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England's Irish Slaves. (2)

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  • England's Irish Slaves. (2)

    ...cont/d

    It is also of importance to be aware of the fact, as Dunn
    confirmed, that most population lists for Barbados, Jamaica and
    the Leeward Islands concern only parish registers of the Church
    of England, all other people were essentially ignored in the head
    count."(29)

    The English government variously referred to Irish to be
    transported as rogues, vagabonds, rebels, neutrals, felons,
    military prisoners, teachers, priests, maidens etc. All
    historians call them servants, bondsman, indentured servants,
    slaves, etc., and agree that they were all political victims. The
    plain facts are that most were treated as slaves. After their
    land was confiscated by England, which drove them from their
    ancestral homes to forage for roots like animals, they were
    kidnapped, rounded up and driven like cattle to waiting ships and
    transported to English colonies in America, never to see their
    country again. They were the victims of what many called the
    immense "Irish Slave Trade."

    All writers on the 17th century American colonies are in
    agreement that the treatment of white servants or white slaves in
    English colonies was cruel to the extreme, worse than that of
    black slaves; that inhuman treatment was the norm, that torture
    (and branding FT, fugitive traitor, on the forehead) was the
    punishment for attempted escape. Dunn stated: "Servants were
    punished by whipping, strung up by the hands and matches lighted
    between their fingers, beaten over the head until blood ran,"
    --all this on the slightest provocation.(30) Ligon, an eyewitness
    in Barbados from 1647-1650 said, "Truly, I have seen cruelty
    there done to servants as I did not think one Christian could
    have done to another."(31)

    It is a matter of great importance to realize that most of
    the white slaves, servants and small farmers abandoned the West
    Indies for the mainland colonies in America. Dunn reports:
    "Between 1678 and 1713, Leeward sugar planters became more rich
    and powerful and controlled all local councils and assemblies so
    white servants and small farmers abandoned the Leeward
    Islands."(32) Craven said that between 1643 and 1667, about
    12,000 left Barbados for other plantations(33) and Dunn said the
    white population of the Leeward Islands was reduced by 30 percent
    between 1678 and 1708.(34) According to Craven, in Colonies in
    Transition, prior to the 1680's, the hopes which sustained the
    Carolina venture continued to depend chiefly upon the migration
    of settlers from the older colonies, especially from the West
    Indies.(35) Smith asserted that after 1670, the emigration of
    whites from the smaller islands at least equalled the
    immigration.(36) Condon declared: "In [the] course of time many
    of those who had been transported to the West Indies in this
    manner found their way to the colonies on the continent, in
    search of greater freedom and a more healthful climate."(37)

    All writers on the 17th century history agree that between
    one-half and two thirds of white immigrants in the British West
    Indies and mainland America were servants, most of them severely
    mistreated. Most all Irish immigrants were 'servants.' Irish were
    almost exclusively Catholic (at least they were when they left
    Ireland) and most were of ancient Irish families even though they
    appeared in English records as English, if recorded at all.
    After 20,000 Puritans arrived in the American colonies from
    1630-1640, migration of English colonists all but subsided. Some
    writers say after 1640 only a trickle of English colonists
    arrived. In 1632, many Irish were on Antigua. In 1637, 69 percent
    of whites on Montserrat were Irish. In 1650, 25,000 Irish were on
    St. Kitt's and Nevis and some were on other Leeward islands. In
    1652, prior to the wholesale transportation of Irish, most of 12
    thousand political prisoners on Barbados were Irish.

    From 1651 to 1660, between 80,000 to 130,000 Irish were
    transported. From 1660-1700, there was a large steady flow of
    Irish immigrants. Most whites, especially servants, slaves and
    small farmers went to the American mainland for more freedom, a
    healthier climate and economic betterment.

