HIX Essay Prac

“Historians constantly reinterpret the past”

Convict women were transported to Australia from 1788 to 1840, the contemporaries
stereotyped the female convicts as “whores” and “prostitutes”, these labels were believed
until after the 70’s and the feminist revolution. G.A. Woods tried to make the covicts look
like victims while L.L. Robson was very factual abut the convicts.

The Contemporaries such as Lt Ralph Clark called the convict women “Dammed whores”.
He was biased to these women because of his religious background but ironically he didn’t
mind having a concivt as a mistress. He was very critical to the convicts, especially the
women.

G.A. Woods was on the other end of the spectrum of the interpretation of the convicts. He
claimed that the convicts were victims of society and that society forced them to steal so
that they wouldn’t starve which is the romanticist view that they had to steal some bread to
their children from starving but this is wrong. Woods was Fatial socialist and was biased
by his views, he believed that society should be equal because of his support of socialism.
G.A. Woods wrote a speech about convicts in 1921. He claimed that “the aristocracy
disliked their presence” and that the convicts who were sent out wanted to create trade
unions so that’s why they were sent to the colony not because they had stolen anything but
wanted better pay. Woods claims that many of the convicts were repctable people who
were forced by necessity to break the law.

Compared to Woods, L.L. Robson has a more scientific methodology to his writing. He is
empirical with his writing. Robson was interested in the facts and finding out why the
convicts were sent out to Australia. He found out that most convicts were repeat offenders
for the crime of larceny (theft)