The traffic in enslaved people convicted of felonies dramatically increased as the anti-slavery movement in Britain grew louder and more persistent, and the slave colonies saw transportation as a means to control a dangerously restive slave population excited by rumours of impending emancipation. In December 1831, 60,000 Jamaican slaves staged the largest slave rebellion in the British Empire at Montego Bay, which was put down with savage violence in January 1832. Subsequently, hundreds of slaves were vindictively condemned to death under martial law. After the orgy of execution, combined pressure from England to stop the killing encouraged white Jamaicans to rid themselves of enslaved troublemakers in other ways. Transportation was an attractive option because it permanently removed the people whose executions could incite more trouble (Duffield, 1986, pp. 25-45). Unlike the 344 enslaved rebels executed after the rebellion, eight rebels from Montego Bay were transported to the Australian penal colonies.  
One such was Alexander Simpson, who arrived in Van Diemen's Land in 1833, having been convicted at a Jamaican Court Martial, on 20 January 1832, of 'making use of Seditious language, Joining and Engaging in Conspiracy, Traitorous, Rebellious or Hostile Acts against His Majesty's Government and against the peace and safety of the Island' and sentenced to death. His sentence was commuted and he was transported to Australia (Duffield, 1986). On his arrival he told the muster that his offence was: 'Mutiny and exciting the Slaves to Rebellion. I was a slave myself'. One of the most remarkable unintended consequences of penal transportation of enslaved rebels was that on conviction they became free subjects. So, when Simpson was granted a conditional pardon after a few years, he was able to live out the rest of his life in Australia with all the legal rights and protections of the freeborn British.