Banishment or forced exile has been used as a punishment since at least the 5th century BCE but the British Empire turned it into an industry during the 18th and 19th centuries.  Penal transportation was the relocation of convicted criminals and other undesirable people (chiefly the poor) to a distant colony for incarceration.  Transportation was typically imposed for offences for which death was deemed too severe. Depending on the crime, the sentence was imposed for life or for a set period of years. If the sentence was for a period of years, the offender was permitted to return home after being released but had to do so at their own expense.  England transported an estimated 50,000 to 120,000 convicts and political prisoners, as well as prisoners of war from Scotland and Ireland, to its overseas colonies in the Americas from the 1610s until early in the American Revolution in 1776. Destinations were primarily to the island colonies of the West Indies but many were also sent to the mainland colonies, particularly in the south. 

Since Transportation was an expensive means of punishment, the Crown sought means of offsetting this cost by having merchants and shippers pay the cost in return for the convict’s labor for a portion of their sentence.  Transportation had become a business. Merchants would obtain contracts with the sheriffs and certain judges to fill their needs for certain types of labor.  These merchants would agree to pay transportation costs to the Americas then sold the labor from the convicts as indentured servant contracts.  Penal transportation was not limited to men or even to adults. Women who were transported after being sentenced to death for lesser crimes.   Britian mandated the death penalty for over 220 crimes in the 18th Century many of which would be considered misdemeanor by 21st century standards.  This meant that many women and children were held in jails awaiting execution.  Women with young children were also sentenced to transportation to avoid separating them from their husbands.  Merchants preferred young and able-bodied men for use as laborers.  This meant that most women and children were simply left in jail so often the cost of their transportation was borne by the Crown but the merchants who took them to America still benefited from the sale of their indentures.

Eventually colonial opposition to the practice grew and colonies were unwilling to collaborate in accepting prisoners.  Arguments were made that hosting convicts represented a danger to the colonies.  Maryland and Virginia (who were actively engaged in other slave trades) enacted laws to prohibit transportation in 1670, and the king was persuaded to respect these.  Finally, the American Revolution brought an abrupt end to the practice of transportation to the North American mainland.  Similarly, sentences for transportation to Canada were regarded as unsuitable due to the possibility that sending convicts to Canada might increase dissatisfaction with British rule among settlers and foment further rebellion.  After the termination of transportation to North America, British prisons again became overcrowded, and dilapidated ships moored in various ports were pressed into service as floating gaols known as “hulks”.  Eventually the shift was made from sending prisoners to America to sending them to Cape Coast Castle (modern Ghana), Gorée (Senegal) in West Africa, and New South Wales (Australia).

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