The founding of the penal colony of NSW is incredibly interesting.
We know the stories of actual convicts and many members of the NSW Corps - like most military efforts, it was recorded in meticulous detail.
There are so many fascinating and touching stories. There were 'the stone men' who, on occasion, were flogged to death rather than let out a cry of pain. One convict had been flogged so often that part of his spine became permanently exposed; the soles of his feet were whipped thereafter. There was the Rum Rebellion, when the Corps rebelled and imprisoned Governor Bligh; later maligning him by claiming he'd been dragged out of hiding from under his bed.
They faced real struggles, including a lack of skilled labour in food production. Most convicts and soldiers were city folk who knew less about farming than the modern urbanite. The First Fleet only survived because of a single convict fisherman and a lone soldier who'd worked as a farmhand.
The seasons were reversed, the climate entirely different, and almost everything they knew about farming was wrong in this settlement on the other side of the world.
And yet, life was also remarkably unchanged in some cases. Convict women weren't the property of soldiers (though plenty of them did pair up). The male and female convicts married and, in many cases, had brought their families with them.
The stories are fascinating; why not showcase the reality?
We know the stories of actual convicts and many members of the NSW Corps - like most military efforts, it was recorded in meticulous detail.
There are so many fascinating and touching stories. There were 'the stone men' who, on occasion, were flogged to death rather than let out a cry of pain. One convict had been flogged so often that part of his spine became permanently exposed; the soles of his feet were whipped thereafter. There was the Rum Rebellion, when the Corps rebelled and imprisoned Governor Bligh; later maligning him by claiming he'd been dragged out of hiding from under his bed.
They faced real struggles, including a lack of skilled labour in food production. Most convicts and soldiers were city folk who knew less about farming than the modern urbanite. The First Fleet only survived because of a single convict fisherman and a lone soldier who'd worked as a farmhand.
The seasons were reversed, the climate entirely different, and almost everything they knew about farming was wrong in this settlement on the other side of the world.
And yet, life was also remarkably unchanged in some cases. Convict women weren't the property of soldiers (though plenty of them did pair up). The male and female convicts married and, in many cases, had brought their families with them.
The stories are fascinating; why not showcase the reality?