Download or read book Convicts and Orphans written by Timothy J. Coates and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines how the early modern Portuguese state used convicts and orphans to populate its global empire. In addition, it addresses the issue of gender in the state's use of two distinct groups of single women as colonizers, orphan girls and reformed prostitutes, each given state-awarded dowries if they agreed to relocate overseas.