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Destiny In Sydney (novel)
''Destiny in Sydney: An epic novel of convicts, Aborigines, and Chinese embroiled in the birth of Sydney, Australia'' is the first historical novel in a three-book series about Sydney, Australia by American writer D. Manning Richards. It was published in 2012 and was followed by the second serial book, ''Gift of Sydney'', in 2014. ''Destiny in Sydney'' begins in 1787 in Scotland and ends in 1902, covering 126 years of Australian history. The family saga story follows three fictional families: Scots-Irish, Aboriginal, and Chinese, who interact with real-life historical figures to dramatize the major events and conflicts in Australian history. Richards writes “The history is largely accurate . . . based on recorded history . . . from well over two hundred sources.” The appendix lists ninety primary references and includes a discussion of “Fact or Fiction?” by chapter that tries to anticipate readers’ questions. Origin and inspiration Author D. Manning Richards lived and wo ...
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Historical Novel
Historical fiction is a literary genre in which a fictional plot takes place in the setting of particular real historical events. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literature, it can also be applied to other types of narrative, including theatre, opera, cinema, and television, as well as video games and graphic novels. An essential element of historical fiction is that it is set in the past and pays attention to the manners, social conditions and other details of the depicted period. Authors also frequently choose to explore notable historical figures in these settings, allowing readers to better understand how these individuals might have responded to their environments. The historical romance usually seeks to romanticize eras of the past. Some subgenres such as alternate history and historical fantasy insert intentionally ahistorical or speculative elements into a novel. Works of historical fiction are sometimes criticized for lack ...
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Theme (narrative)
In contemporary literary studies, a theme is a central topic, subject, or message within a narrative. Themes can be divided into two categories: a work's ''thematic concept'' is what readers "think the work is about" and its ''thematic statement'' being "what the work says about the subject". The most common contemporary understanding of theme is an idea or point that is central to a story, which can often be summed in a single abstract noun (for example, love, death, betrayal, patriotism, or parenthood) or noun phrase (for example, coming of age, grief during wartime, or the importance of community). Typical examples of themes of this type are conflict between the individual and society; coming of age; humans in conflict with technology; nostalgia; and the dangers of unchecked ambition. A theme may be exemplified by the actions, utterances, or thoughts of a character in a novel. An example of this would be the thematic idea of loneliness in John Steinbeck's '' Of Mice and M ...
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Arabanoo
Arabanoo ( – 1789) was an Aboriginal Australian man of the Eora forcibly abducted on New Year's Eve 1788 by British colonists who arrived with the First Fleet at Port Jackson. His capture was organised to force communication and relations between the Aboriginal people and the British. Arabanoo was the first Aboriginal Australian to live among Europeans. Background Life at the British outpost at Port Jackson was difficult in the first years and relations between the Aboriginal people of the Eora clans and the Europeans were poor. Governor Arthur Phillip decided that the "state of petty warfare and endless uncertainty" had to end. He decided to kidnap an Aboriginal person, as he explained in a letter to Lord Sydney:"It was absolutely necessary that we should attain their language, or teach them ours that the means of redress might be pointed out to them, if they are injured, and to reconcile them by showing the many advantages they would enjoy by mixing with us." Capture of Arab ...
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Elizabeth Macarthur
Elizabeth Macarthur (14 August 1766 – 9 February 1850) was an English-born landowner and businesswomen who was wife of John Macarthur. Early life Elizabeth Macarthur was born in Bridgerule England, the daughter of provincial farmers, Richard and Grace Veale of Cornish origin. Her father died when she was aged four years. Her mother remarried when she was 11, leaving Elizabeth in the care of her grandfather, John, and friend. Elizabeth married Plymouth soldier John Macarthur in 1788. In 1790, with her newborn son Edward, she accompanied John and his regiment, the New South Wales Corps, to the recently established colony of New South Wales, travelling on the Second Fleet. Life in New South Wales Elizabeth was the first soldier's wife to arrive in New South Wales. Being educated, articulate, and well-read, her letters provide an important record of the infant convict town of Sydney and colonial life. She was an amateur astronomer and botanist and enjoyed a privileged posit ...
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John Macarthur (wool Pioneer)
John Macarthur (1767 – 11 April 1834) was instrumental in agitating for, and organising, a rebellion against Governor William Bligh (now known as the Rum Rebellion) in January 1808. Macarthur had been a British Army officer, entrepreneur, landowner, a pioneer of the Australian Merino wool industry and a politician who was a highly influential figure in the establishment of the colony of New South Wales. Macarthur was the brilliant leader or Australia’s first organised crime enterprise, the 'Rum Corps'. Early life John Macarthur was born at Stoke Damerel near Plymouth, England in 1767. His exact date of birth is unknown, but his baptism was registered on 3 September 1767. He was the second son of Alexander Macarthur, who had fled Scotland to the West Indies after the Jacobite rising of 1745 before returning to Plymouth to work as a linen draper and mercery, mercer. In 1782, John Macarthur was commissioned as an ensign (rank), ensign in Fish's Corps, a regiment of the British ...
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Mutiny On The Bounty
The mutiny on the ''Bounty'' occurred in the South Pacific Ocean on 28 April 1789. Disaffected crewmen, led by acting-Lieutenant Fletcher Christian, seized control of the ship, , from their captain, Lieutenant (navy), Lieutenant William Bligh, and set him and eighteen loyalists adrift in the ship's open Launch (boat), launch. The reasons behind the mutiny are still debated. Bligh and his crew stopped for supplies on Tofua, where a crew member was killed. Bligh navigated more than in the launch to reach safety and began the process of bringing the mutineers to justice. The mutineers variously settled on Tahiti or on Pitcairn Island. ''Bounty'' had left England in 1787 on a mission to collect and transport breadfruit plants from Tahiti to the West Indies. A five-month layover in Tahiti, during which many of the men lived ashore and formed relationships with native Polynesians, led those men to be less amenable to naval discipline. Relations between Bligh and his crew deterio ...
