| 1100-2007 |
Irish Slavery
| Irish Slavery William petty estimated in his demographic survey of Ireland in the 1650s that the war of 1641–53 had resulted in the death or exile of over 600,000 people, or around one third of Ireland's pre-war population. In the wake of the Cromwellian conquest, the public practice of Catholicism was banned and Catholic priests were executed when captured. In addition, roughly 12,000 Irish people were sold into slavery under the Commonwealth. All Catholic-owned land was confiscated in the Act for the Settlement of Ireland 1652 and given to Scottish and English settlers, the Parliament's financial creditors and Parliamentary soldiers. The remaining Catholic landowners were allocated poorer land in Connacht. Under the Commonwealth, Catholic landownership dropped from 60% of the total to just 8%. Cromwell is still a figure of hatred in Ireland, his name being associated with massacre, religious persecution, and mass dispossession of the Catholic community there. A traditional Irish curse was malacht Cromail ort or "The curse of Cromwell upon you". This saying is still occasionally heard in parts of Ireland. Kenyon, John & Ohlmeyer, Jane (eds.) (2000). The Civil Wars: A Military History of England, Scotland, and Ireland 1638-1660 (Oxford University Press), ISBN 0-19-280278-X, p.314 Between the years 1652 - 1659, English Troops murdered over 500,000 Irish men, women and children. Another 100,000 (possibly as high as 250,000) Irish people, mainly children were sold into slavery to places like Barbados and the Caribbean. There was about 30,000 Irish soldiers sent into exile as wild Geese and another 50,000 became known as Toraidhe (Tory's) who fought a guerrilla war against English colonialism. The English also forced over 500,000 Irish from their homes into the barren regions of Connacht and Clare as part of the Plantations and Extermination project. But in the midst of all this chaos, the Irish fought bravely against English tyranny and killed possibly as high as 100,000 English soldiers and Colonists in the period. During the 17th Century, hundreds of thousands of Irish were sold into slavery in the new world. While Elizabeth I is credited with the idea of an Irish genocide, Oliver Cromwell pursued it with a zeal that would place him squarely in the middle of the basket with Hitler or Saddam. On 14 August 1652, Cromwell began his Ethnic Cleansing of Ireland, ordering that the Irish were to be transported overseas, starting with 12,000 Irish prisoners sold to Barbados. Subsequently some 52,000 Irish, mostly women and sturdy boys and girls, were sold to Barbados and Virginia alone. Another 30,000 Irish men and women were taken prisoners and ordered transported and sold as slaves. In 1656, Cromwell’s Council of State ordered that 1000 Irish girls and 1000 Irish boys be rounded up and taken to Jamaica to be sold as slaves to English planters. As horrendous as these numbers sound, it only reflects a small part of the evil program, as most of the slaving activity was not recorded. We will never know how many Irish were sold into slavery during the 17th and early 18th Centuries. Records are scant and it’s not something of which the British are particularly proud. We can say that it runs into the hundreds of thousands in places like Barbados, Montserrat, Virginia and Massachusetts. Irish folk were a profitable commodity since unlike African slaves that had to be purchased for resale, the supply of Irish was unlimited and free. They were a bargain to the planters since the initial cost was less than that of an African slave. For ~900lbs of cotton, any good Protestant planter could own a fully able Irishman or woman. Children of course were a tad less expensive. Irish slavery lasted until 1839 when a bill was passed in Parliament banning the slave trade. There were no tears shed amongst the Irish when Cromwell died in 1660. Few people today realize that from 1600 to 1699, far more Irish were sold as slaves than Africans. Slaves or Indentured Servants There has been a lot of whitewashing of the Irish slave trade, partly by not mentioning it, and partly by labeling slaves as indentured servants. There were indeed indentureds, including English, French, Spanish and even a few Irish. But there is a great difference between the two. Indentures bind two or more parties in mutual obligations. Servant indentures were agreements between an individual and a shipper in which the individual agreed to sell his services for a period of time in exchange for passage, and during his service, he would receive proper housing, food, clothing, and usually a piece of land at the end of the term of service. It is believed that some of the Irish that went to the Amazon settlement after the Battle of Kinsale and up to 1612 were exiled military who went voluntarily, probably as indentureds to Spanish or Portuguese shippers. However, from 1625 onward the Irish were sold, pure and simple as slaves. There were no indenture agreements, no protection, no choice. They were captured and originally