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.[1][2]
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
My father and my mother dear they nourished me in my tender years,
They little thought I should be trapann'd and banished from my native land.
— "The returned convict; or the horrors of transportation" (
Roud V9114)[3]
Bad influences
I fell in love with a damsel, she was handsome and gay,
I neglected my work more and more every day.
And to keep her like a lady, I went on the highway,
And for that I got sent to Australia.
Farewell my aged mother, I'm vexed for what I've done,
I hope none will upcast to you the race that I have run;
I hope you'll be provided for when I am far away,
Far frae the bonnie hills and dales o' Caledonia.
— "Jamie Raeburn's Farewell", as sung by Daisy Chapman[6]
Harsh conditions
They chained us two by two and whipped and lashed along
They cut off our provisions if we did the least thing wrong
They march us in the burning sun until our feet are sore
So hard's our lot now we are got to Van Diemen's shore
"Australia" (
Roud 1488) – 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[9]
"Botany Bay" (Roud 261, Laws L16) – 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" (alternatively "Boston City", "Charlestown", and "The Louisville Burglar")[10]
"The Convict" (Roud 1501) – 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.[11][12][13]
"Van Diemen's Land" (Roud 221 and 519, Laws L18) – 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[16][17]
Other folk songs referencing penal transportation
"Maggie May" (
Roud 1757) – an anti-heroine ends up in
Botany Bay
"Frost, Williams, and Jones's farewell to England" (Roud V15587) –
John Frost and others transported during the
Chartist struggle for adult male franchise[24]
"The Cotton Spinners Farewell" (Roud V15587) – concerns Scottish cotton spinners sentenced to seven years for trades union activities[25][26]
"Proper Objects for Botany Bay" (Roud V27861) – praises penal transportation lists classes of people the author feels should be transported[24]
References
^Rouse, Andrew C. “THE TRANSPORTATION BALLAD: A SONG TYPE ROOTED IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY ENGLAND.” Hungarian Journal of English and American Studies (HJEAS), vol. 13, no. 1/2, 2007