Irish Slaves, Part four
According to Sean O' Callahan, in To Hell or Barbados, Irish men and women were inspected like cattle there, just as the Africans were. In addition, Irish Slaves, who were harder to distinguish from their owners since they shared the same skin colour, were branded with the owner's initials, the women on the forearm and the men on the buttocks. O' Callahan goes on to say that the women were not only sold to the planters as slaves to work in their homes but also else were.
The one advantage the Irish slaves had over the African slaves was that since they were literate and they did not survive well in the fields, they were generally used as house servants, accountants, and teachers. But the gentilty of the service did not correlate to the punshiment for infractions. Flogging was common, and most slaves owners did not really care if they killed and easily replaceable, cheap Irish slave.
While most of these slaves who survived were eventually freed after their time of service was completed, many leaving the islands for the American colonies, many were not, and the planters found another way to insure a free supply of valuable slaves. They were quick to ''find solace'' and start breeding with the Irish slave women. Many of them were pretty, but more than that, while most of the Irish were sold for only a period of service, usually about ten years assuming they survived, their children were born slaves for life. The planters knew that most of the mothers would remain in servitude to remain with their children even after their service was technically up.
The planters also began to breed the Irish women with the African male slaves to make lighter skinned slaves, because the lighter skinned slaves were more desirable and could be sold for more money. A law was passed against this practise in 1681. and for moral reasons but because the practise was causing the Royal African Company to lose money. According to James F. Cavanaugh, this company, send 249 shiploads of slaves to the West Indies in the 1680's, a total of 60,000 African and Irish, 14,000 of whom died in passage. (7)
While the trade in Irish slaves tapered off after the defeat of King James in 1691, England once again shipped out thousands of Irish prisoners who were taken after the Irish Rebellion of 1798. These prisoners were shipped to America and to Australia, specifically to be sold as slaves.
No Irish slave shipped to the West Indies or America has even been known to have returned to Ireland. Many died, either in passage or from abuse or overwork. Others wom their freedom and emigrated to the American colonies. Still others remained in the West Indies, which still contain a population of 'Black Irish', many the descendents of the children of Black and Irish Slaves.
In 1688, the first woman killed in Cotton Mather's witch trials in Massachusettes was an old Irish woman named Anne Glover, who had been captured and sold as a slave in 1650. She spoke no English. She could recite The Lord's Prayer in Gaelic and Latin, but without English, Mather decided her Gaelic was discourse with the Devil and hung her (8)
It was not until 1839 that a law was passed in England ending the slave trade, and thus the trade in Irish Slaves.
It is unfortunate that, while the decendents of black slaves have kept their history alive and not allowed their atrocity to be forgotten, the Irish hertiage of slavery in America and the West Indies has been largely ignored and forgotten.
Thank you for reading,
Irish Lass
..slavery, such a disgusting word..thanks for sharing this with us all Louise... 
