Kidnapped, Bought, and Sold
- The Persecution and Enslavement of the Irish (Part 3)
By Claudia Henneberry
February 2024
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Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
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TREATMENT
“The indentured servant system evolved into slavery because of the economic goals of early colonists,” from the book, White Cargo: The Forgotten History of Britain’s White Slaves in America by Don Jordan and Michael Walsh (2007), p. 7.
Most of the white Europeans who were shipped to the sugar plantations in the West Indies or to, primarily, Virginia and Maryland in the beginning, were told that they would receive free passage to a new land of opportunity. Those who were not prisoners but volunteered to go to America were called “freewillers”. They were expected to pay for their trip, as ‘indentured servants’, by working on plantations, or plots of land that were owned by the sponsor or landowner, for a required number of years (usually 7-14 years). They were to earn their freedom, then be given property of their own. These were empty promises.
“If servants were lost at sea en route to Virginia, they were viewed as cargo and not as people to be lamented.” Id., p. 54. One such ship was cited for dumping 1,302 Irish into the Atlantic to save food for the crew. (Proclamation 1625 . . ., p. 64)
Once they arrived in colonial ports, “Irish men and women were inspected like cattle.” They were also branded since they were white and couldn’t be distinguished from a white master – women on the forearm and men on the buttocks. In some cases, women were sold as sex slaves or to brothels. (Proclamation 1625 . . ., p. 102)
“English or Irish Women were sold for 120 pounds of tobacco each and the children were sold for 20 pounds of tobacco. Of the (300-400) English and Irish children shipped to Virginia between 1619 and 1622, few survived into adulthood. Records from Munster in southern Ireland from 1624 showed that only 12 were still alive.” (From Proclamation 1625 . . ., p. 43).
The Virginia House of Burgesses validated a master’s ‘absolute right’ over servants by allowing such punishments as “bodily punishment for not heeding the demands of the master.” Whipping posts were erected in both the town square or on the owners’ property. If a slave/servant “attempted to run away, for example, slandered his master, (or) indulged in an open display of ‘wantonness’ with a woman servant,” a master was allowed “to place servants in the pillory for a period of four days, to nail his ears to the post, and to give him a public whipping on each day included in his sentence.” (From White Cargo, p. 46, and from White Servitude in the Colony of Virginia: A Study of the System of Indentured Labor in the American Colonies by James Curtis Ballagh, 2004). Even harsher treatments were recorded such as the loss of an ear or both, being hung upside down, being burned, etc., for misbehavior.
Women were not spared physical punishment or humiliation. It has been documented that slave masters would on occasion force female servants/slaves to work while naked. Female servants/slaves were also raped. Masters could be fined or lose their servant/slave for these atrocities if found out. If women servants/slaves became pregnant, they were punished with whippings and have their indentures doubled. Their offspring were declared slaves and the property of the plantation owner until 1769 when a law proclaimed children born to white slaves/servants to be apprentices.
In addition to cruel physical abuse, months or years could be added to their time as a servant/slave. Maryland and Virginia were considered the worst for indentured slaves/servants.
The African slave trade soon expanded in the colonies when English King Charles II formed the Royal African Company in 1672 to take advantage of the lucrative business on the west coast of Africa. “The company transported over 5,000 African slaves a year to the New World. The new venture provided the British crown with two sources of slave labor: the Irish and now the Africans.” (Proclamation of 1625 . . ., p. 105). Soon the Irish servants/slaves would have company with a larger African slave presence in the American colonies.
THE IRISH BECAME WHITE
A race-based social structure . . . . (TO BE CONTINUED)
- The Persecution and Enslavement of the Irish (Part 3)
By Claudia Henneberry
February 2024
---
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
---
TREATMENT
“The indentured servant system evolved into slavery because of the economic goals of early colonists,” from the book, White Cargo: The Forgotten History of Britain’s White Slaves in America by Don Jordan and Michael Walsh (2007), p. 7.
Most of the white Europeans who were shipped to the sugar plantations in the West Indies or to, primarily, Virginia and Maryland in the beginning, were told that they would receive free passage to a new land of opportunity. Those who were not prisoners but volunteered to go to America were called “freewillers”. They were expected to pay for their trip, as ‘indentured servants’, by working on plantations, or plots of land that were owned by the sponsor or landowner, for a required number of years (usually 7-14 years). They were to earn their freedom, then be given property of their own. These were empty promises.
“If servants were lost at sea en route to Virginia, they were viewed as cargo and not as people to be lamented.” Id., p. 54. One such ship was cited for dumping 1,302 Irish into the Atlantic to save food for the crew. (Proclamation 1625 . . ., p. 64)
Once they arrived in colonial ports, “Irish men and women were inspected like cattle.” They were also branded since they were white and couldn’t be distinguished from a white master – women on the forearm and men on the buttocks. In some cases, women were sold as sex slaves or to brothels. (Proclamation 1625 . . ., p. 102)
“English or Irish Women were sold for 120 pounds of tobacco each and the children were sold for 20 pounds of tobacco. Of the (300-400) English and Irish children shipped to Virginia between 1619 and 1622, few survived into adulthood. Records from Munster in southern Ireland from 1624 showed that only 12 were still alive.” (From Proclamation 1625 . . ., p. 43).
The Virginia House of Burgesses validated a master’s ‘absolute right’ over servants by allowing such punishments as “bodily punishment for not heeding the demands of the master.” Whipping posts were erected in both the town square or on the owners’ property. If a slave/servant “attempted to run away, for example, slandered his master, (or) indulged in an open display of ‘wantonness’ with a woman servant,” a master was allowed “to place servants in the pillory for a period of four days, to nail his ears to the post, and to give him a public whipping on each day included in his sentence.” (From White Cargo, p. 46, and from White Servitude in the Colony of Virginia: A Study of the System of Indentured Labor in the American Colonies by James Curtis Ballagh, 2004). Even harsher treatments were recorded such as the loss of an ear or both, being hung upside down, being burned, etc., for misbehavior.
Women were not spared physical punishment or humiliation. It has been documented that slave masters would on occasion force female servants/slaves to work while naked. Female servants/slaves were also raped. Masters could be fined or lose their servant/slave for these atrocities if found out. If women servants/slaves became pregnant, they were punished with whippings and have their indentures doubled. Their offspring were declared slaves and the property of the plantation owner until 1769 when a law proclaimed children born to white slaves/servants to be apprentices.
In addition to cruel physical abuse, months or years could be added to their time as a servant/slave. Maryland and Virginia were considered the worst for indentured slaves/servants.
The African slave trade soon expanded in the colonies when English King Charles II formed the Royal African Company in 1672 to take advantage of the lucrative business on the west coast of Africa. “The company transported over 5,000 African slaves a year to the New World. The new venture provided the British crown with two sources of slave labor: the Irish and now the Africans.” (Proclamation of 1625 . . ., p. 105). Soon the Irish servants/slaves would have company with a larger African slave presence in the American colonies.
THE IRISH BECAME WHITE
A race-based social structure . . . . (TO BE CONTINUED)