The Irish Slaves Part Two
Even though it did not seem that things could get worse, with the advent of Olvier Cromwell, they did. In the 1650's, thousands more Irish were killed, and many more were sold into slavery. Over 100,000 Irish Catholic children were taken from their parents and sold as slaves, many to Virginia and New England. Unbelievably but truly, from 1651 to 1660 there were more Irish slaves in America than the entire non-slave population of the colonies!
In 1652, Cromwell instigated the Ethnic Cleansing of Ireland. He demanded that all Irish people were to resettle west of the Shannon, in arid, uninhabitable land, or be transported to the West Indies. The Irish refused to relocate peaceably, for the most part, since they couldn't survive if they did.
A law, published in 1657 read:
''Those who fail to transplant themselves into Connaught
(Ireland's Western Province) or ( County ) Clare within six
months. . . Shall be attained of high treason...Are to be sent
into America or some other parts beyone the seas'' (1)
This is were the now well known quote which has followed Ireland and her history since
''To Connaught or Hell!!''
Any who attempted to return would
'suffer the pains of death as felons by virture of this act, without benefit of Clergy'' (2)
The soldiers were encouraged to kill the Irish who refused to move; it was certainly not considered a crime. But the slave trade was so profitable that it was much more lucrative to round them up and sell them. Gangs went out to fill quotes by capturing whoever came across their path; they were so industrious that they accidentally captured a number of French and English and several thousand Scots in the process. By Cromwell's death, at least 1000,000 Irish men, women and children had been sold in the West Indies, Virginia and New England. While most were sold to the sugar planters in Barbado, Jamaica and throughout the West Indies, some writers assert that at least 20,000 were sold to the American colonies. The earliest record of Irish Slaves in America was in 1620, with the arrival of 200 slave. Most of the documentation, however, comes from the West Indies.
