
Harlots, Hussies, and Poor Unfortunate Women
Crime, Transportation, and the Servitude of Female Convicts, 1718-1783
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $19.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Sally Martin
-
By:
-
Edith M. Ziegler
About this listen
In Harlots, Hussies, and Poor Unfortunate Women, Edith M. Ziegler recounts the history of British convict women involuntarily transported to Maryland in the 18th century.
Great Britain's forced transportation of convicts to colonial Australia is well known. Less widely known is Britain's earlier program of sending convicts - including women - to North America. Many of these women were assigned as servants in Maryland. Contemporary readers and scholars will be fascinated by Ziegler's explanation of how gender-influenced punishments were meted out to women and often ensnared them in Britain's system of convict labor.
Ziegler depicts the methods and operation of the convict trade and sale procedures in colonial markets. She describes the places where convict servants were deployed and highlights the roles these women played in colonial Maryland and their contributions to the region's society and economy. Ziegler's research also sheds light on escape attempts and the lives that awaited those who survived servitude.
Ziegler has masterfully researched the penumbra of associated documents and accounts to reconstruct the worlds of 18th-century Britain and colonial Maryland and the lives of these unwilling American settlers.
©2014 The University of Alabama Press (P)2015 Redwood AudiobooksListeners also enjoyed...
-
Slavery by Another Name
- The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II
- By: Douglas A. Blackmon
- Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris
- Length: 15 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this groundbreaking historical expose, Douglas A. Blackmon brings to light one of the most shameful chapters in American history - an Age of Neoslavery that thrived from the aftermath of the Civil War through the dawn of World War II.
-
-
Steel Yourself
- By Mark on 05-23-14
-
The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England
- A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century
- By: Ian Mortimer
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Imagine you could travel back to the 14th century. What would you see? What would you smell? More to the point, where are you going to stay? And what are you going to eat? Ian Mortimer shows us that the past is not just something to be studied; it is also something to be lived. He sets out to explain what life was like in the most immediate way, through taking you to the Middle Ages. The result is the most astonishing social history book you are ever likely to read: evolutionary in its concept, informative and entertaining in its detail.
-
-
Detailed, Interesting and Entertaining
- By Marc-Andr? on 05-13-10
By: Ian Mortimer
-
New England Bound
- Slavery and Colonization in Early America
- By: Wendy Warren
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Wiley
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a work that fundamentally recasts the history of colonial America, Wendy Warren shows how the institution of slavery was inexorably linked with the first century of English colonization of New England. While most histories of slavery in early America confine themselves to the Southern colonies and the Caribbean, New England Bound forcefully widens the historical aperture to include the entirety of English North America.
-
-
Don't waste your time or money
- By Dis Carded on 09-03-17
By: Wendy Warren
-
Gotham
- A History of New York City to 1898
- By: Edwin G. Burrows, Mike Wallace
- Narrated by: Victor Bevine
- Length: 67 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Gotham, Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace have produced a monumental work of history, one that ranges from the Indian tribes that settled in and around the island of Manna-hata, to the consolidation of the five boroughs into Greater New York in 1898. It is an epic narrative, a story as vast and as varied as the city it chronicles, and it underscores that the history of New York is the story of our nation. The events and people who crowd this audiobook guarantee that this is no mere local history. It is in fact a portrait of the heart and soul of America....
-
-
THANK YOU!!!!!
- By Stephen F (SPFJR) on 09-29-18
By: Edwin G. Burrows, and others
-
The Invisible Hook
- The Hidden Economics of Pirates
- By: Peter T. Leeson
- Narrated by: Jeremy Gage
- Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Pack your cutlass and blunderbuss--it's time to go a-pirating! The Invisible Hook takes readers inside the wily world of late 17th- and early 18th-century pirates. With swashbuckling irreverence and devilish wit, Peter Leeson uncovers the hidden economics behind pirates' notorious, entertaining, and sometimes downright shocking behavior.
-
-
Pirates lived in a Libertarian Paradise!!!!
