Unwilling Emigrants: A Study of the Convict Period in Western Australia by Alexandra Hasluck [Hardcover]

Book Description

Secondhand. Fair condition. Ex library copy with stamps, stickers and sticky tape stains. Date due slip and borrower card pocket have been removed. Wear to book corners and edges. Foxing to foredge. Dust jacket is in fair condition with tears from removal of stickers. Dust jacket is now enclosed in protective cover.

This book was inspired by the discovery of a tattered bundle of letters. Myra Sykes wrote the letters to her husband, William, who had been transported to the Swan River Colony. In the 1850s, the eastern colonies had either ceased taking convicts or were in the process of ending transportation. The Swan River Colony settlers, however, were desperate for labour and were petitioning the British government to send convicts. Alexandra Hasluck uses William Sykes as an example of the "prototype "convict sent to Western Australia.