Condemned : the transported men, women and children who built Britain's empire /Graham Seal.

"A tremendously powerful account, told through individual stories, of how forced migration was fundamental to the British empire. The cruel system of transportation has a long history. In the early 1600s, Elizabeth Wynn was imprisoned for robbery, marked as colonialist property and shipped overseas. In the eighteenth century, petty thieves like Charlotte Badger were sent to outposts in Australia and America and there put to work. Even as recently as the 1940s, 'superfluous' or unwanted children such as four-year-old Marcelle O'Brien were sent to institutions in Australia, where they were vulnerable to abuse. Drawing on first-hand accoutns, letters and official documents, Graham Seal uncovers the traumatic struggles of individuals shipped around the empire. He shows how the earliest large-scale kidnapping and transportation of children to the American colonies was quickly bolstered with shipments of the poor, criminal and rebellious to different continents. From Asia to Africa, this global trade in forced labour allowed Britain to build its colonies while turning a considerable profit. Over the course of 400 years, Britain transported over 376,000 unwanted citizens beyond its shores. Revelatory and often moving, Condemned brings to light the true extent of this brutal element in the history of the British empire."--Provided by the publisher.