Unbroken Spirit: The Life of William Boxhal, Convict 3744 by Brian Peachey

Book Description

Secondhand. Very good condition. Minor wear to book corners and edges. Interior and binding are still excellent.

Unbroken Spirit is a true account of the poverty of the underprivileged in nineteenth-century England. It also tells of the consequences suffered by William Boxhal, who was one of the thousands who transgressed the law.

It is a graphic story of Boxhal's degrading imprisonment for three years in England, especially the eighteen months of hard labour he spent in the rotting hulk, the Defence, on the Thames. His transportation to the Swan River Colony in 1856, crammed on the William Hammond with 250 other convicts, is vividly depicted.

But it is Boxhal's time following his ticket-of-leave, contracted to Bishop Salvado at New Norcia, his marriage, the raising of a large family and the successful development of a prosperous farm without capital that demonstrates the unbroken spirit.

He was one of only about five per cent of the convicts who came to Western Australia to survive and rise above their incarceration and discrimination. (back cover)