Alexander Pearce: A Disturbing Journey Through The New World

Dark Histories

Ben Cutmore

History

4.8 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 31 May 2020

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week we go back to the Penal Colonies of Australia to visit a story of grimey adventure, with Alexander Pearce, a convict who escaped into the bush and then, naturally, ate all his friends SOURCES Knopf A., Alfred, (1987) The Fatal Shore: A history of the Transportation of Convicts to Australia 1787-1868, Collins Harvill, UK Collins, Paul, (2004) Hells Gates, Hardie Grant Books, Australia Boyce, James. “Return to Eden: Van Diemen’s Land and the Early British Settlement of Australia.” Environment and History 14, no. 2, “Australia Revisited” special issue (May, 2008): 289–307. Convict Life, libraries.tas.gov.au/family-history/Pages/Convict-life.aspx. Pearce, Alexander, talis.ent.sirsidynix.net.au/client/en_AU/names/search/detailnonmodal/ent:$002f$002fNAME_INDEXES$002f0$002fNAME_INDEXES:1424923/one. “The Land of the Free: Criminal Transportation to America.” The History Press, www.thehistorypress.co.uk/articles/the-land-of-the-free-criminal-transportation-to-america/. ------ For extended show notes, including maps, links and scripts, head over to darkhistories.com Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories Connect with us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/darkhistoriespodcast Or find us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/darkhistories & Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dark_histories/ Or you can contact us directly via email at [email protected] or via voicemail on: (415) 286-5072 or join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/6f7e2pt Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017 Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thanks for downloading Dark Histories.
0:02.0	Before we start, I just want to throw out a few ways that you can get involved and help support the show.
0:07.0	We have a Patreon, Amazon Booklist, Coffee and Audible Affiliate Link.
0:12.0	So if you're interested in supporting, hopefully
0:14.9	you can find a way that best suits you. All of the links for those things can be found
0:19.8	either in the show notes or over on the website at dark histories.com.
0:24.0	Of course, just continuing to spread the word about the show on social media,
0:29.0	leaving reviews and sharing with all your family and friends is also a huge help.
0:34.0	So thank you to everyone for all that.
0:36.4	All right, enough of this.
0:38.3	Let's crack on with the episode. Seven years is a long time. For a convict like Alexander Pierce, the prospect of seven years serving the crown in a distant land, effectively working as slave labour, was much too long.
0:55.3	Arrested, tried and shipped off to the penal colonies of the new world, life had served
0:59.7	Pierce a pretty bum hand over the past few years and now he found himself with no shoes
1:04.4	lost in the middle of a rainforest with only the forearm of one of the members of
1:08.1	his old chain gang to chew on. Freedom was not punning out quite as he thought it would.
1:14.0	When Pierce's narrative of his misadventures in the penal colonies of Australia
1:18.0	was initially published in pamphlet form in 1824,
1:21.0	the introduction described it as a rollicking story of escape, adventure, misfortune
1:26.6	and intrigue.
1:27.6	Though it certainly glossed over a few gory details, cleaning it up for public consumption, it's hard to reach the end and then argue with the sentiment.
1:36.0	Pierce, however, if he was still alive, might have called it something else entirely.
1:41.0	This is dark histories, where the facts are worse than fiction.
	...

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