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Rum Rebellion
The Rum Rebellion of 1808 was a ''coup d'état'' in the British penal colony of New South Wales, staged by the New South Wales Corps in order to depose Governor William Bligh. Australia's first and only military coup, its name derives from the illicit rum trade of early Sydney, over which the 'Rum Corps', as it became known, maintained a monopoly. During the first half of the 19th century, it was widely referred to in Australia as the Great Rebellion. Bligh, a former Royal Navy captain known for his overthrow in the mutiny on the ''Bounty'', had been appointed governor in 1805 to rein in the power of the Corps. Over the next two years, Bligh made enemies not only of Sydney's military elite, but several prominent civilians, notably John Macarthur, who joined Major George Johnston in organising an armed takeover. On 26 January 1808, 400 soldiers marched on Government House and arrested Bligh. He was kept in confinement in Sydney, then aboard a ship off Hobart, Van Diemen's Lan ...
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Lachlan Macquarie
Major-general (United Kingdom), Major General Lachlan Macquarie, Companion of the Order of the Bath, CB (; ; 31 January 1762 – 1 July 1824) was a British Army officer and colonial administrator from Scotland. Macquarie served as the fifth Governor of New South Wales from 1810 to 1821, and had a leading role in the social, economic, and architectural development of the colony. He is considered by historians to have had a crucial influence on the transition of New South Wales from a penal colony to a free settlement and therefore to have played a major role in the shaping of Australian society in the early nineteenth century. Macquarie played a central role in urban planning in the colony. He had a significant impact on the development of modern Sydney, establishing the layout upon which the modern Sydney central business district, city centre is based, establishing Hyde Park, Sydney, Hyde Park as Australia's first public park, overseeing the construction of various public buildi ...
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William Bligh
William Bligh (9 September 1754 – 7 December 1817) was a Vice-admiral (Royal Navy), Royal Navy vice-admiral and colonial administrator who served as the governor of New South Wales from 1806 to 1808. He is best known for his role in the Mutiny on the Bounty, mutiny on HMS ''Bounty'', which occurred in 1789 when the ship was under his command. The reasons behind the mutiny continue to be debated. After being set adrift in ''Bounty''s Launch (boat), launch by the mutineers, Bligh and those loyal to him stopped for supplies on Tofua, losing one man to native attacks. Bligh and his men reached Timor alive, after a journey of . On 13 August 1806, Bligh was appointed governor of the British colony of New South Wales, with orders to clean up the corrupt rum trade of the New South Wales Corps. His actions directed against the trade resulted in the so-called Rum Rebellion, during which Bligh was placed under arrest on 26 January 1808 by the New South Wales Corps and deposed from his c ...
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Philip Gidley King
Captain Philip Gidley King (23 April 1758 – 3 September 1808) was a Royal Navy officer and colonial administrator who served as the governor of New South Wales from 1800 to 1806. When the First Fleet arrived in January 1788, King was detailed to colonise Norfolk Island for defence and foraging purposes. As Governor of New South Wales, he helped develop livestock farming, whaling and mining, built many schools and launched the colony's first newspaper. But conflicts with the military wore down his spirit, and they were able to force his resignation. King Street in the Sydney CBD is named in his honour. Early years and establishment of Norfolk Island settlement Philip Gidley King was born at Launceston, England on 23 April 1758, the son of draper Philip King, and grandson of Exeter attorney-at-law John Gidley. He joined the Royal Navy at the age of 12 as captain's servant, and was commissioned as a lieutenant in 1778. King served under Arthur Phillip who chose him as se ...
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John Hunter (Royal Navy Officer)
Vice Admiral of the Red, Vice Admiral John Hunter (29 August 1737 – 13 March 1821) was an officer of the Royal Navy, who succeeded Arthur Phillip as the second Governor of New South Wales, serving from 1795 to 1800.J. J. Auchmuty,Hunter, John (1737–1821), ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'', Volume 1, Melbourne University Press, MUP, 1966, pp 566–572. Retrieved 12 August 2009 Both a sailor and a scholar, he explored the Parramatta River as early as 1788, and was the first to surmise that Tasmania might be an island. As governor, he tried to combat serious abuses by the military in the face of powerful local interests led by John Macarthur (wool pioneer), John MacArthur. Hunter's name is commemorated in historic locations such as Hunter Valley and Hunter Street, Sydney. Family and early life John Hunter was born in Leith, Scotland, the son of William Hunter, a captain in the merchant service, and Helen, ''née'' Drummond, daughter of J. Drummond and niece of George Drumm ...
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Arthur Phillip
Arthur Phillip (11 October 1738 – 31 August 1814) was a British Royal Navy officer who served as the first Governor of New South Wales, governor of the Colony of New South Wales. Phillip was educated at Royal Hospital School, Greenwich Hospital School from June 1751 until December 1753. He then became an apprentice on the whaling ship ''Fortune''. With the outbreak of the Seven Years' War against France, Phillip enlisted in the Royal Navy as captain's servant to Michael Everitt aboard . With Everitt, Phillip also served on and . Phillip was promoted to lieutenant on 7 June 1761, before being put on half-pay at the end of hostilities on 25 April 1763. Secondment, Seconded to the Portuguese Navy in 1774, he served in the Spanish–Portuguese War (1776–1777), war against Spain. Returning to Royal Navy service in 1778, in 1782 Phillip, in command of , was to capture Spanish colonies in South America, but an armistice was concluded before he reached his destination. I ...
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