- By Logan Kedzie on 10-04-10
By: Peter T. Leeson
-
Making Haste from Babylon
- The Mayflower Pilgrims and Their World: A New History
- By: Nick Bunker
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 18 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the end of 1618, a blazing green star soared across the night sky over the northern hemisphere. From the Philippines to the Arctic, the comet became a sensation and a symbol, a warning of doom or a promise of salvation. Two years later, as the Pilgrims prepared to sail across the Atlantic on board the Mayflower, the atmosphere remained charged with fear and expectation. Men and women readied themselves for war, pestilence, or divine retribution. Against this background, and amid deep economic depression, the Pilgrims conceived their enterprise of exile.
-
-
Excellent, detailed and eye-opening
- By David on 09-20-15
By: Nick Bunker
-
Slavery by Another Name
- The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II
- By: Douglas A. Blackmon
- Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris
- Length: 15 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this groundbreaking historical expose, Douglas A. Blackmon brings to light one of the most shameful chapters in American history - an Age of Neoslavery that thrived from the aftermath of the Civil War through the dawn of World War II.
-
-
Steel Yourself
- By Mark on 05-23-14
-
The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England
- A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century
- By: Ian Mortimer
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Imagine you could travel back to the 14th century. What would you see? What would you smell? More to the point, where are you going to stay? And what are you going to eat? Ian Mortimer shows us that the past is not just something to be studied; it is also something to be lived. He sets out to explain what life was like in the most immediate way, through taking you to the Middle Ages. The result is the most astonishing social history book you are ever likely to read: evolutionary in its concept, informative and entertaining in its detail.
-
-
Detailed, Interesting and Entertaining
- By Marc-Andr? on 05-13-10
By: Ian Mortimer
-
New England Bound
- Slavery and Colonization in Early America
- By: Wendy Warren
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Wiley
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a work that fundamentally recasts the history of colonial America, Wendy Warren shows how the institution of slavery was inexorably linked with the first century of English colonization of New England. While most histories of slavery in early America confine themselves to the Southern colonies and the Caribbean, New England Bound forcefully widens the historical aperture to include the entirety of English North America.
-
-
Don't waste your time or money
- By Dis Carded on 09-03-17
By: Wendy Warren
-
Gotham
- A History of New York City to 1898
- By: Edwin G. Burrows, Mike Wallace
- Narrated by: Victor Bevine
- Length: 67 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Gotham, Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace have produced a monumental work of history, one that ranges from the Indian tribes that settled in and around the island of Manna-hata, to the consolidation of the five boroughs into Greater New York in 1898. It is an epic narrative, a story as vast and as varied as the city it chronicles, and it underscores that the history of New York is the story of our nation. The events and people who crowd this audiobook guarantee that this is no mere local history. It is in fact a portrait of the heart and soul of America....
-
-
THANK YOU!!!!!
- By Stephen F (SPFJR) on 09-29-18
By: Edwin G. Burrows, and others
-
The Invisible Hook
- The Hidden Economics of Pirates
- By: Peter T. Leeson
- Narrated by: Jeremy Gage
- Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Pack your cutlass and blunderbuss--it's time to go a-pirating! The Invisible Hook takes readers inside the wily world of late 17th- and early 18th-century pirates. With swashbuckling irreverence and devilish wit, Peter Leeson uncovers the hidden economics behind pirates' notorious, entertaining, and sometimes downright shocking behavior.
-
-
Pirates lived in a Libertarian Paradise!!!!
- By Logan Kedzie on 10-04-10
By: Peter T. Leeson
-
Making Haste from Babylon
- The Mayflower Pilgrims and Their World: A New History
- By: Nick Bunker
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 18 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the end of 1618, a blazing green star soared across the night sky over the northern hemisphere. From the Philippines to the Arctic, the comet became a sensation and a symbol, a warning of doom or a promise of salvation. Two years later, as the Pilgrims prepared to sail across the Atlantic on board the Mayflower, the atmosphere remained charged with fear and expectation. Men and women readied themselves for war, pestilence, or divine retribution. Against this background, and amid deep economic depression, the Pilgrims conceived their enterprise of exile.
