Heros Journey

In 1786 the colony of New South Wales, Australia was proclaimed by King George III of the United Kingdom, and on January 23, 1787 the British parliament informed that they would send convicts to said colony. But why were convicts being transported to Australia? Until 1782, English convicts were transported to America; however, in 1783 the American War of Independence ended and America refused to accept anymore convicts so England had to find somewhere else to send their prisoners and New South Wales was the solution.

In this time period, life in Britain was very hard; as new machines were invented, people were no longer needed to do farming jobs so they moved to the cities, but the cities became over crowded. The majority of people didn’t have jobs and were very poor, so people stole things to survive the crisis. Minor crimes such as stealing items worth more that about a day’s pay for a working person, were punishable by transportation. The prisoners were kept in old, rotting prison ships called hulks. These ships were an old merchant ship that could not go to sea anymore but could float safely in the harbor. This is the reason why the prisons began to over-flow and the need to transport them.

Emma Clark, the hero of my story, lived through these rough times in England. She not only had live the mayor crisis going, she also had survive through the suffering when her mother died while giving birth to her younger sister Arya. Living in England in the 1780, meant learning to survive and think only of yourself and you family. Emma’s father was one of those people that were so desperate to provide for his family that he risked everything by stealing food for his daughters. Ezra Clark, Emma’s father, got caught stealing and was sent to prison for 30 years. Since Emma was a kid she had to learn to survive and provide for the family; she used to work in the market with her mother selling bread for some women who didn’t pay them enough. She grew up to be very independent and smart; when she was left all alone with her sister she knew she had to do everything in her power to raise Arya the way her mother raised her and provide as much as possible for both of them to survive.

One afternoon, Emma received a letter that her father would be transported to New South Wales, Australia and that the convict’s family members were obligated to come with. She had no other choice than to sail the fleet to Australia since the letter was sent by the British parliament and it said it was mandatory. They sailed for nine months, and when they arrived everyone was being assigned jobs according to their abilities; but before Emma and Arya could be assigned a rich land owner requested them personally. His name was William Anderson, he was one of the most recognizable land owners in the colony and he asked personally for Emma because he saw how beautiful she was and thought she would be the perfect wife for his son Charles Anderson.

When they arrived to the Anderson’s land Arya and Emma were separated; Arya was kept as a servant while Emma would be taught to be the perfect house wife. During her time in her new home, Emma spent her days crying in her room, until Amelia Turner “Anderson”, Williams’s mother and Charles’s grandmother, gave her some advice and gifted her with a diary. Amelia told her the diary would help her let out all her feelings by hand writing instead of tears. This helped Emma survive her miserable days, but then she found something that gave her some kind of hope. She met Jeremiah, a land worker for the Anderson’s; he was kind and humble and they fell in love immediately.

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