George Blackstone (abt. 1803 - aft. 1835)

Born about 1803 in Annapolis, Chesapeake, Virginia, United States

Died after 17 Jan 1835 after about age 32 in Australia [uncertain]

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Shoshanah Luckie [send private message]

• Africans convicted and transported from Great Britain to Australia

Biography

George Blackstone is a part of US Black heritage.

George Blackstone has African ancestry.

George Blackstone was a convict after the Third Fleet transported to Van Diemen's Land

George was born in 1803 in Annapolis, Chesapeake, Virginia in America. He was of African descent and his occupation was Mariner and Servant. ^[1] (see research note)

On 17th January 1828 at the age of 25 George can be found in the south of England on trial at the Southampton Boro' Quartersessions, Portsmouth, Hampshire, England. ^[1]

George declared under oath before the court in Southampton as to his background and defence case. There is no record that any part of his testimony was challenged at any point. He would also have spoken in his native accent, which would have supported his statement on his native place. The following information is obtainable from his convict records:

Place of birth: Annapolis, Chesapeake.

This can be seen: ^[1] (Show all records, scroll down)

George's offence was an "offence against property namely - "stealing Wearing Apparel at Portsmouth out of a Slop Shop" for which he was given a sentence of 7 years transportation, making him a convict after the 3rd fleet.

Of his former lifestyle George is recorded as having said of himself:

I was last in the Alexander of Grangemouth in the West India Trade I have been Officers Servant on board a Man of War. ^[1]

George was transported on the convict ship - Woodford which departed England on 29th April 1828 and arrived in Hobart 4 months later on 25th August 1828. ^{[1] [2] [3]}

Descriptive notes about George include the following observations:

• Height: 5 foot, 5 inches
• Eye colour: Dark brown
• Hair: Black, Woolly
• Marks: left hand crippled - large scar back of fingers right hand ^[1]

George was granted his "ticket of leave" in 1833 ^[1].
On the Friday 26th December 1834 edition of:
The Hobart Town Courier (Tas. : 1827 - 1839)
George's ticket of leave was announced in a list of other convicts receiving the same. ^[4] It was not until just over a year later on 17th January 1835 that George finally gained his "Certificate of Freedom." ^[1]

Full notes kept about George during his time as a convict, which include a digital transcription of the original handwritten records about him whilst he was in Van Diemen's Land, are available at Libraries Tasmania ^[5]

Research Notes

• Digital Panopticon
  
  The Digital Panopticon is a Digital Transformations project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. A collaboration between the Universities of Liverpool, Oxford, Sheffield, Sussex and Tasmania, it is published by the Digital Humanities Institute. This website allows you to search millions of records from around fifty datasets, relating to the lives of 90,000 convicts from the Old Bailey (Middlesex Gaol Delivery; now in London) from which transcripts are available. George Blackstone was tried in the south of England in Southampton, and as with all of the regional trials, no written transcripts are available. However, there is no reason to suppose that records held at this site are misleading. The profile manager is of the view that if George was not from America (as he must have declared, and this was recorded unchallenged). (He would have an accent that would have given away his early years) then he must have worked his way to England from the Caribbean or Africa itself. However as the time period is before January 1828 and it was not until 1833 that the British Parliament passed the Slavery Abolition Act, permanently abolishing the instutiton of slavery in Britain's overseas colonies: ^[6] the profile manager considers it highly unlikely that George had escaped slavery in the Caribbean, (or Africa) and then worked his passage on a ship to a new life in England.
  
  

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7} The Digital Panopticon George Blackstone, VDL Founders and Survivors Convicts, 1828, Record ID fasai05311 (https://www.digitalpanopticon.org/life?id=fasai05311). Version 1.2.1, consulted 3rd April 2022.
2. ↑ Convict Records, George Blackstone [1]
3. ↑ Convict Ship, Woodford (1828) [2]
4. ↑ 1834 'Classified Advertising', The Hobart Town Courier (Tas. : 1827 - 1839), 26 December, p. 2. , viewed 16 Mar 2024, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4182323
5. ↑ Libraries Tasmania, George Blackstone [3]
6. ↑ Wikipedia: Slavery in the British and French Caribbean

See also:

• annapolis.org freedombound, runaways chesapeake
• Library of Virginia. Virginia Untold: The African American Narrative Project overview and search strategies for accessing pre-1867 records of enslaved and free Black Virginians