-
-
Excellent, detailed and eye-opening
- By David on 09-20-15
By: Nick Bunker
-
The Jamestown Brides
- By: Jennifer Potter
- Narrated by: Charlotte Strevens
- Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jamestown, England's first real foothold in the New World, was fraught with danger - from starvation and disease to violent skirmishes between colonists and the native populations. Mortality rates were impossibly high: six out of seven settlers died within the first few years. How clear these and other perils were made to the 56 young women who left their homes and boarded ships in England in 1621, nearly 15 years after Jamestown's founding, is not known. But we do know who they were. Their ages ranged from 16 to 28, and they were deemed "young and uncorrupt".
-
-
WOMEN IN HISTORY
- By Grams on 06-29-19
By: Jennifer Potter
-
The Faithful Executioner
- Life and Death, Honor and Shame in the Turbulent Sixteenth Century
- By: Joel F. Harrington
- Narrated by: James Gillies
- Length: 9 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Based on the rare and until now overlooked journal of a Renaissance-era executioner, the noted historian Joel F. Harrington's The Faithful Executioner takes us deep inside the alien world and thinking of Meister Frantz Schmidt of Nuremberg, who, during 45 years as a professional executioner, personally put to death 394 individuals and tortured, flogged, or disfigured many hundreds more. But the picture that emerges of Schmidt from his personal papers is not that of a monster. Could a man who routinely practiced such cruelty also be insightful?
-
-
Excellent
- By James on 03-30-18
-
Never Caught
- By: Erica Armstrong Dunbar
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 6 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When George Washington was elected president, he reluctantly left behind his beloved Mount Vernon to serve in Philadelphia, the temporary seat of the nation's capital. In setting up his household, he took Tobias Lear, his celebrated secretary, and eight slaves, including Ona Judge, about which little has been written. As he grew accustomed to Northern ways, there was one change he couldn't get his arms around: Pennsylvania law required enslaved people be set free after six months of residency in the state. Washington decided to circumvent the law.
-
-
Wonderful audiobook
- By Brad Turner on 03-07-17
-
Harriet Tubman
- The Road to Freedom
- By: Catherine Clinton
- Narrated by: Shayna Small
- Length: 8 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Celebrated for her courageous exploits as a conductor on the Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman has entered history as one of 19th-century America's most enduring and important figures. But just who was this remarkable woman?
-
-
Returning this book
- By KMS on 07-11-18
-
Revolutionary Mothers
- Women in the Struggle for America's Independence
- By: Carol Berkin
- Narrated by: Donna Postel
- Length: 6 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The American Revolution was a home-front war that brought scarcity, bloodshed, and danger into the life of every American, and Carol Berkin shows us that women played a vital role throughout the struggle. Berkin takes us into the ordinary moments of extraordinary lives. We see women boycotting British goods in the years before independence, writing propaganda that radicalized their neighbors, raising funds for the army, and helping finance the fledgling government. We see how they managed farms, plantations, and businesses while their men went into battle.
-
-
Required reading for American patriots.
- By Eric on 08-09-18
By: Carol Berkin
-
Slavery's Capitalism
- A New History of American Economic Development
- By: Sven Beckert - editor, Seth Rockman - editor
- Narrated by: William Hughes, Kevin Kenerly, Bahni Turpin, and others
- Length: 13 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
During the 19th century, the United States entered the ranks of the world's most advanced and dynamic economies. At the same time, the nation sustained an expansive and brutal system of human bondage. This was no mere coincidence. Slavery's Capitalism argues for slavery's centrality to the emergence of American capitalism in the decades between the Revolution and the Civil War.
-
-
The volume is so low I can't hear it.
- By Anonymous User on 01-30-18
By: Sven Beckert - editor, and others
-
The World That Made New Orleans
- From Spanish Silver to Congo Square
- By: Ned Sublette
- Narrated by: Sean Crisden
- Length: 11 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Offering a new perspective on the unique cultural influences of New Orleans, this entertaining history captures the soul of the city and reveals its impact on the rest of the nation. Focused on New Orleans' first century of existence, a comprehensive, chronological narrative of the political, cultural, and musical development of Louisiana's early years is presented.
