Historical definition for the term “assignment” used within the context of convictism in Australia

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Historical definition for the term “assignment” used within the context of convictism in Australia
	Convict assignment was a system used in various penal colonies to assign the convicts to work for the state or private individuals. Assignment dates back in 1654 and continued during the rest of seventeenth century. Assignment was preferred to incarceration. Transportation was used to seed criminal reprieved from death penalty to work in the plantations. The abolitionist viewed the act of convict assignment as a form of slavery; this assertion was seconded by the historians. This paper explores the reasons be hide transportation of convicts, describes the term assignment in the context of convict Australia, it compares and contrasts the free workers in UK with the convict Australia. In Australia every colony had a system of convict assignment except the Western Australia
	Transportation in Convict Australia
	Transportation in Australia started during the seventeenth century, countries had various reasons for transporting their convicts, in America, transportation was used as a way of ensuring that the offenders in the society received punishment without having to put them to death and because Transportation to the North America was not possible due to the emergence of American Revolution in 1776, the government held the convicts in prisons, and as a result the prisons became overcrowded (Raymond and William 99). A new penal colony was developed to solve the crisis and on 13 May 1787 the first fleet set sail for Australia. London was overcrowded; unemployment was prevalent and was flooded with cheap alcohol. Due Poverty, child labor, social injustice and unhealthy living conditions crime rates increased in Britain in 19th century, as a result prisons became overcrowded, therefore transportation was chosen in order to solve the eminent crisis. Transportation was stopped in 1857, during the 80years in which people were transported to Australia a total of 160,023 men and women from Ireland, England and other parts of the Empire were transported (Raymond and William 100).
	Description of “assignment” in the context of Transportation in Convict Australia
	Assignment was a system of banishment; transportation provided an efficient way for government especially the British government to rid itself of criminals. On arrival convicts were assigned to work either providing labor for public works such as road making or were assigned to individuals for whom they would work. Though transportation was a form of punishment, this is in relation to Britons who viewed the goals as not enough for the offence done. the convicts who had important skills became highly sought-after, this gave the convicts an avenue to bargain for better conditions, this is because attempt were made to assign convict work which was related to what they had been doing before conviction. Transportation on the other hand condemned the convicts whose skills had limited use to be assigned as unskilled laborers or domestic servants.
	Case examples of those assigned
	States as well as individuals recognized the convicts previous occupations as propounded by (Stephen and Peter 3), hence a large proportion of the convicts were assigned the same occupation they had before conviction. for example, mustard (par. 1)  William graham who was born in Longdales was convicted with the offence of manslaughter ,and was sentenced to transportation for life .after sentencing in February 1857,William propounded  languished in the hulks for eighteen months awaiting transportation, some prisoners  did not proceed further as they died there due to bad conditions and overcrowded prisons. Mustrad (16) William’s sentence indicated that he could be in receipt of ticket-of-leave. Ticket-of-leave was a system devised in order to maximize convicts labor, it was also evidence that a convict could work outside the assignment area, as well as report regularly to authorities and also the ticket holder had to attend divine worship each Sunday, the ticket also indicated a type of mercy that might be exercised to the offender on positive behavior change. On arrival in Australia William was assigned to work as a lime –burner then worked as a small farmer. William died out of a natural cause 1891.Mustrad ( par. 23)
	Comparison of “assignment” to slavery in the US
	Slavery refer to a system where individuals are treated as property that can be commercialized, and hence are forced to work, slaves can be captured and held against their will or purchased where they are deprived their rights to leave, refuse to work and are not also allowed to seek compensation. On the contrary, convict assignment refers to punishment through work as a result of crime committed.
 	Slavery in United States existed as legal institution, majority of the slaves worked on plantation and large farms, between 16th to 19th century 12 million slaves were shipped to Amer