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y separately published work icon Jail Journal; or, Five Years in British Prisons. Commenced on Board the Shearwater Steamer, in Dublin Bay, Continued at Spike Island—On Board the Scourge War Steamer—On Board the 'Dromedary' Hulk, Bermuda—On Board the Neptune Convict Ship—At Pernambuco—At the Cape of Good Hope (during the Anti-Convict Rebellion)—At Van Diemen’s Land—At Sydney—At Tahiti—At San Francisco—At Greytown—And Concluded at No. 3 Pier, North River, New York. single work   autobiography   prose   travel  
Issue Details: First known date: 1854... 1854 Jail Journal; or, Five Years in British Prisons. Commenced on Board the Shearwater Steamer, in Dublin Bay, Continued at Spike Island—On Board the Scourge War Steamer—On Board the 'Dromedary' Hulk, Bermuda—On Board the Neptune Convict Ship—At Pernambuco—At the Cape of Good Hope (during the Anti-Convict Rebellion)—At Van Diemen’s Land—At Sydney—At Tahiti—At San Francisco—At Greytown—And Concluded at No. 3 Pier, North River, New York.
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Notes

  • First published in serial form in Mitchel's New York newspaper The Citizen, from January 14th to August 19th 1854, before being issued in book form the same year.

Affiliation Notes

  • Nineteenth-Century Travel Writing

    John Mitchel (1815-1875) was an author, editor, solicitor, activist and Irish nationalist. In the 1840s, Mitchel began editing Irish nationalist papers, firstly the as assistant editor of Nation under Charles Duffy, and then launching United Irishman himself, which broadcasted views of the Young Ireland Movement. Mitchel was charged with sedition under the Treason Felony Act (1848) and sentenced to 14 years’ transportation, and was sent to Van Diemen’s Land (although originally he was in Bermuda and Cape of Good Hope).Two years after he was granted a ticket of leave, Mitchel escaped to America, where he was welcomed a hero on his arrival in New York. Jail Journal narrates his experience of five years in various British prisons, and was originally published in the New York newspaper The Citizen from January 12 to August 19 1854. Mitchell began his book with a treatise on the dominating force of England on Irish history. After varied experiences of prison life, Mitchell tells of his arrival as a convict in Van Diemen's Land, describing the landscape, flora and fauna, the convict system, colonial society, and his experiences there are detailed in a conversational and engaging manner.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

First known date: 1854
Serialised by: The Citizen 1854 newspaper
Notes:
Serialised in the Citizen between 14 January 1854 and 19 August 1854.
    • New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,      :       Office of 'The Citizen' ,       1854 .
      image of person or book cover 4234453082771856175.png
      Link: 6747457Google Books - Digitised Copy
      Extent: 370 p. ; 19 cm.p.
      Description: [i] title page, [ii] copyright declaration and printer’s colophon, [iii] + iv-viii Contents, [9] + 10-24 Introductory, [25] + 26-370 main text.
      Note/s:

      • Copyright declaration:

        Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1854, by John Mitchel, In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York.

        Colophon:

        W. H. Tinson, Printer and Stereotyper, 24 Beekman Street.

      Holdings

      Held at: State Library of Tasmania State Library of Tasmania
      Local Id: TC 920 MIT
    • Glasgow,
      c
      Scotland,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,      :       Cameron and Ferguson ,       1876 .
      Alternative title: Jail Journal; or, Five Years in British Prisons. Commenced on Board the Shearwater Steamer, in Dublin Bay, Continued at Spike Island—On Board the 'Scourge' War Steamer—On Board the 'Dromedary' Hulk, Bermuda—On Board the 'Neptune' Convict Ship—At Pernambuco—At the Cape of Good Hope (during the Anti-Convict Rebellion)—At Van Diemen’s Land—At Sydney—At Tahiti—At San Francisco—At Greytown—And Concluding at No. 3 Pier, North River, New York
      Extent: 320p.p.
      Edition info: 'Author's Edition'
      Description: [i] title [ii] blank, [iii] + iv-viii Contents, [9] + 10-20 Introductory, [21] + 22-320 Main Text.
      Note/s:
      • Published after Mitchel's death in 1875, this edition, priced at one shilling, was advertised as an 'Authorized Edition': 'By special arrangement, the Widow of the late John Mitchel has a personal pecuinary interest in these editions. The admirers of Mr Mitchel who may be anxious to display their appreciation of his services have now an opportunity to do so in a practical manner, which will benefit his family' (Belfast News-Letter, Sept 11, 1876, 1a).
    • Glasgow,
      c
      Scotland,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,      :       R. and T. Washbourne ,       ca. 1900 .
      Extent: 320p.p.
      Edition info: 'Author's Edition'
      Description: [i] title [ii] blank, [iii] + iv-viii Contents, [9] + 10-20 Introductory, [21] + 22-320 Main Text.
      Note/s:
      • Shares same collation and typesetting as the Cameron and Ferguson edition, as is also claimed to be the 'Author's Edition.' Likely to be a reprint from stereotype plates of the Cameron and Ferguson edition.
VIEW PUBLICATION DETAILS FOR ALL VERSIONS ()

Works about this Work

Antipodal Ireland and Tasmanian Underworlds : John Mitchel and William Moore Ferrar Philip Mead , 2021 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , vol. 36 no. 2 2021;

'The Central Highlands of Tasmania is an unlikely antipodes of Irish writing, but it is a region that has complex representations by exiled and immigrant Irish writers. The picturesque landscape of the Highlands in the Young Irelander John Mitchel’s Jail Journal (1856) is well known; less well known is the writing of William Moore Ferrar, born in Dublin in 1823 and who emigrated to New South Wales, then Van Diemen’s Land, as a free settler in 1843. His novel Artabanzanus: The Demon of the Great Lake: An Allegorical Romance of Tasmania: Arranged from the Diary of the Late Oliver Ubertus (1896) represents a vision of an ideal surface world and a hellish underground. Dedicated to Arthur James Balfour, and dramatising the issue of Irish home rule, Ferrar’s novel is an eccentric but multi-faceted instance of the Irish-Tasmanian imaginary.'

