Penal transportation

Penal transportation (or simply transportation) was the relocation of convicted criminals, or other persons regarded as undesirable, to a distant place, often a colony, for a specified term; later, specifically established penal colonies became their destination. While the prisoners may have been released once the sentences were served, they generally did not have the resources to return home.

Quotes

• Our sailing ships like common-sewers we use,
  And through our distant colonies diffuse
  The draught of dungeons, and the stench of stews;
  Whom, when their home-bred honesty is lost,
  We disembogue on some far Indian coast,
  Thieves, pandars, palliards, sins of every sort;
  Those are the manufactures we export.
  • John Dryden, The Hind and the Panther (1687), Part 2

See also

• Papillon (1973 film)