The slaves that time forgot

[mota bhai 2,675]

The slaves that time forgot

We've all been taught the horror's of the African slave trade. It's in all the school books and in plenty of Hollywood movies.

But for some reason the largest group of slaves in the British Colonies in the 17th Century doesn't get mentioned at all: the Irish.

...

From the Tudor reconquest of Ireland until Irish Independence in 1921, the English puzzled over the problem of what to do with all those Irish people.

They were the wrong religion. They spoke the wrong language. But the big problem was that there were just too many of them.

The English had been practicing a slow genocide against the Irish since Queen Elizabeth, but the Irish bred too fast and were tough to kill. On the other side of the Atlantic, there was a chronic labor shortage.

Putting two and two together, King James I started sending Irish slaves to the new world.

The first recorded sale of Irish slaves was to a settlement in the Amazon in 1612, seven years before the first African slaves arrived in Jamestown.

The Proclamation of 1625 by James II made it official policy that all Irish political prisoners be transported to the West Indies and sold to English planters. Soon Irish slaves were the majority of slaves in the English colonies.

...

By 1637 a census showed that 69% of the total population of Montserrat were Irish slaves, which records show was a cause of concern to the English planters. But there were not enough political prisoners to supply the demand, so every petty infraction carried a sentence of transporting, and slaver gangs combed the country sides to kidnap enough people to fill out their quotas.

...

After Oliver Cromwell defeated the royalists in the English Civil War, he turned to Ireland, who had allied themselves with the defeated royalists. What happened next could be considered genocide.

The famine (caused by the English intentionally destroying foodstocks) and plague that followed Cromwell's massacres reduced the population of Ireland to around 40%.

And then Cromwell got really nasty.

Anyone implicated in the rebellion had their land confiscated and was sold into slavery in the West Indies. Even catholic landowners who hadn't taken part of the rebellion had their land confiscated.

Catholicism was outlawed and catholic priests were executed when found.

To top it off, he ordered the ethnic cleansing of Ireland east of Shannon in 1652. Soldiers were encouraged to kill any Irish who refused to relocate.

...

As for the Irish slaves, Cromwell specifically targeted Irish children.

“During the 1650s, over 100,000 Irish children between the ages of 10 and 14 were taken from their parents and sold as slaves in the West Indies, Virginia and New England. In this decade, 52,000 Irish (mostly women and children) were sold to Barbados and Virginia. Another 30,000 Irish men and women were also transported and sold to the highest bidder. In 1656, [Oliver] Cromwell ordered that 2000 Irish children be taken to Jamaica and sold as slaves to English settlers.”

For some reason, history likes to call these Irish slaves as 'indentured servants'. As if they were somehow considered better than African slaves. This can be considered an attempt at whitewashing the history of the Irish slave trade.

There does exist indentured servitude where two parties sign a contract for a limited amount of time. This is not what happened to the Irish from 1625 onward. They were sold as slaves, pure and simple.

...

African slaves were still relatively new, and were expensive to transport such a long distance (50 sterling in the late 1600's). Irish slaves on the other hand, were relatively cheap in comparison (5 sterling).

If a planter whipped or branded or beat an Irish slave to death, it was never a crime. A death was a monetary setback, but far cheaper than killing a more expensive African. The English masters quickly began breeding the Irish women for both their own personal pleasure and for greater profit. Children of slaves were themselves slaves, which increased the size of the master’s free workforce.

...

It's impossible to estimate the exact number of Irish sold into slavery during this period. More Irish slaves were sold in the American colonies between 1651 and 1660 than the entire free population of those colonies. In fact, more Irish were sold as slaves in the America's during the 17th Century than Africans.

[Danno 1,228]

Top o the morning to you.

Interesting info, some I was not aware of.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

"Top of the morning" after 1:30pm?

[Pooky 3,847]

"Top of the morning" after 1:30pm?

Still is in CA, OR and WA.

And HI.

[mota bhai 2,675]

maybe hes a late riser

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Still is in CA, OR and WA.

And HI.

Sure but Danno hails from NC.

[mota bhai 2,675]

Maybe he is on the West coast today, trying to spread the good word of Her Holiness Ayn Rand.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

maybe hes a late riser

Possible but he's been posting since around 10 this morning.

[mota bhai 2,675]

Maybe he sleep-posts. It's actual disorder, I made it up just now.

Edited December 27, 2013 by mota bhai

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Maybe he is on the West coast today, trying to spread the good word of Her Holiness Ayn Rand.

Danno would not wade into the land of fruits and nuts. They scare him. He wouldn't leave his holy bible belt for nothing.

[Teddy B 17,252]

Danno is on Eastern Welfare Time, it's the same time zone our resident Vermonter posts in.

[mota bhai 2,675]

I am always amazed at how he can stand living in that socialist single payer hellhole.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Danno is on Eastern Welfare Time, it's the same time zone our resident Vermonter posts in.

EWT - excellent!

[Teddy B 17,252]

I am always amazed at how he can stand living in that socialist single payer hellhole.

No gun control, seems to be all that matters.

Edited December 27, 2013 by Teddy B

[Teddy B 17,252]

EWT - excellent!

EWT makes 4:00am seem like 8pm. And you never have to take off your jammies when you're on EWT.