turned over to shippers to be sold for their profit. Because the profits were so great, generally 900 pounds of cotton for a slave, the Irish slave trade became an industry in which everyone involved (except the Irish) had a share of the profits. Curiously, of all the Irish shipped out as slaves, not one is known to have returned to Ireland to tell their tales. Many, if not most, died on the ships transporting them or from overwork and abusive treatment on the plantations. The Irish that did obtain their freedom, frequently emigrated on to the American mainland, while others moved to adjoining islands. You’ll find little mention in history books about the Irish slave trade or about the scattered Welsh, Scots and other native Britons sold into slavery. These were not indentured servants but true, owned body and soul, slaves. Most died in bondage in far off places like Virginia, Massachusetts, New York, Montserrat, Barbados and other crown colonies. In The Re-Conquest of Ireland James Connolly quotes the following instance of the methods used: "Captain John Vernon was employed by the Commissioners for Ireland to England, and contracted in their behalf with Mr. David Sellick and the Leader under his hand to supply them with two hundred and fifty women of the Irish nation, above twelve years and under the age of forty-five, also three hundred men above twelve years and under fifty, to be found in the country within twenty miles of Cork, Youghal and Kinsale, Waterford and Wexford, to transport them into New England.” This British firm alone was responsible for shipping over 6,400 girls and boys. Benjamin Franklin estimated that at the time of the American Revolution, roughly one half of Pennsylvania’s labor force was legally unfree—bound to someone else as property, for many years or for a lifetime. In 1855, Frederic Law Olmsted, the landscape architect who designed New York's Central Park, was in Alabama on a pleasure trip and saw bales of cotton being thrown from a considerable height into a cargo ship's hold. The men tossing the bales somewhat recklessly into the hold were Negroes, the men in the hold were Irish. Olmsted inquired about this to a shipworker. "Oh," said the worker, "the niggers are worth too much to be risked here; if the Paddies are knocked overboard or get their backs broke, nobody loses anything." The diaspora to America was immortalized in the words of many songs including the famous Irish ballad, "The Green Fields of America": So pack up your sea-stores, consider no longer, Ten dollars a week is not very bad pay, With no taxes or tithes to devour up your wages, When you're on the green fields of America. The experience of Irish immigrants in America has not always been harmonious, however. Irish newcomers were sometimes uneducated and often found themselves fighting Americans for manual labor jobs or being recruited off the docks by the U.S. Army. This view of the Irish-American experience is depicted by another traditional song, "Paddy's Lamentation". Hear me boys, now take my advice, To America I'll have ye's not be going, There is nothing here but war, where the murderin' cannons roar, And I wish I was at home in dear old Dublin. The classic image of an Irish immigrant is led occasionally by racist and anti-Catholic stereotypes. In modern times, in the United States, the Irish are largely perceived as hard workers. Most notably they are associated with the positions of policeman, firemen, Roman Catholic Church leaders and politicians in the larger Eastern-Seaboard metropolitan areas. Irish Americans number over 44 million, making them the second largest ethnic group in the country, after German Americans. The largest Irish American communities are in New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Chicago. New York City and Savannah, Georgia hold the first- and second-largest Saint Patrick's Day parades in the USA, respectively. At state level, California has the largest number of Irish Americans. In percentage terms, Boston is the most Irish city in the United States, and Massachusetts the most Irish state. Before the Potato blight in Ireland and associated British policies resulted in over a million dead and more immigrated, there had been the Penal Laws resulting in mass immigration. Under these laws, Nonconformists or non-Anglicans had certain civil rights suppressed by the British Crown, resulting in the massive migration of several hundred thousand people from Ireland - particularly from the province of Ulster. Because a majority of these were Presbyterians, and many of those had settled in Ulster from Scotland, they became known as the "Scotch-Irish" in the United States, to which they formed a steady stream of emigration throughout the 18th century. The more widely accepted term abroad is Scots-Irish or Ulster-Scots. Many settled in the mountains of the southeastern states and due to their affiliation with William III of Orange, or "King Billy", they became known as "Billy-Boys of the Hills" - later Hillbillies. Some of them wore red or orange neck-scarves to signify that they were signaturees of Ulster's Solemn League and Covenant and were also known as Rednecks. There has been some anti-Protestant sentiment against them, though they are generally less vocal about their Irish heritage, having assimilated more fully into American society. There is some resurgence in interest. Dolly Parton, for example, has recently discovered her Ulster-Scots roots, and John Wayne was quite proud of his "Scotch- Irish" heritage. |