    There are no verifiable records on the white population of
    all the American colonies in the 17th century. Some estimates
    include blacks, some do not. Some list only members of the Church
    of England. Estimates are made for Barbados for a certain year
    while estimates are made for the Leeward Islands for other years.
    The same applies to Jamaica and the mainland colonies. One
    estimate for the mainland colonies, white and black included, was
    given at 204,000 in 1689.

    In the absence of reliable records, I believe it is necessary
    to take the following into very serious consideration: migration
    trends, prolificness of people of varying national origin, laws in
    effect in the country from which people migrated; the prevailing
    conditions in the country undergoing emigration; the amount of
    control the emigrating people had over their own destiny; and the
    fact that all American colonies both mainland and the West Indies
    were very intertwined,

    Well over one-half of white immigrants to the
    West Indies during the 17th century were Irish Catholic servants,
    most who, in the course of time, abandoned the West Indies for
    the mainland American colonies.
    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
    *This article comes from the newsletter of the:
    Political Education Committee (PEC)
    American Ireland Education Foundation
    54 South Liberty Drive, Suite 401
    Stony Point NY 10980
    1-914-947-2726
    Its use does not imply their approval of The CATHOLIC Weekly nor
    do we necessarily guarantee their perfection. The article is
    consistant with the conditions which occurred durring the English
    "Reformation." -Ed.
    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
    Bibliography
    Aubrey Gwynn, S.J., Documents relating to Irish in the West
    Indies -- Analecta Hibernica
    Page: 153
    Note: 1
    Edward O'Meagher Condon, The Irish Race in America, New York,
    A.E. and R.E. Ford, 1887
    Page: 15 41 38,9
    Note: 3 21 37
    Arthur Percoval Newton, The European Nations in the West Indies
    1493-1688, London, J. Dickens & Co, Reprint 1967
    Page: 163
    Note: 4
    Richard S. Dunn, Sugar and Slaves, Chapel Hill, NC, U of NC
    Press, 1972
    Page: 56, 122, 130 ? 133 160
    Note: 5 13 24 25
    Page: 327 ? 131 141
    Note: 29 30 32 34
    Maurice Lenihan, History of Limerick, Cork, Mercier, ?
    Page: 668,9 669
    Note: 6 26
    John P. Prendergast, The Cromwellian Settlement of Ireland,
    Dublin, ?, 1865
    Note: 9 17
    Sir William Petty, Political Anatomy of Ireland, London, ?, 1719
    Page: 19
    Note: 7
    John Thurloe, Letter of Henry Cromwell, 4th Thurloe's State
    Papers, London, 1742
    Note: 8
    Thomas Addis Emmet, Ireland Under English Rule, NY & London,
    Putnam, 1903
    Page: 101, vol I 101, vol I 211,2
    Note: 12 19 28
    Joseph J. Williams, Whence the "Black Irish" of Jamaica, NY,
    Dial, MCMXXXII
    Page: 17 17
    Note: 10 11
    Anthony Broudine, Propuguaculum, Pragae Anno, 1669
    Note: 18
    Dr. John Lingard, History of England, Edinburgh, ? ,1902
    Page: 336, vol X
    Note: 20
    Abbot E. Smith, Colonists in Bondage, 1607-1776, Glouster, Mass,
    Smith, 1965
    Page: 164 165 334 209 336
    Note: 2 16 23 27 36
    C. S. S. Higham, The Development of the Leeward Islands Under the
    Restoration, 1660-1688, London,
    Cambridge, 1921
    Page: 4 47
    Note: 14 22
    Richard Ligon, A True and Exact History of Barbadoes, London,
    Cass, 1657, reprinted 1976
    Page: 44
    Note: 31
    Eric Williams, From Columbus to Castro, 1492-1969, New York,
    Harper and Roe, 1971
    Page: 101
    Note: 15
    Wesley Frank Craven, The Colonies in Transition, 1660-1713, New
    York, Harper and Roe, 1968
    Page: 55 58
    Note: 33 35


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