They were intended to serve as warnings of the hardships that come with conviction and thereby a deterrent against criminal behavior.
Transportation ballads were published as broadsides—song sheets sold cheaply in the streets, at markets and at fairs.
They employ a number of frequent themes including: More rarely, transportation ballads served as a form of protest, particularly as a means of opposing the sentencing of those convinced of political crimes.
The following extracts exemplify such themes: My father and my mother dear they nourished me in my tender years, They little thought I should be trapann'd and banished from my native land.
They chained us two by two and whipped and lashed along They cut off our provisions if we did the least thing wrong They march us in the burning sun until our feet are sore So hard's our lot now we are got to Van Diemen's shore