Irish genocide and "Great Famines", An Gorta Mór
| House of Tudor • Elizabeth I 1558-1603 House of Stuart • James I 1603-1625
1625-1649
• Oliver Cromwell 1649-1660
1658-1659
House of Stuart (restored by counter revolution) • Charles II 1660-1685
• James II 1685-1688
• William III 1689-1702
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| Generally speaking, genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation, except when accomplished by mass killings of all members of a nation. It is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves. The objectives of such a plan would be the disintegration of the political and social institutions, of culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the economic existence of national groups, and the destruction of the personal security, liberty, health, dignity, and even the lives of the individuals belonging to such groups. Lemkin's original genocide definition was narrow, based mainly on the Holocaust and Armenian genocide, as it addressed only crimes against "national groups" rather than "groups" in general. At the same time, it was broad in that it included not only physical genocide but also acts aimed at destroying the culture and livelihood of the group. According to the Swiss professor Julia Fribourg, the term "genocide" includes displacement of national groups from their homelands with an aim of destroying their cultural and habitational grounds. The words used before this to describe such an atrocity were "Barbarity" and "Vandalism." Lemkin felt that these did not accurately describe the atrocities and coined the word Genocide. Genocide appears to be a regular and widespread event in the history of civilization. The phrase "never again" or "not on our watch" is often used in relation to genocide and has been contradicted up to the present day. Determining which historical events constitute genocide and which are merely criminal or inhuman behavior is not a clear-cut matter. Furthermore, in nearly every case where accusations of genocide have circulated, partisans of various sides have fiercely disputed the interpretation and details of the event, often to the point of promoting wildly different versions of the facts. An accusation of genocide is certainly not taken lightly and will almost always be controversial. Revisionist attempts to deny or challenge genocides (mainly the Holocaust) are, in some countries, illegal. United Kingdom The United Kingdom has incorporated the International Criminal Court Act into domestic law. It is not retroactive so it applies only to events after May 2001 and genocide charges can be filed only against British nationals and residents. According to Peter Carter QC, chairman of the Bar's human rights committee "It means that British mercenaries who support regimes that commit war crimes can expect prosecution". |
| Eight Stages of Genocide By Gregory H. Stanton (Originally written in 1996 at the Department of State; presented at the Yale University Center for International and Area Studies in 1998) Genocide is a process that develops in eight stages that are predictable but not inexorable. At each stage, preventive measures can stop it. The later stages must be preceded by the earlier stages, though earlier stages continue to operate throughout the process. The eight stages of genocide are: 1. Classification 2. Symbolization 3. Dehumanization 4. Organization 5. Polarization 6. Preparation 7. Extermination 8. Denial 1. CLASSIFICATION: All cultures have categories to distinguish people into "us and them" by ethnicity, race, religion, or nationality: German and Jew, Hutu and Tutsi. Bipolar societies that lack mixed categories, such as Rwanda and Burundi, are the most likely to have genocide. The main preventive measure at this early stage is to develop universalistic institutions that transcend ethnic or racial divisions, that actively promote tolerance and understanding, and that promote classifications that transcend the divisions. The Catholic church could have played this role in Rwanda, had it not been riven by the same ethnic cleavages as Rwandan society. Promotion of a common language in countries like Tanzania or Cote d'Ivoire has also promoted transcendent national identity. This search for common ground is vital to early prevention of genocide. 