-
-
great book; terrible "performance"
- By WGNYC on 11-28-17
By: Ned Sublette
-
The Barbarous Years
- The Peopling of British North America: The Conflict of Civilizations, 1600-1675
- By: Bernard Bailyn
- Narrated by: Henry Strozier
- Length: 26 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bernard Bailyn gives us a compelling account of the first great transit of people from Britain, Europe, and Africa to British North America, their involvements with each other, and their struggles with the indigenous peoples of the eastern seaboard.
-
-
A feast for genealogy/history buffs
- By judithh on 07-21-16
By: Bernard Bailyn
-
Dreams of Africa in Alabama
- The Slave Ship Clotilda and the Story of the Last Africans Brought to America
- By: Sylviane A. Diouf
- Narrated by: Allyson Johnson
- Length: 12 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the summer of 1860, more than 50 years after the United States legally abolished the international slave trade, 110 men, women, and children from Benin and Nigeria were brought ashore in Alabama under cover of night. They were the last recorded group of Africans deported to the United States as slaves. This book reconstructs the lives of the people in West Africa, recounts their capture and passage in the slave pen in Ouidah, and describes their experience of slavery alongside American-born enslaved men and women.
-
-
Should be required reading in all schools.
- By Anonymous User on 12-31-21
-
London in the Nineteenth Century
- By: Jerry White
- Narrated by: Neil Gardner
- Length: 21 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jerry White's London in the Nineteenth Century is the richest and most absorbing account of the city's greatest century by its leading expert. London in the nineteenth century was the greatest city mankind had ever seen. Its growth was stupendous. Its wealth was dazzling. Its horrors shocked the world. This was the London of Blake, Thackeray and Mayhew, of Nash, Faraday and Disraeli. Most of all it was the London of Dickens. As William Blake put it, London was 'a Human awful wonder of God'.
-
-
SO DETAILED..SO VERY VERY DETAILED.
- By Count B on 06-16-19
By: Jerry White
-
Master of the Mountain
- Thomas Jefferson and His Slaves
- By: Henry Wiencek
- Narrated by: Brian Holsopple
- Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Is there anything new to say about Thomas Jefferson and slavery? The answer is a resounding yes. Henry Wiencek's eloquent, persuasive book - based on new information coming from archaeological work at Monticello and on hitherto overlooked or disregarded evidence in Jefferson's papers - opens up a huge, poorly understood dimension of Jefferson's world. We must, Wiencek suggests, follow the money.
-
-
Clear, Insightful & Iconclastic History
- By R.S. on 04-18-13
By: Henry Wiencek
-
The Sewing Girl's Tale
- A Story of Crime and Consequences in Revolutionary America
- By: John Wood Sweet
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On a moonless night in the summer of 1793 a crime was committed in the back room of a New York brothel—the kind of crime that even victims usually kept secret. Instead, seventeen-year-old seamstress Lanah Sawyer did what virtually no one in US history had done before: she charged a gentleman with rape. Her accusation sparked a raw courtroom drama and a relentless struggle for vindication that threatened both Lanah’s and her assailant’s lives.
-
-
Great for history buffs!
- By LibertyHillbilly on 02-09-23
By: John Wood Sweet
What listeners say about Harlots, Hussies, and Poor Unfortunate Women
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Christine N. Ethier
- 08-02-15
Detailed look at little known aspect of history
Disclaimer: “I was provided this audio book at no charge by the author, publisher and/or narrator in exchange for an unbiased review via AudiobookBlast”
There is a tendency in America to forget about certain key aspects of our history. No, I am not just talking about those people who forget what the Confederate Flag stands for, but I am also talking about the history pre-Independence. At times, it seems as if Americans think the only country made up of transported criminals is Australia. They forget that criminals were transported here, to a lesser degree and under slightly different circumstances, but brought here against their will, with more hope than those take in the African slave trade.
Ziegler’s book is an attempt to put this to rights. It’s true that her book isn’t the first to focus on the topic, and her introduction points out several books that the reader can track down for more general information. The focus of the book, however, is on the women who were sentenced to labor in the Colonies, in particular Maryland, for a span of 7-14 years depending on the verdict.
