Transportation ballads explained

Transportation ballads are a genre of broadside ballads that concern the transportation of convicted criminals, originally to the American colonies and later to penal colonies in Australia. They were intended to serve as warnings of the hardships that come with conviction and thereby a deterrent against criminal behavior. Transportation ballads were published as broadsides—song sheets sold cheaply in the streets, at markets and at fairs. Many have passed into the folk tradition.^{[1] [2]}

Motifs and themes

Transportation ballads are almost exclusively related in the first person from the perspective of the convicted person. They employ a number of frequent themes including:

• a good upbringing, thereby implying that a life of crime was choice
• a decision to take up with persons of low moral repute
• incidental financial or emotional injury to the narrator's family
• harsh treatment of the narrator after conviction

More rarely, transportation ballads served as a form of protest, particularly as a means of opposing the sentencing of those convinced of political crimes.

Examples

The following extracts exemplify such themes:

Harsh conditions

Notable works

Songs classified as transportation ballads

• "Australia" (Roud 1488) – alternatively titled "Virginny", "The Lads of Virginia", "The Transports of Virginia"; broadside versions from the 19th century seem to be exclusively of the Virginia version^[3]
• "Botany Bay" (Roud 261, Laws L16) – alternatively titled "Whitby Lad", "Bound for Botany Boy", "Adieu to Old England", "The Transport's Farewell"; in the United States it was altered to become "The Boston Burglar" (alternatively "Boston City", "Charlestown", and "The Louisville Burglar")^[4]
• "The Convict" (Roud 1501) – alternatively "London Prentice Boy"; tells of a young man who is persuaded by a girl to murder his master for his money but at the last minute decides against the murder because of his master's kindness; he takes the money, is betrayed by the girl, and is tried and transported.^{[5] [6] [7]}
• "Jamie Raeburn's Farewell" (Roud 600) – particularly popular in Scotland^{[8] [9]}
• "Van Diemen's Land" (Roud 221 and 519, Laws L18) – recognized in two distinct versions, possibly due to popularity due to the sympathetic narrator, who is convicted of poaching, which was often seen as a crime only by the wealthy^{[10] [11]}

Other folk songs referencing penal transportation

• "Maggie May" (Roud 1757) – an anti-heroine ends up in Botany Bay
• "The Black Velvet Band" (Roud 2146)
• "Flash Company" (Roud 954) – alternatively "The Yellow Handkerchief";^[12] some versions omit transportation references^[13]
• "Jim Jones at Botany Bay" (Roud 5478)^[14]
• "Mitchell's Address" (Roud 5163)^[15]
• "The Isle of France" (Roud 1575)^[15]
• "The Boys of Mullaghbawn" (Roud 2362),^[16]
• "The Maids Lamentation" (Roud V16510)^[17]
• "Frost, Williams, and Jones's farewell to England" (Roud V15587) – John Frost and others transported during the Chartist struggle for adult male franchise^[18]
• "The Cotton Spinners Farewell" (Roud V15587) – concerns Scottish cotton spinners sentenced to seven years for trades union activities^{[19] [20]}
• "Proper Objects for Botany Bay" (Roud V27861) – praises penal transportation lists classes of people the author feels should be transported^[18]

Notes and References

1. Rouse, Andrew C. “THE TRANSPORTATION BALLAD: A SONG TYPE ROOTED IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY ENGLAND.” Hungarian Journal of English and American Studies (HJEAS), vol. 13, no. 1/2, 2007
2. Web site: Ballads Online .
3. http://ballads.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/static/images/sheets/05000/03935.gif
4. Web site: Search .
5. http://ballads.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/static/images/sheets/05000/02737.gif
6. Web site: The London Prentice Boy - Keith Summers English Folk Music Collection - World and traditional music | British Library - Sounds .
7. Web site: London Prentice Boy - Keith Summers English Folk Music Collection - World and traditional music | British Library - Sounds .
8. http://ballads.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/static/images/sheets/20000/18745.gif
9. http://www.theballadeers.com/eng/ewm_1960_t16_gallows.htm consulted 07/02/2017
10. Web site: Ballads Online .
11. Web site: Search .
12. Web site: Ballads Online .
13. Phoebe Smith, https://mainlynorfolk.info/watersons/songs/flashcompany.html
14. Charles MacAlister, Old Pioneering Days in the Sunny South http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-52777702/view?partId=nla.obj-244136796#page/n87/mode/1up pp 72-3
15. http://ballads.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/static/images/sheets/10000/06520.gif
16. http://ballads.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/static/images/sheets/15000/13323.gif
17. Web site: Frame 02714 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220513170720/http://ballads.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/static/images/sheets/05000/02714.gif . 13 May 2022 . Bodleian Library . dead.
18. http://ballads.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/static/images/sheets/25000/21226.gif
19. http://ballads.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/static/images/sheets/25000/21753.gif
20. Web site: The Cotton Spinners' Strike. - Strugglepedia . www.radicalglasgow.me.uk . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20130425091909/http://www.radicalglasgow.me.uk/strugglepedia/index.php?title=The_Cotton_Spinners%27_Strike. . 2013-04-25.