2. SYMBOLIZATION: We give names or other symbols to the classifications. We name people "Jews" or "Gypsies", or distinguish them by colors or dress; and apply them to members of groups. Classification and symbolization are universally human and do not necessarily result in genocide unless they lead to the next stage, dehumanization. When combined with hatred, symbols may be forced upon unwilling members of pariah groups: the yellow star for Jews under Nazi rule, the blue scarf for people from the Eastern Zone in Khmer Rouge Cambodia. To combat symbolization, hate symbols can be legally forbidden (swastikas) as can hate speech. Group marking like gang clothing or tribal scarring can be outlawed, as well. The problem is that legal limitations will fail if unsupported by popular cultural enforcement. Though Hutu and Tutsi were forbidden words in Burundi until the 1980's, code-words replaced them. If widely supported, however, denial of symbolization can be powerful, as it was in Bulgaria, when many non-Jews chose to wear the yellow star, depriving it of its significance as a Nazi symbol for Jews. According to legend in Denmark, the Nazis did not introduce the yellow star because they knew even the King would wear it. 3. DEHUMANIZATION: One group denies the humanity of the other group. Members of it are equated with animals, vermin, insects or diseases. Dehumanization overcomes the normal human revulsion against murder. At this stage, hate propaganda in print and on hate radios is used to vilify the victim group. In combating this dehumanization, incitement to genocide should not be confused with protected speech. Genocidal societies lack constitutional protection for countervailing speech, and should be treated differently than in democracies. Hate radio stations should be shut down, and hate propaganda banned. Hate crimes and atrocities should be promptly punished. 4. ORGANIZATION: Genocide is always organized, usually by the state, though sometimes informally (Hindu mobs led by local RSS militants) or by terrorist groups. Special army units or militias are often trained and armed. Plans are made for genocidal killings. To combat this stage, membership in these militias should be outlawed. Their leaders should be denied visas for foreign travel. The U.N. should impose arms embargoes on governments and citizens of countries involved in genocidal massacres, and create commissions to investigate violations, as was done in post-genocide Rwanda. 5. POLARIZATION: Extremists drive the groups apart. Hate groups broadcast polarizing propaganda. Laws may forbid intermarriage or social interaction. Extremist terrorism targets moderates, intimidating and silencing the center. Prevention may mean security protection for moderate leaders or assistance to human rights groups. Assets of extremists may be seized, and visas for international travel denied to them. Coups d'¢etat by extremists should be opposed by international sanctions. 6. PREPARATION: Victims are identified and separated out because of their ethnic or religious identity. Death lists are drawn up. Members of victim groups are forced to wear identifying symbols. They are often segregated into ghettoes, forced into concentration camps, or confined to a famine-struck region and starved. At this stage, a Genocide Alert must be called. If the political will of the U.S., NATO, and the U.N. Security Council can be mobilized, armed international intervention should be prepared, or heavy assistance to the victim group in preparing for its self-defense. Otherwise, at least humanitarian assistance should be organized by the U.N. and private relief groups for the inevitable tide of refugees. 7. EXTERMINATION: Extermination begins, and quickly becomes the mass killing legally called "genocide." It is "extermination" to the killers because they do not believe their victims to be fully human. When it is sponsored by the state, the armed forces often work with militias to do the killing. Sometimes the genocide results in revenge killings by groups against each other, creating the downward whirlpool-like cycle of bilateral genocide (as in Burundi). At this stage, only rapid and overwhelming armed intervention can stop genocide. Real safe areas or refugee escape corridors should be established with heavily armed international protection. The U.N. needs a Standing High Readiness Brigade or a permanent rapid reaction force, to intervene quickly when the U.N. Security Council calls it. For larger interventions, a multilateral force authorized by the U.N., led by NATO or a regional military power, should intervene. If the U.N. will not intervene directly, militarily powerful nations should provide the airlift, equipment, and financial means necessary for regional states to intervene with U.N. authorization. It is time to recognize that the law of humanitarian intervention transcends the interests of nation-states. 8. DENIAL: Denial is the eighth stage that always follows a genocide. It is among the surest indicators of further genocidal massacres. The perpetrators of genocide dig up the mass graves, burn the bodies, try to cover up the evidence and intimidate the witnesses. They deny that they committed any crimes, and often blame what happened on the victims. They block investigations of the crimes, and continue to govern until driven from power by force, when they flee into exile. There they remain with impunity, like Pol Pot or Idi Amin, unless they are captured and a tribunal is established to try them. The best response to denial is punishment by an international tribunal or national courts. There the evidence can be heard, and the perpetrators punished. Tribunals like the Yugoslav, Rwanda, or Sierra Leone Tribunals, an international tribunal to try the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, and ultimately the International Criminal Court must be created. They may not deter the worst genocidal killers. But with the political will to arrest and prosecute them, some mass murderers may be brought to justice. © 1998 Gregory H. Stanton |
