Random rant, but this is something I'm seeing bashed and bad-mouthed a lot more lately, and people are ticking me off with it. Irish Slaves.
Seriously, how does no one remember or talk about this? Like, ever??? Do people read?
This article has a ton of fantastic info - well worth the few minutes it would take to educate yourself a little more.
"The Irish slave trade began when James VI sold 30,000 Irish prisoners as slaves to the New World. His Proclamation of 1625 required Irish political prisoners be sent overseas and sold to English settlers in the West Indies.
By the mid 1600s, the Irish were the main slaves sold to Antigua and Montserrat. At that time, 70% of the total population of Montserrat were Irish slaves.
Ireland quickly became the biggest source of human livestock for English merchants. The majority of the early slaves to the New World were actually white.
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, Cromwell ordered that 2000 Irish children be taken to Jamaica and sold as slaves to English settlers.
Many people today will avoid calling the Irish slaves what they truly were: Slaves. They’ll come up with terms like “Indentured Servants” to describe what occurred to the Irish. However, in most cases from the 17th and 18th centuries, Irish slaves were nothing more than human cattle.
As an example, the African slave trade was just beginning during this same period. It is well recorded that African slaves, not tainted with the stain of the hated Catholic theology and more expensive to purchase, were often treated far better than their Irish counterparts.
African slaves were very expensive during the late 1600s (£50 Sterling). Irish slaves came cheap (no more than £5 Sterling). If a planter whipped, branded or beat an Irish slave to death, it was never a crime."
This is my argument when people start their slavery rants. African Americans were one of the kinds of slaves, yes, but not the only ones, and not the worst treated. Think about that - Irish slaves were treated worse than African American slaves.
Do we have our own month? No. College funds? No. Do people give a hoot if an Irish-man is elected president? Nope.
Kind of silly, this country cares so much about one set of people because they are loud and angry, but ignore another because they have accepted it and moved on, looking toward the future instead of the past. #lifelessons #notfair #hiddenhistory
I only shared a few passages - if this interests you, please, go read some more, and do your homework.
https://peoplestrusttoronto.wordpress.com/2014/12/27/irish-the-forgotten-white-slaves/
