Hmm, well, not unless you're from Georgia. That was the only British North American colony that was originally a penal colony. The other colonies were either crown colonies, settled by mostly middle class people "on contract" to various lords (e.g., Lord De la Ware who got a colony named for himself), or were private colonies founded by various individualists who sold the idea to people who were looking for new opportunities (e.g., Sir Walter Raleigh in Virginia; the Pilgrims in Massachusetts Bay). Criminals were not welcome in either of those types of colonies.

Australia, now, was just one huge penitentiary. Also, numbers of the British Caribbean islands, such as Barbados and Bermuda, were partially "settled" by political prisoners (not O.D.C.s) who were shipped over as slaves.

The (sorta explains Georgia now, doesn't it [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] ) Curtmudgeon