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| Recent to Past Occurrences * Darfur *Iraq * Bosnia-Herzegovina: 1992-1995 - 200,000 Deaths * Rwanda: 1994 - 800,000 Deaths * Pol Pot in Cambodia: 1975-1979 - 2,000,000 Deaths * Nazi Holocaust: 1938-1945 - 6,000,000 Deaths * Rape of Nanking: 1937-1938 - 300,000 Deaths * Stalin's Forced Famine: 1932-1933 - 7,000,000 Deaths * Armenians in Turkey: 1915-1918 - 1,500,000 Death * Burundi * Sierra Leone *Macedonia *Kosovo * East Timor *Cambodia *Ireland |
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| Genocide is the mass killing of a group of people as defined by Article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide(CPPCG) as "any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life, calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; and forcibly transferring children of the group to another group." The term "genocide" was coined by Raphael Lemkin (1900-1959), a Polish-Jewish legal scholar, in 1943, from the roots γένος genos (Greek for family, tribe or race) and -cide (Latin - occido - to massacre). In 1933 Lemkin made a presentation to the Legal Council of the League of Nations conference on international criminal law in Madrid, for which he prepared an essay on the Crime of Barbarity as a crime against international law. The concept of the crime, which later evolved into the idea of genocide, was based mostly on the experience of Assyrians massacred in Iraq on 11 August 1933. The event in Iraq reminded him of earlier similar events of the Armenian Genocide during World War I. In 1944, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace published Lemkin's most important work, entitled Axis Rule in Occupied Europe, in the United States. This book included an extensive legal analysis of German rule in countries occupied by Nazi Germany during the course of World War II, along with the definition of the term genocide. Lemkin's idea of genocide as an offense against international law was widely accepted by the international community and was one of the legal bases of the Nuremberg Trials.Lemkin presented a draft resolution for a Genocide Convention treaty to a number of countries in an effort to persuade them to sponsor the resolution. With the support of the United States, the resolution was placed before the General Assembly for a consideration. Lemkin said about the definition of genocide in its original adoption for international law at the Geneva Conventions: |
Raphael Lemkin
1900-1959
1900-1959
Old St. Patrick's Cathedral
St. Patrick's Cathedral
NYC, NY, U.S. of A
| What is Genocide? By Gregory H. Stanton, President, Genocide Watch The crime of genocide is defined in international law in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide. "Article II: In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. Article III: The following acts shall be punishable: (a) Genocide; (b) Conspiracy to commit genocide; (c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide; (d) Attempt to commit genocide; (e) Complicity in genocide. The Genocide Convention was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 9 December 1948. The Convention entered into force on 12 January 1951. More than 130 nations have ratified the Genocide Convention and over 70 nations have made provisions for the punishment of genocide in domestic criminal law. The text of Article II of the Genocide Convention was included as a crime in Article 6 of the 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Punishable Acts The following are genocidal acts when committed as part of a policy to destroy a group’s existence: Killing members of the group includes direct killing and actions causing death. Causing serious bodily or mental harm includes inflicting trauma on members of the group through widespread torture, rape, sexual violence, forced or coerced use of drugs, and mutilation. Deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to destroy a group includes the deliberate deprivation of resources needed for the group’s physical survival, such as clean water, food, clothing, shelter or medical services. Deprivation of the means to sustain life can be imposed through confiscation of harvests, blockade of foodstuffs, detention in camps, forcible relocation or expulsion into deserts. Prevention