What this means is a woman found guilty of a crime (usually it seems, though not always, robbery) would be transported to the colonies from England, where her contact (her labor) would be brought be a colonist. After the term was over, she could return home or wherever. If she got pregnant while under penalty, additional time was added as it was if she escaped. Such women would be put to work in the fields or the house, sometimes working side by side with slaves. Sometimes the women gave birth to children whose fathers were slaves (and what happened to these children seems to be all about original sin).
Because of the subject, there isn’t one single strand or story to follow. What Ziegler does instead is far more comprehensive. She starts with the situations that might have lead women to not only to be in court but also how the system worked (for instance, the time spent in jail waiting for transport to the colonies was not counted as part of the sentence). She compares various sentences. Then there is a discussion about transportation and arrival as well as about the work that the women were given. Ziegler than discusses escape.
Perhaps the most heartbreaking part is the section on what happens after the women served their sentences and, in some cases, returned home to families that were grown or husbands that had moved on (just as their male counterparts returned to wives that had moved on). In some cases, the women stayed in the colonies, sometimes due to children, sometimes not.
Overall, while detailing a variety of information and various stories, the book flows well and the writing is engaging.
Sally Martin’s reading reminds one of Wanda McCaddon. Martin’s voice is a perfect match to the subject matter. While some of the stories will make the reader and/or listener want to smack someone, Martin does not let anger or another overwhelmingly emotion into her reading. This enables the reader to actual take in the information. It really is a reading and not a lecture.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Mary
- 09-08-15
Penal Colonization in America
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
I would to some one who is interested in history and also to educate one that not all slaves were black.
Who was your favorite character and why?
I guess my favorite character was the wig maker husband who tried to ensure that his pregnant wife who was guilty of a minor thief, would be housed more comfortably in a more sanitary area in the ship that transported her. The ship's captain took his money and then threw this man/s wife in with the rest of the criminals after he was at sea.
Which scene was your favorite?
When the above mentioned captain got court marshaled for his multiple wrongdoings. Although he was punished he got off far more lightly then the the transported criminals who had committed petty crimes. He should should of been transported for life!!
If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?
Criminal founding mothers.
Any additional comments?
A very interesting history of American transportation focusing in on transported petty criminal women. The part about the extra years of servitude if the indentured woman became pregnant, especially if the the father was black was quite interesting. At least a couple of extra years would be added to her indenturement and if the child was mixed raced then the child would automatically be indentured until his/her 31st birthday. So lets say if a black slave were to rape a white slave (err..indentured servant).then the resulting child would automatically be enslaved until the age of 31. Like wise if the master took unwelcome liberties with the indentured servant resulting in a pregnancy, the servant would be viewed as a Jezebel and her years of service would be extended.
“I was provided this audiobook at no charge by the author, publisher and/or narrator in exchange for an unbiased review via AudiobookBlast dot come”
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- MolllyT
- 08-01-15
What if criminal justice was unchanged since then?
Three disclaimers: 1. I totally geek the American Revolution, 2. I (and whole family) have been Rev War re-enacting for much longer than the war lasted, 3. I was gifted this book in exchange for an honest review. Plus, I am female and have worked with the criminal justice system.
That being said, I feel that this is a wonderful academic thesis made real and comprehensible. It appears to be as well-researched as possible, and is presented in a logical, coherent manner. Many details are presented regarding the charges and lifestyles involved, as well as the privations thrust upon the women who were enslaved by the sentences they were given. Any comparison to today's criminal justice system is laughable. It is well worth the read for many of us.
Sally Martin gives an excellent performance as personable lecturer. Her rate of delivery easily allows for note-taking as well as intellectual absorption.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- The Bookwyrm Speaks
- 01-11-16
Interesting and well reasearched
This was a really interesting, telling the story of the treatment of female convicts transported to the British Colonies during the Colonial era. Well researched, it shows a lot of details, really illustrating how these poor women were abused and mistreated in a male dominated world. It really sheds light on a part of history that no one likes to talk about, especially considering the large number of women involved. Sally Martin's narration was very good, really moving the swtory along and never dragging it down with a monotone reading.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Deedra
- 01-26-16
Harlots etc
This is a very interesting book about women and how they were treated concerning transportation,jail etc in the 1700's.I found it very interesting! Sally Martin narrates it beautifully!
