Editing History of Australia (section)

==== 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>