of births includes involuntary sterilization, forced abortion, prohibition of marriage, and long-term separation of men and women intended to prevent procreation. Forcible transfer of children may be imposed by direct force or by through fear of violence, duress, detention, psychological oppression or other methods of coercion. The Convention on the Rights of the Child defines children as persons under the age of 14 years. Genocidal acts need not kill or cause the death of members of a group. Causing serious bodily or mental harm, prevention of births and transfer of children are acts of genocide when committed as part of a policy to destroy a group’s existence: It is a crime to plan or incite genocide, even before killing starts, and to aid or abet genocide: Criminal acts include conspiracy, direct and public incitement, attempts to commit genocide, and complicity in genocide. |
| Key Terms The crime of genocide has two elements: intent and action. “Intentional” means purposeful. Intent can be proven directly from statements or orders. But more often, it must be inferred from a systematic pattern of coordinated acts. Intent is different from motive. Whatever may be the motive for the crime (land expropriation, national security, territorrial integrity, etc.,) if the perpetrators commit acts intended to destroy a group, even part of a group, it is genocide. The phrase "in whole or in part" is important. Perpetrators need not intend to destroy the entire group. Destruction of only part of a group (such as its educated members, or members living in one region) is also genocide. Most authorities require intent to destroy a substantial number of group members – mass murder. But an individual criminal may be guilty of genocide even if he kills only one person, so long as he knew he was participating in a larger plan to destroy the group. The law protects four groups - national, ethnical, racial or religious groups. A national group means a set of individuals whose identity is defined by a common country of nationality or national origin. An ethnical group is a set of individuals whose identity is defined by common cultural traditions, language or heritage. A racial group means a set of individuals whose identity is defined by physical characteristics. A religious group is a set of individuals whose identity is defined by common religious creeds, beliefs, doctrines, practices, or rituals. © 2002 Genocide Watch |
Genocide Watch is the Coordinator of the International Campaign to End Genocide
P.O. Box 809, Washington, D.C. 20044 USA. Phone: 703-448-0222
E-mail:genocidewatch@aol.com Web: www.genocidewatch.org
P.O. Box 809, Washington, D.C. 20044 USA. Phone: 703-448-0222
E-mail:genocidewatch@aol.com Web: www.genocidewatch.org
Genocide Watch has three levels of Genocide Alerts.
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| Genocides, Politicides, and Other Mass Murder Since 1945, With Stages in 2006 http://www.genocidewatch.org/aboutgenocide/genpolmmchart.htm |
| Treatment of the Irish as Slaves Although the Africans and Irish were housed together and were the property of the planter owners, the Africans received much better treatment, food and housing. In the British West Indies the planters routinely tortured white slaves for any infraction. Owners would hang Irish slaves by their hands and set their hands or feet afire as a means of punishment. To end this barbarity, Colonel William Brayne wrote to English authorities in 1656 urging the importation of Negro slaves on the grounds that, "as the planters would have to pay much more for them, they would have an interest in preserving their lives, which was wanting in the case of (Irish)...." many of whom, he charged, were killed by overwork and cruel treatment. African Negroes cost generally about 20 to 50 pounds Sterling, compared to 900 pounds of cotton (about 5 pounds Sterling) for an Irish. They were also more durable in the hot climate, and caused fewer problems. The biggest bonus with the Africans though, was they were NOT Catholic, and any heathen pagan was better than an Irish Papist. Irish prisoners were commonly sentenced to a term of service, so theoretically they would eventually be free. In practice, many of the slavers sold the Irish on the same terms as prisoners for servitude of 7 to 10 years. There was no racial consideration or discrimination, you were either a freeman or a slave, but there was aggressive religious discrimination, with the Pope considered by all English Protestants to be the enemy of God and civilization, and all Catholics heathens and hated. Irish Catholics were not considered to be Christians. On the other hand, the Irish were literate, usually more so than the plantation owners, and thus were used as house servants, account keepers, scribes and teachers. But any infraction was dealt with the same severity, whether African or Irish, field worker or domestic servant. Floggings were common, and if a planter beat an Irish slave to death, it was not a crime, only a financial loss, and a lesser