The History We Choose to Remember: Convict Colonies Forgotten and Remembered
History is a story we choose to tell, and as our family journeyed through colonial sites in Australia and later in America, we saw striking contrasts in how each nation remembers its convict past. Both received British convicts, but each country’s story diverges in critical ways. Australia preserves its convict history, exploring a journey from punishment to reintegration, while America’s convict history is largely forgotten, overshadowed by the lasting impact of slavery.
When we visited Port Arthur in Tasmania in 2021 and again in early 2024, Lorelei, Jack, Adeline, Carolina and James got a close look at Australia’s convict story. Walking the grounds, the kids peeked into cells, listened to stories of harsh labor, and learned that, after seven years of labor, many Australian convicts were granted freedom and given opportunities to integrate into society. For many convicts, their skin color and British background made this transition easier, as they blended into a developing community that was culturally similar.
In America, however, the story was different. Before the Revolution, Britain sent around 50,000 convicts to the American colonies, many with sentences of seven years. But the colonies were not penal settlements, and these convicts were dispersed among plantations and settlements, often vanishing into the larger labor pool. Many worked alongside indentured servants and, notably, enslaved Africans, whose labor was permanent and enforced without the possibility of freedom. For African slaves, freedom was rarely attainable, and racial barriers hardened over time, creating social divides that profoundly shaped American society.
As we later toured American historical sites, the kids quickly noticed the contrast. They had been reading about the lives of enslaved people in America, and seeing how Australian convicts often reintegrated into society after completing their terms led to questions about why African slaves weren’t granted similar opportunities. The kids began to see how America’s convict story faded behind the much larger legacy of racial injustice and the permanent bondage faced by enslaved people. In Australia, the convicts’ shared British heritage and racial alignment with colonizers made reintegration easier, allowing a path to freedom and acceptance that was not afforded to African slaves in America.
Our family’s journey across these historical landscapes highlighted how each country’s view of its past reflects its current identity. Australia’s choice to preserve convict history acknowledges the humanity and resilience of those who endured punishment and eventually became free citizens. In America, as we work through troubling parts of our past, like slavery, they overshadow a more distant and forgotten convict past.