This audiobook was provided to me at no cost for a fair and honest review
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Frode
- 07-30-15
Harlots, Hussies, and a good book!
Edith M. Ziegler made a good book here! Harlots, Hussies, and Poor Unfortunate Women: Crime, Transportation, and the Servitude of Female Convicts, 1718-1783 is a book about what it says it is about! Nothing more, but nothing less ether! 8 hrs and 7 mins about it too! It is academic, and i like that! So why 4 stars? I would say it is maybe just a topic that is not interesting for me, but no i found that interesting! I think maybe i wanted a more detailed book almost, but that is nitpicking! I like this book, i just don't love it, that is why it gets 4 out 5!
I know Sally Martin from Erotic Exchanges: The World of Elite Prostitution in Eighteenth-Century Paris. She reads that book good, here she does it again! She still reads the book a bit slow, so i guess that is her style, but i wanted it a bit faster this time around too. So maybe it is something wrong with me, but i have preferences like all other people i guess!
I was provided this audiobook at no charge by the author, publisher and/or narrator in exchange for an unbiased review via AudiobookBlast dot com
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Kingsley
- 07-25-15
From a nation populated by convicts...
I probably come to this book with a bit of a different background to many. I'm from Australia. And as Vizzini points out in The Princess Bride, Australia is a nation populated by criminals. As a nation we were started and built as a convict colony. The history of transportation to Australia is well known here. We started around 1778, a convenient time because the recently declared USA had just closed its borders to the British convicts.
This book covers the topic of transportation from England, focusing predominately on women, to Maryland (and surrounding regions) in the 18th century. Built on research from court records, personal diaries and newspaper reports it paints a fairly complete picture of why they were send, how they were sent, what they did when they got here and how they were treated. And as a general rule: it isn't pretty.
This book is well researched (as are all university Press books I have listened to) and very interesting. I would recommend to anyone who is interested in the lesser known parts of US and world history.
Sally Martin does a good job with reading. Straight forward she is clear and enjoyable to listen to. More than happy to listen to other works she narrates.
This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review courtesy of audiobookblast dot com.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Katie
- 08-02-15
Well researched, non-sensational, but a bit rough
As long as the subtitle of this book already is, it would have been accurate to include a few more words, those being "In the colony of Maryland."
That this book was well researched and written by a historian, rather than one dabbling in history, is quite evident. It is also completely lacking in sensationalism. Nothing is stated as fact that isn't supported by primary source material and the reader/listener is always informed of the primary source of information. These aspects of the book are traits that I much appreciate in a work of non-fiction. "Just the facts, ma'am." The product of that research is well presented in a well organized flow of information.
That said, had I not been obligated to write a review, having accepted a free copy for an unbiased review, the introductory chapter may have turned me off. The introductory chapter is poorly written/poorly edited. It gave me a very poor first impression. It is definitely not to the same standard as the rest of the book. The introductory chapter seems to have been a last minute and rushed addition. I don't know who thought that introductory chapter was necessary, but I found it completely redundant. If we are going to read (listen to) the book, we don't need a detail of everything we are going to read (listen) about, cataloged chapter by chapter. The chapter was as redundant as one particularly poor sentence in that chapter that included the phrase "such as, for example." Another poor example from that chapter is "committed crimes or otherwise broke the law." My high school composition teachers would have bled red over those sentences. The inclusion of this poorly edited and unnecessary chapter detracted from the book and I would encourage editors to leave it out of future editions. I would encourage readers/listeners to either skip the chapter or grit your teeth and get through it, because what follows is worthy of your reading/listening time.
I listened to the audio edition of this book. The narration style employed by reader Sally Martin for this production is well suited to the work with clear and precise enunciation, well paced delivery and an informative and authoritative tone.
I was provided this audiobook at no charge by the author, publisher and/or narrator in exchange for an unbiased review via AudiobookBlast.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!