loss than killing a more expensive African. Parliament passed the Act to Regulate Slaves on British Plantations in 1667, designating authorized punishments to include whippings and brandings for slave offenses against a Christian. Irish Catholics were not considered Christians, even if they were freemen. The planters quickly began breeding the comely Irish women, not just because they were attractive, but because it was profitable,,, as well as pleasurable. Children of slaves were themselves slaves, and although an Irish woman may become free, her children were not. Naturally, most Irish mothers remained with their children after earning their freedom. Planters then began to breed Irish women with African men to produce more slaves who had lighter skin and brought a higher price. The practice became so widespread that in 1681, legislation was passed “forbidding the practice of mating Irish slave women to African slave men for the purpose of producing slaves for sale.” This legislation was not the result of any moral or racial consideration, but rather because the practice was interfering with the profits of the Royal African Company! It is interesting to note that from 1680 to 1688, the Royal African Company sent 249 shiploads of slaves to the Indies and American Colonies, with a cargo of 60,000 Irish and Africans. More than 14,000 died during passage. Following the Battle of the Boyne and the defeat of King James in 1691, the Irish slave trade had an overloaded inventory, and the slavers were making great profits. The Spanish slavers were a competition nuisance, so in 1713, the Treaty of Assiento was signed in which Spain granted England exclusive rights to the slave trade, and England agreed to supply Spanish colonies 4800 slaves a year for 30 years. England shipped tens of thousands of Irish prisoners after the 1798 Irish Rebellion to be sold as slaves in the Colonies and Australia. |
| 1663 "First serious enslaved African conspiracy in Colonial America, Sept. 13. Servant betrayed plot of White servants and enslaved Africans in Gloucester County, Va." I haven't done any research on this rising but given that it's in 1663, these "White servants" were probably Irish slaves captured and sold during the heyday of the Irish slave trade (1649-1657) under Cromwell. The Cromwellian (i.e., Puritan) government in Ireland gave the slave monopolies to good Puritan merchants who then sold on to other good Puritan merchants in the Caribbean, Virginia, and New England. (The Royalists/Anglicans got nearly nothing out of the Irish slave trade.) The first witch killed (1688) in the famous Massachusetts witch trials was an old Irish slavewoman (Anne Glover) who had been captured by Cromwellian forces and sold as a slave in the 1650s. She could recite the Lord's Prayer in Irish and Latin, but didn't speak English. So Cotton Mather and the boys hung her. Cotton Mather was quite proud of his visiting the poor woman in jail and interviewing her (tormenting her) at length on the nature of religion and her 'sins' through an interpreter. He wrote a book about it (Memorable Providences, which you can find at COTTON MATHER, MEMORABLE PROVIDENCES, RELATING TO WITCHCRAFTS AND POSSESSIONS The book included detailed descriptions of the torments witches can inflict on their victims. It became a best seller in Old and New England, was read in the home of the teenage girls who started the Salem witch-trials, and is now put forward as one of the likely sources of inspiration for their fantastic accusations. Talk about the crimes of a people coming back to haunt them. 1741 "Series of suspicious fires and reports of enslaved Africans conspiracy led to general hysteria in New York City, March and April. Thirty-one enslaved Africans and five Whites were executed." I've seen some documents on this before. It's called the "1741 Negro Conspiracy" or "New York Slave Conspiracy of 1741." The 5 whites were Irish indentured servants of the "Teague" sort. Teagues were Irish-speaking papists. You'll note that 'Teague' is still British Army slang for an Irish Catholic in Northern Ireland today. (Another nice reference to "Teagues" is found in the trial transcripts related to the Boston Massacre which killed Crispus Attucks (African-American), Samuel Gray, James Coldwell, Samuel Maverick, and Patrick Carr (Irish-American?). John Adams, representing the accused British soldiers, blamed the initial stone-throwing, abuse, and rabble-rousing which started the incident on Teagues in the crowd, which was no doubt accurate. Teagues were noted throughout the American colonies for their trouble-making and hatred of British authority. From Newfoundland to Barbados, the British felt they could always trust a Teague to be at the bottom of any political trouble.) 1763 "The Berbice enslaved Africans Rebellion breaks out (at the time when Berbice was a separate Dutch colony). It begins on one estate, but soon spreads to others along the Berbice River. The revolt is the result of the cruelty with which the Dutch plantation owners have been treating the enslaved Africans, and it was led by a an enslaved African named Coffy." Although this is a Dutch colony, it's interesting to note that Coffy is an Irish Gaelic surname. Was he (or an ancestor) sold from a British colony to the Dutch? 