.edu.au|publisher=ADBonline.anu.edu.au|chapter=Marsden, Samuel (1765–1838)|access-date=14 July 2011|chapter-url=http://adbonline.anu.edu.au/biogs/A020176b.htm}}</ref>

[[File:Castle Hill Rebellion (1804).jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|A painting depicting the [[Castle Hill Rebellion]] in [[Sydney]] of 1804]]

About a quarter of convicts were Catholics. The lack of official recognition of Catholicism was combined with suspicion of Irish convicts which only increased after the Irish-led [[Castle Hill Rebellion]] of 1804.<ref name="catholicaustralia.com.au2">{{cite web|title=Catholicaustralia.com.au|url=http://www.catholicaustralia.com.au/page.php?pg=austchurch-history|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120324111940/http://www.catholicaustralia.com.au/page.php?pg=austchurch-history|archive-date=24 March 2012|access-date=14 July 2011|publisher=Catholicaustralia.com.au}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=O'Brien|first=Anne|title=The Cambridge History of Australia, Volume I|year=2013|pages=417–18|chapter=Religion}}</ref> Only two Catholic priests operated temporarily in the colony before Governor Macquarie appointed official Catholic chaplains in New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land in 1820.<ref name="O'Brien-2013">O'Brien, Anne (2013). "Religion". ''The Cambridge History of Australia, Volume I''. pp. 419–20</ref>

The Bigge reports recommended that the status of the Anglican Church be enhanced. An Anglican archdeacon was appointed in 1824 and allocated a seat in the first advisory Legislative Council. The Anglican clergy and schools also received state support. This policy was changed under Governor Burke by the Church Acts of 1836 and 1837. The government now provided state support for the clergy and church buildings of the four largest denominations: Anglican, Catholic, Presbyterian and, later, Methodist.<ref name="O'Brien-2013" />

Many Anglicans saw state support of the Catholic Church as a threat. The prominent Presbyterian minister [[John Dunmore Lang]] also promoted sectarian divisions in the 1840s.<ref>O'Brien, Anne (2013). p. 421</ref><ref>Macintyre (2020), p. 90</ref> State support, however, led to a growth in church activities. Charitable associations such as the Catholic [[Sisters of Charity of Australia|Sisters of Charity]], founded in 1838, provided hospitals, orphanages and asylums for the old and disabled. Religious organisations were also the main providers of school education in the first half of the nineteenth century, a notable example being Lang's Australian College which opened in 1831. Many religious associations, such as the [[Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart|Sisters of St Joseph]], co-founded by [[Saint Mary MacKillop|Mary MacKillop]] in 1866, continued their educational activities after the provision of secular state schools grew from the 1850s.<ref>Macintyre (2020), pp. 123–27</ref><ref>O'Brien, Anne (2013). "Religion". ''The Cambridge History of Australia, Volume I''. pp. 422–23</ref>