Transportation ballads


Transportation ballads are a genre of broadside ballads that concern the transportation of convicted criminals, originally to the American colonies and later to penal colonies in Australia. They were intended to serve as warnings of the hardships that come with conviction and thereby a deterrent against criminal behavior. Transportation ballads were published as broadsides—song sheets sold cheaply in the streets, at markets and at fairs. Many have passed into the folk tradition.

Motifs and themes

Transportation ballads are almost exclusively related in the first person from the perspective of the convicted person. They employ a number of frequent themes including:
  • a good upbringing, thereby implying that a life of crime was choice
  • a decision to take up with persons of low moral repute
  • incidental financial or emotional injury to the narrator's family
  • harsh treatment of the narrator after conviction
More rarely, transportation ballads served as a form of protest, particularly as a means of opposing the sentencing of those convinced of political crimes.

Examples

The following extracts exemplify such themes:

A good upbringing

Bad influences

Harm to family

Harsh conditions

Notable works

Songs classified as transportation ballads

  • "Australia" – alternatively titled "Virginny", "The Lads of Virginia", "The Transports of Virginia"; broadside versions from the 19th century seem to be exclusively of the Virginia version
  • "Botany Bay" – alternatively titled "Whitby Lad", "Bound for Botany Boy", "Adieu to Old England", "The Transport's Farewell"; in the United States it was altered to become "The Boston Burglar"
  • "The Convict" – alternatively "London Prentice Boy"; tells of a young man who is persuaded by a girl to murder his master for his money but at the last minute decides against the murder because of his master's kindness; he takes the money, is betrayed by the girl, and is tried and transported.
  • "Jamie Raeburn's Farewell" – particularly popular in Scotland
  • "Van Diemen's Land" – recognized in two distinct versions, possibly due to popularity due to the sympathetic narrator, who is convicted of poaching, which was often seen as a crime only by the wealthy

    Other folk songs referencing penal transportation

  • "Maggie May" – an anti-heroine ends up in Botany Bay
  • "The [Black Velvet Band]"
  • "Flash Company" – alternatively "The Yellow Handkerchief"; some versions omit transportation references
  • "Jim Jones at Botany Bay"
  • "Mitchell's Address"
  • "The Isle of France"
  • "The Boys of Mullaghbawn",
  • "The Maids Lamentation"
  • "Frost, Williams, and Jones's farewell to England" – John Frost and others transported during the Chartist struggle for adult male franchise
  • "The Cotton Spinners Farewell" – concerns Scottish cotton spinners sentenced to seven years for trades union activities
  • "Proper Objects for Botany Bay" – praises penal transportation lists classes of people the author feels should be transported