Bill Statler
Member
Summary: Starting in the 17th Century, a whole lot of Irish people were sent to America and nearby islands, often against their will, and served as indentured servents, frequently under harsh conditions. The claim has been made that they were "slaves", that their treatment was more harsh than that of African slaves, and that there were vast numbers of them. This claim has fueled many popular memes which imply that white slave descendents have shrugged off their history of oppression, while black slave descendents are still asking for handouts.
Liam Hogan has done a spectacular job of debunking the many exaggerations that are part of this claim.
A few details and links:
The article currently making the rounds on social media is The Irish Slave Trade – The Forgotten “White” Slaves, by John Martin. (This was published on 3/17/15 by GlobalResearch, with a deceptive image of a book that is not the source of Martin's information. The article itself actually dates from 4/13/08, when it was published under the title The Slaves That Time Forgot.) Martin makes a number of claims without providing any sources -- for example:
How believable is this? Not very, it turns out. Liam Hogan has written a series of 6 articles (with more to follow) which dissect the memes and the underlying claims:
Part 1: Debunking the imagery of the “Irish slaves” meme
This looks at 25 images used in Irish slavery memes, and identifies the source of the image. Some of the photos of alleged Irish slaves are actually 20th Century child laborers, black men being beaten, Amazonian Indians, Andersonville prison victims, etc.
Part 2: How the African victims of the Zong Massacre were replaced with “Irish slaves”
How the murder of 132 to 142 African slaves transmogrified into the murder of 132 or 1302 Irish slaves.
Part 3: The “Forced Breeding” myth in the “Irish slaves” meme
No evidence that it happened, lots of evidence that it was unlikely, and one famous case of a Irish free woman who married a black slave out of love.
Part 4: A review of the numbers in the “Irish slaves” meme
Carefully examines all the numbers and statistics and dates in John Martin's paper. In some cases, he finds an actual source for Martin's numbers to demonstrate the screwiness thereof. For example, the claim of 300,000 Irish slaves, for which there is no evidence, appears to come from a blurb on the back cover of White Cargo: The Forgotten History of Britain’s White Slaves in America, by Don Jordan and Michael Walsh, which is about all the white servants sent by the British, not just the Irish ones. This back-cover blurb, in turn, seems to come from this short passage in the book:
Traces claims about abuse of Irish indentured servants. Some abuse incidents were real but extraordinary; others are actually stories of abuses committed against black slaves.
Part 6: The Myth of Colonel William Brayne and the “Irish slaves”
I cannot say enough good things about this piece of scholarship. In 1657, the military governor of Jamaica requested that the British send servants (voluntary or involuntary) to help the struggling all-military colony, and promised that "if servants were sent, they that have interest in them will be more carefull of them, and worke them moderately, by which many more lives would be saved, and plantations more forwarded." Hogan shows how this quote was distorted in a 1774 book, and further distorted in an 1828 book, and yet further in 1873, and 1883, and 1926, and 1993, and finally in 2003 by James Cavanaugh in the article that was Martin's source. By this point, it now read:
Anyway, I'm posting this here to give Liam Hogan's work a bit more well-deserved publicity, but also because it's such a very good example of how to do debunking.
Liam Hogan has done a spectacular job of debunking the many exaggerations that are part of this claim.
A few details and links:
The article currently making the rounds on social media is The Irish Slave Trade – The Forgotten “White” Slaves, by John Martin. (This was published on 3/17/15 by GlobalResearch, with a deceptive image of a book that is not the source of Martin's information. The article itself actually dates from 4/13/08, when it was published under the title The Slaves That Time Forgot.) Martin makes a number of claims without providing any sources -- for example:
John Martin appears to have taken all his information from a much longer article, Irish slaves in the Caribbean, by James F. Cavanaugh, published on the Kavanagh/Cavanaugh Family genealogical website. Again, Cavanaugh provides no sources for his claims, which are nearly identical but more extensive than those in Martin's article (except that only 132 slaves got dumped overboard instead of 1302!)....By the mid 1600s... 70% of the total population of Montserrat were Irish slaves. ... From 1641 to 1652, over 500,000 Irish were killed by the English and another 300,000 were sold as slaves. ... African slaves were very expensive during the late 1600s (50 Sterling). Irish slaves came cheap (no more than 5 Sterling). If a planter whipped or branded or beat an Irish slave to death, it was never a crime. ... The settlers began to breed Irish women and girls with African men to produce slaves with a distinct complexion. ... There were horrible abuses of both African and Irish captives. One British ship even dumped 1,302 slaves into the Atlantic Ocean so that the crew would have plenty of food to eat. ...
How believable is this? Not very, it turns out. Liam Hogan has written a series of 6 articles (with more to follow) which dissect the memes and the underlying claims:
Part 1: Debunking the imagery of the “Irish slaves” meme
This looks at 25 images used in Irish slavery memes, and identifies the source of the image. Some of the photos of alleged Irish slaves are actually 20th Century child laborers, black men being beaten, Amazonian Indians, Andersonville prison victims, etc.
Part 2: How the African victims of the Zong Massacre were replaced with “Irish slaves”
How the murder of 132 to 142 African slaves transmogrified into the murder of 132 or 1302 Irish slaves.
Part 3: The “Forced Breeding” myth in the “Irish slaves” meme
No evidence that it happened, lots of evidence that it was unlikely, and one famous case of a Irish free woman who married a black slave out of love.
Part 4: A review of the numbers in the “Irish slaves” meme
Carefully examines all the numbers and statistics and dates in John Martin's paper. In some cases, he finds an actual source for Martin's numbers to demonstrate the screwiness thereof. For example, the claim of 300,000 Irish slaves, for which there is no evidence, appears to come from a blurb on the back cover of White Cargo: The Forgotten History of Britain’s White Slaves in America, by Don Jordan and Michael Walsh, which is about all the white servants sent by the British, not just the Irish ones. This back-cover blurb, in turn, seems to come from this short passage in the book:
Part 5: Exaggeration and the appropriation of the torture of enslaved Africans in the “Irish slaves” memeHow many of those whites who migrated from Britain were subject to the abuses we associate with slavery -- 100,000, 200,000, 300,000? It is impossible to know.
Traces claims about abuse of Irish indentured servants. Some abuse incidents were real but extraordinary; others are actually stories of abuses committed against black slaves.
Part 6: The Myth of Colonel William Brayne and the “Irish slaves”
I cannot say enough good things about this piece of scholarship. In 1657, the military governor of Jamaica requested that the British send servants (voluntary or involuntary) to help the struggling all-military colony, and promised that "if servants were sent, they that have interest in them will be more carefull of them, and worke them moderately, by which many more lives would be saved, and plantations more forwarded." Hogan shows how this quote was distorted in a 1774 book, and further distorted in an 1828 book, and yet further in 1873, and 1883, and 1926, and 1993, and finally in 2003 by James Cavanaugh in the article that was Martin's source. By this point, it now read:
This article is an exceptional piece of debunking scholarship. Included in an appendix are numerous primary sources (letters sent by Jamaican authorities).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.
Anyway, I'm posting this here to give Liam Hogan's work a bit more well-deserved publicity, but also because it's such a very good example of how to do debunking.