So what did they do to be sent there?
I know Pierce was convicted because he stole 6 pairs of shoes. Greenhill got 8 years for stealing his wife´s jacket.
what about the rest of them?
Similar petty crimes, The UK had a massive crime problem and were executing people left and right. (hanged a 7 year old girl and her 11 year old brother for theft) They had yet to invent the police.
Transportation was invented as a lighter punishment than execution.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convicts_in_Australia
Saying that, because there were only 20% of convicts were female, I have heard the first colonies described as 'one big brothel'.
One big brothel ? It was worse than that by reports. The first fleeters has women with them, one or two pregnant on the trip (was unlawful), but every one of them gang raped continuously and vivaciously so when they made land in Australia (previously Van Diemans).
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