Source: Abstract.
Fiction and Fakements in Colonial Australia Jonathan Lamb , 2020 single work criticism
— Appears in: Postcolonial Studies , September vol. 23 no. 3 2020; (p. 360-370)

'The imaginations of convicts in Australia became attuned to the pairing of opposites and this led to strange tensions in their way of representing things. On Norfolk Island the meanings of words were reversed, so that ‘good’ meant ‘bad’ and ‘ugly’ meant ‘beautiful’. This undermining of official meanings produced the argot called the ‘flash’ or ‘kiddy’ language of the colony. Designed at first to keep private sentiments from being inspected, it eventually supported a system of dissident actions called ‘cross-work’ or ‘cross doings’. One word loomed large amidst these inversions: ‘fakement’, meaning booty, forgery or deceit. The verb has more extensive meanings: rob, wound, shatter; ‘fake your slangs’ means break your shackles. It also meant performing a fiction and accepting the consequences of it.' (Publication abstract)
Learning to Love the Gum Tree Elizabeth Webby , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: Island , Autumn no. 120 2010; (p. 44-50)
Recolonisation and Disinheritance : The Case of Tasmania Peter Pierce , 2006 single work criticism
— Appears in: Critics and Writers Speak : Revisioning Post-Colonial Studies 2006; (p. 106-114) 'The essay discusses the appropriations of the history and landscape of Tasmania, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and particularly by outsiders to the state, whether they are European or from the Australian mainland' (106). Pierce draws on the texts cited above, and on critical responses to these texts to demonstrate the conflicted experiences of departure from Tasmania and, in some cases, an equally unsettling return.
Tasmania's Literary Heritage Margaret Scott , 1999 single work criticism essay
— Appears in: 40° South : Tasmania & Beyond , Autumn no. 12 1999; (p. 19-22)
Recolonisation and Disinheritance : The Case of Tasmania Peter Pierce , 2006 single work criticism
— Appears in: Critics and Writers Speak : Revisioning Post-Colonial Studies 2006; (p. 106-114) 'The essay discusses the appropriations of the history and landscape of Tasmania, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and particularly by outsiders to the state, whether they are European or from the Australian mainland' (106). Pierce draws on the texts cited above, and on critical responses to these texts to demonstrate the conflicted experiences of departure from Tasmania and, in some cases, an equally unsettling return.
Tasmania's Literary Heritage Margaret Scott , 1999 single work criticism essay
— Appears in: 40° South : Tasmania & Beyond , Autumn no. 12 1999; (p. 19-22)
Learning to Love the Gum Tree Elizabeth Webby , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: Island , Autumn no. 120 2010; (p. 44-50)
Fiction and Fakements in Colonial Australia Jonathan Lamb , 2020 single work criticism
— Appears in: Postcolonial Studies , September vol. 23 no. 3 2020; (p. 360-370)

'The imaginations of convicts in Australia became attuned to the pairing of opposites and this led to strange tensions in their way of representing things. On Norfolk Island the meanings of words were reversed, so that ‘good’ meant ‘bad’ and ‘ugly’ meant ‘beautiful’. This undermining of official meanings produced the argot called the ‘flash’ or ‘kiddy’ language of the colony. Designed at first to keep private sentiments from being inspected, it eventually supported a system of dissident actions called ‘cross-work’ or ‘cross doings’. One word loomed large amidst these inversions: ‘fakement’, meaning booty, forgery or deceit. The verb has more extensive meanings: rob, wound, shatter; ‘fake your slangs’ means break your shackles. It also meant performing a fiction and accepting the consequences of it.' (Publication abstract)
Antipodal Ireland and Tasmanian Underworlds : John Mitchel and William Moore Ferrar Philip Mead , 2021 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , vol. 36 no. 2 2021;

'The Central Highlands of Tasmania is an unlikely antipodes of Irish writing, but it is a region that has complex representations by exiled and immigrant Irish writers. The picturesque landscape of the Highlands in the Young Irelander John Mitchel’s Jail Journal (1856) is well known; less well known is the writing of William Moore Ferrar, born in Dublin in 1823 and who emigrated to New South Wales, then Van Diemen’s Land, as a free settler in 1843. His novel Artabanzanus: The Demon of the Great Lake: An Allegorical Romance of Tasmania: Arranged from the Diary of the Late Oliver Ubertus (1896) represents a vision of an ideal surface world and a hellish underground. Dedicated to Arthur James Balfour, and dramatising the issue of Irish home rule, Ferrar’s novel is an eccentric but multi-faceted instance of the Irish-Tasmanian imaginary.'

Source: Abstract.
VIEW ALL WORKS ABOUT (5)
Last amended 14 Mar 2022 15:26:22
Subjects:
  • Tasmania,
  • c
    Ireland,
    c
    Western Europe, Europe,
  • Sydney, New South Wales,
  • 1848-1854
Settings:
  • Dublin, Dublin (County),
    c
    Ireland,
    c
    Western Europe, Europe,
  • c
    Bermuda,
    c
    Americas,
  • Cape of Good Hope, Southern Africa, Africa,
  • Tasmania,
  • Sydney, New South Wales,
  • c
    Tahiti,
    c
    Society Islands,
    c
    French Polynesia,
    c
    South Pacific, Pacific Region,
  • San Francisco, California,
    c
    United States of America (USA),
    c
    Americas,
  • New York (State),
    c
    United States of America (USA),
    c
    Americas,
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