It's common knowledge that Australia was founded by British prisoners. It's less well-known that before the American Revolution, convicts were shipped to the colonies in the New World. Even less known is the boondoggle right after the colonies broke away, when a few hundred unfortunates were sent from Britain to the wilds of West Africa to help defend the realm's slaveholding interests. Author Emma Christopher is a University of Sydney professor and an expert on the transatlantic slave trade and therefore well prepared to offer the historical context for this bizarre episode.
Christopher opens with an exhaustive and fascinating recitation of the prisoners' lives and crimes. Some of the condemned committed murders and other heinous acts, but many simply skirted too close to stealing goods worth 40 shillings or more, which mandated a death sentence. The prison system was overloaded, and the government needed a replacement for the American colonies dumping ground, but Australia wasn't yet considered. Thus was born the solution of sending convicts to serve as soldiers in West Africa. It ended poorly.
Enlightening and compelling for such a dense, well-researched work, A Merciless Place offers a sobering illustration of the harsh and often capricious nature of 18th-century justice as well as a clear examination of a massive failure of governmental planning. But the story also borders on black comedy, populated as it is by inept bureaucrats, opportunistic criminals and downright villainous authority figures. This rogues' gallery was shockingly unprepared for guard duty anywhere, much less the harsh tropics. When Christopher focuses on colorful characters like the Fagan-ish Patrick Mandan and the gentleman crook William Murray, her tale is even outright entertaining. --Kelly Faircloth, freelance writer