1768 "The Irish presence in Montserrat dates back to the 1630s, when the first pioneers -- Roman Catholics -- sailed over from St. Kitts because of friction with British Protestant settlers there. The Irish planters brought Enslaved Africans to work their sugar cane fields. Soon the enslaved Africans outnumbered them 3-to-1 and began rebelling. In 1768, the enslaved Africans planned an island-wide attack on St. Patrick's Day, when the planters would be celebrating.... But someone leaked the plan.... Local authorities punished the enslaved Africans severely, hanging nine. Today people mix their annual celebration of shamrocks and green beer with memories of an aborted enslaved African revolt against Irish planters. The result is a Caribbean amalgam of colonial culture and African pride -- a week long fete with islanders dancing Irish jigs one night, then mocking their one-time masters the next by cracking whips and masquerading in tall hats like bishops' miters. "We are celebrating the rise of the African freedom fighters said historian Howard Fergus." James F. Cavanaugh junglejim@btl.net |
| Northern Ireland Since the 12th Century constant revolts challenged the often brutal British rule of Ireland, climaxing in the 1916 Easter Uprising in Dublin. It sparked a chain of events leading to civil war and partition of the island. In the south 26 counties formed a separate state, while six counties in the north stayed within the UK. Over successive decades the Catholic minority in the north suffered discrimination over housing and jobs, which fuelled bitter resentment. The 'Troubles' begin In 1969 Catholic civil rights marches and counter-protests by Protestant loyalists (as in "loyal" to the British Crown) spiralled into violent unrest. British troops were sent in but soon came into conflict with the Provisional IRA (Irish Republican Army). Loyalist paramilitary groups responded with a campaign of sectarian violence against the Catholic community. As the situation worsened, Northern Ireland's parliament was suspended and direct rule imposed from London. Violence on all sides Throughout the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s paramilitary groups waged violent campaigns to pursue their goals. The IRA carried out deadly bomb and gun attacks in Britain and Northern Ireland that targeted police, soldiers, politicians and civilians. Loyalist paramilitaries targeted Catholics in "tit-for-tat" killings. Police and British forces tried to keep order, sometimes amid controversy, such as the alleged co-operation of some undercover units with loyalist groups. Devolution Possible May 8, 2007 |
| An Opportunity to end the Terrorism by both sides - on May 8, 2007 After decades of hatred and bloodshed in Northern Ireland, Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams had their first face-to-face meeting yesterday (3-26-2007). in an unprecedented move the Stormont Assembly was restored (5-8-2007). Thirteen years after the IRA called its first ceasefire and 18 months after the terrorist organisation was finally judged to have decommissioned weapons, the men pledged that their parties would work together. Mr Blair said: "Now, at last, we have a date for devolution of power and, as you can see today, a very remarkable coming together of people who, for very obvious reasons, have been strongly opposed in the past." Mr Paisley, who opposed the power-sharing executives brokered by more moderate politicians during the Sunningdale and Belfast agreements of 1973 and 1998, completed a remarkable transformation by indicating he would enter government with the political wing of the IRA. |
| 200th anniversary "This day in 1807 represented a historic turning point in the relationship between Africa and the UK.” Tony Blair 25 March 2007 |
| The Queen laid a wreath at the monument to William Wilberforce in the Abbey |
| March 25, 2007 - Marked the 200 Anniversary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act Passing in the UK. Although it would take further 30 years before slaves gained their final freedom - when slavery was abolished throughout the British Empire - the Bicentenary in 2007 gives the opportunity to remember the millions who suffered; to pay tribute to the courage and moral conviction of all those black and white who campaigned for abolition; and to demand to know why today, in some parts of the world, forms of slavery still persist two centuries after the argument for abolition in this country was won. There is a view held by many people that the repercussions of the slave trade and slavery echo down the centuries. It is argued that some of those after-effects include racism, poverty and conflict in Africa and the Caribbean creating inequality and complex cultural legacies. |
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