Book Description

Few Canadians and Americans, let alone Australians, would realize that Canadians and Americans were among those transported as convicts to Australia. Their collective name was known as the ‘Canadian Patriots’, or ‘Patriotes’, and there might have been up to 200 of them. These were among the Canadian ‘rebels’ who fought against the British crown 1837-1838. The French from Lower Canada never did accept British rule, for after all it was a colony of France before the British defeated France on the Plains of Abraham at Quebec City. Then there were many well-meaning Americans who wanted to get rid of the British. The rebellions against the British were easily defeated, the Patriots lacking the discipline and organisation of the British troops. The Canadians were essentially made up of two groups: * First, there were the ‘rebels’ from Upper Canada, which is now the province of Ontario, and were mainly British Canadians and Americans who joined the rebellion. They were sent to Van Diemen’s Land. * Second, there were the ‘rebels’ from Lower Canada, now the province of Quebec, and these were in the main French Canadians. They were disembarked for five days at Hobart Town and then sent on to Sydney. Within five years most had either won pardons or had escaped. Overall, they were more highly educated than the normal convict, and many wrote of their experiences. We are particularly knowledgeable about the Canadian convicts who were on the HMS Buffalo 1839-1840, though some came on other ships. On board the Buffalo were eighty-two American patriots who had crossed the border through sympathy with the anti-British rebellion, fifty-eight were French prisoners from Lower Canada, and five were civil prisoners. Three French and nine English Canadians and Americans wrote memoirs or narratives of their experiences in Australia. Selections from these narratives are presented to show how they were treated, most would say as slaves.