Kidnapped, Bought, and Sold
- The Persecution and Enslavement of the Irish (Part 1)
By Claudia Henneberry
November 2023
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Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
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INTRODUCTION
White Europeans were enslaved in the West Indies and in the early American colonies. However, this fact has been denied or erased in modern history. Current purveyors of history claim that the English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, or any other European whites who were transported against their will by mercantilists to the islands and to the original American colonies, were not ‘slaves,’ but were simply ‘indentured servants’ who only served a few years in the colonies, were treated fairly, then freed and given land of their own as a parting gift.
Among those deniers is Liam Hogan who is heralded by the Southern Poverty Law Center as an esteemed Irish scholar. The SPLC features Hogan on “Hatewatch”, a part of its website that identifies the latest targets for the SPLC’s own vitriol, hatred, and animosity.
Liam Hogan is a self-described research librarian at the Limerick City Library in Ireland and an independent scholar. He says Irish ‘slavery’ is a myth and “an ahistorical reimagining of real events.” Hogan goes on to say that this myth that Irish people were slaves has “attracted Neo-Nazis, White Nationalists, Neo-Confederates, and even holocaust deniers.” He says these groups have revived the myth and have made it into memes on social media, such as this one:
- The Persecution and Enslavement of the Irish (Part 1)
By Claudia Henneberry
November 2023
---
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
---
INTRODUCTION
White Europeans were enslaved in the West Indies and in the early American colonies. However, this fact has been denied or erased in modern history. Current purveyors of history claim that the English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, or any other European whites who were transported against their will by mercantilists to the islands and to the original American colonies, were not ‘slaves,’ but were simply ‘indentured servants’ who only served a few years in the colonies, were treated fairly, then freed and given land of their own as a parting gift.
Among those deniers is Liam Hogan who is heralded by the Southern Poverty Law Center as an esteemed Irish scholar. The SPLC features Hogan on “Hatewatch”, a part of its website that identifies the latest targets for the SPLC’s own vitriol, hatred, and animosity.
Liam Hogan is a self-described research librarian at the Limerick City Library in Ireland and an independent scholar. He says Irish ‘slavery’ is a myth and “an ahistorical reimagining of real events.” Hogan goes on to say that this myth that Irish people were slaves has “attracted Neo-Nazis, White Nationalists, Neo-Confederates, and even holocaust deniers.” He says these groups have revived the myth and have made it into memes on social media, such as this one:
Predictably, Hogan hyperextends his rhetoric to link the Republican party and Donald Trump with this meme, or similar ones, in this statement: “Although the Republican party and its ideological handlers in the right-wing media have long stoked racist resentment, now white nationalists, having become part of President Donald Trump’s base of support, have revived overt bigotry as a mainstream force in American political culture. The Irish slave meme cannot be understood apart from this political context.”
Liam the Limerick librarian is obviously not well-versed in American history. It was the Democrat Party, not the Republican Party, that has ‘long stoked racist resentment’ throughout history with its militant Ku Klux Klan and its vile Jim Crow Laws.
The history of the ‘peculiar institution’, also known as slavery, is an extensive one. The word is defined as the ownership of a person as property and is known to have existed as early as around 4000 BC in Sumer, the earliest known civilization in Mesopotamia, during the 18th-12th centuries BC in Ancient Egypt, and in the early dynasties in the far east in China. According to Ohio State University professor Robert Davis, between 1530 and 1780 there were “almost certainly 1 million and quite possibly as many as 1.25 million white, European Christians enslaved by the Muslims of the Barbary Coast.”
Slavery has been practiced on nearly every continent and, tragically, still exists today in China, North Korea, Libya, Uzbekistan, India, and Mauritania.
The enslaved have come in all colors and creeds, races and religions.
To tell the tale of Irish slavery, we must begin with the historic circumstances that precipitated it.
THE HISTORY
The unfortunate story of Irish slavery begins in England with the centuries-long hatred between the two nations.... TO BE CONTINUED
Liam the Limerick librarian is obviously not well-versed in American history. It was the Democrat Party, not the Republican Party, that has ‘long stoked racist resentment’ throughout history with its militant Ku Klux Klan and its vile Jim Crow Laws.
The history of the ‘peculiar institution’, also known as slavery, is an extensive one. The word is defined as the ownership of a person as property and is known to have existed as early as around 4000 BC in Sumer, the earliest known civilization in Mesopotamia, during the 18th-12th centuries BC in Ancient Egypt, and in the early dynasties in the far east in China. According to Ohio State University professor Robert Davis, between 1530 and 1780 there were “almost certainly 1 million and quite possibly as many as 1.25 million white, European Christians enslaved by the Muslims of the Barbary Coast.”
Slavery has been practiced on nearly every continent and, tragically, still exists today in China, North Korea, Libya, Uzbekistan, India, and Mauritania.
The enslaved have come in all colors and creeds, races and religions.
To tell the tale of Irish slavery, we must begin with the historic circumstances that precipitated it.
THE HISTORY
The unfortunate story of Irish slavery begins in England with the centuries-long hatred between the two nations.... TO BE CONTINUED