History of Capital Punishment in the Australian Colonies, 1788 to 1900

Dr. Steven Anderson is a Visiting Research Fellow in the History Department at The University of Adelaide, Australia. His academic research explores the role of capital punishment in the Australian colonies by situating developments in these jurisdictions within global contexts and conceptual debates

“A History of Capital Punishment in the Australian Colonies, 1788 to 1900 is the first full-length monograph to provide the history of capital punishment in Australia, an important and especially relevant subject given Australia’s significance in relation to the punishment of primarily British felons. … Anderson’s well-researched book focuses on the key issues surrounding capital punishment in each of the different Australian colonies during the colonial period … .” (Dorice Williams Elliott, Victorian Studies, Vol. 65 (1), 2022)

• 1. Introduction: Thinking About Punishment Over Time.- 2 – Australia’s Hanging Years.- 3 – The Ideal and Reality of Execution Procedure.- 4 – The Criminal at the Gallows.- 5. The Scaffold Crowd.- 6. The End of Public Executions.- 7 – Race and the Reprisal of Public Hangings.- 8 – The Push to Abolish Capital Punishment.- 9 – Conclusion: Death of a Spectacle.