Kidnapped, Bought, and Sold
- The Persecution and Enslavement of the Irish (Part 4)
By Claudia Henneberry
February 2024
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Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
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THE IRISH BECAME WHITE
A race-based social structure had not been formed during this early colonial period. Interestingly, there was no racial brand of “white” used anywhere in the world. The American colonists saw themselves as Christians, Englishmen, Frenchmen, etc., or in terms of their social class. There were slaves and slaveholders alike of both races.
According to Lerone Bennett Jr., African American scholar, author, and social historian, colonial “power structure made little or no distinction between black and white servants who were assigned the same tasks and were held in equal contempt.” (Proclamation 1625 . . . p. 86).
Both white and black slaves/servants worked side-by-side and lived in the same quarters. They intermarried and raised families. There seemingly was little if any ‘racism’ per se in the early colonial era. “Between the servants themselves, there appears to have been little if any racism. According to the African-American historian Audrey Smedley: ‘Early references to blacks reveal little clear evidence of general or widespread social antipathy on account of their colour.’ Professor Smedley writes: ‘Records show a fairly high incidence of co-operation among black and white servants and unified resistance to harsh masters.’ The earlier historian of servitude Edmund S. Morgan found hints ‘that the two despised groups initially saw each other as sharing the same predicament’.” (From White Cargo . . . p. 84)
The prejudice that existed in the early colonies was English class prejudice between the slave/servant and the free. There were whites and blacks on both sides. Anthony Johnson, a black tidewater planter who owned a thousand acres, had once been an indentured servant and was a part of the ruling class. Around 1666, “about 300 of Virginia’s colonists were of African ancestry like the Johnsons. . . 11 percent of African colonists and 18 percent of European colonists owned either land or slaves.” (Proclamation 1625 . . . p. 89).
As more African slaves came onto the scene, elitists began to worry that both Irish and African slaves/servants and lower-class whites would unite and revolt against the ruling class.
So, just like propagandists in England fueled Irish hatred there, landholders in the colonies began to propagate distrust and animosity toward African slaves to create division within the servant/slave class. They sowed the seeds of ‘racism’ in the colonies to protect their property.
Slaveholders developed a strategy to control the European slave/servant class, by winning favor with them. The House of Burgesses in 1677 required that ‘white’ European slaves/servants be given better clothing, food, and separate living quarters from Africans. The ruling class was conditioning the European slave/servant class to believe they were superior to Africans all in an attempt to divide and control two classes of people who were suffering equally. One small example was the laws that arose against interracial marriage. “The embryo of racism was formed right there in Jamestown, Virginia.” (Proclamation 1625 . . . p. 120)
The plight of the European slave/servant did not necessarily improve. “In 1749, Virginia’s burgesses decided that even when a convict’s term was served, and even if he or she became a successful landowner, they would be second-class citizens forever” (p. 130, White Cargo . . .) by losing their right to vote and being ostracized in society. Nevertheless, the plight of the colonial African American, both free and slave, would become systematically worse through laws prohibiting their freedom. A new race-based society had been created.
American anti-Irish sentiment continued into the 19th and 20th centuries with angry store signs screaming “No Irish Need Apply” as Irish immigrants faced job discrimination.
- The Persecution and Enslavement of the Irish (Part 4)
By Claudia Henneberry
February 2024
---
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
---
THE IRISH BECAME WHITE
A race-based social structure had not been formed during this early colonial period. Interestingly, there was no racial brand of “white” used anywhere in the world. The American colonists saw themselves as Christians, Englishmen, Frenchmen, etc., or in terms of their social class. There were slaves and slaveholders alike of both races.
According to Lerone Bennett Jr., African American scholar, author, and social historian, colonial “power structure made little or no distinction between black and white servants who were assigned the same tasks and were held in equal contempt.” (Proclamation 1625 . . . p. 86).
Both white and black slaves/servants worked side-by-side and lived in the same quarters. They intermarried and raised families. There seemingly was little if any ‘racism’ per se in the early colonial era. “Between the servants themselves, there appears to have been little if any racism. According to the African-American historian Audrey Smedley: ‘Early references to blacks reveal little clear evidence of general or widespread social antipathy on account of their colour.’ Professor Smedley writes: ‘Records show a fairly high incidence of co-operation among black and white servants and unified resistance to harsh masters.’ The earlier historian of servitude Edmund S. Morgan found hints ‘that the two despised groups initially saw each other as sharing the same predicament’.” (From White Cargo . . . p. 84)
The prejudice that existed in the early colonies was English class prejudice between the slave/servant and the free. There were whites and blacks on both sides. Anthony Johnson, a black tidewater planter who owned a thousand acres, had once been an indentured servant and was a part of the ruling class. Around 1666, “about 300 of Virginia’s colonists were of African ancestry like the Johnsons. . . 11 percent of African colonists and 18 percent of European colonists owned either land or slaves.” (Proclamation 1625 . . . p. 89).
As more African slaves came onto the scene, elitists began to worry that both Irish and African slaves/servants and lower-class whites would unite and revolt against the ruling class.
So, just like propagandists in England fueled Irish hatred there, landholders in the colonies began to propagate distrust and animosity toward African slaves to create division within the servant/slave class. They sowed the seeds of ‘racism’ in the colonies to protect their property.
Slaveholders developed a strategy to control the European slave/servant class, by winning favor with them. The House of Burgesses in 1677 required that ‘white’ European slaves/servants be given better clothing, food, and separate living quarters from Africans. The ruling class was conditioning the European slave/servant class to believe they were superior to Africans all in an attempt to divide and control two classes of people who were suffering equally. One small example was the laws that arose against interracial marriage. “The embryo of racism was formed right there in Jamestown, Virginia.” (Proclamation 1625 . . . p. 120)
The plight of the European slave/servant did not necessarily improve. “In 1749, Virginia’s burgesses decided that even when a convict’s term was served, and even if he or she became a successful landowner, they would be second-class citizens forever” (p. 130, White Cargo . . .) by losing their right to vote and being ostracized in society. Nevertheless, the plight of the colonial African American, both free and slave, would become systematically worse through laws prohibiting their freedom. A new race-based society had been created.
American anti-Irish sentiment continued into the 19th and 20th centuries with angry store signs screaming “No Irish Need Apply” as Irish immigrants faced job discrimination.
CONCLUSION
Propagandists polluted the minds of the English centuries ago against the Irish as they did in the early colonies against African Americans - all to achieve certain benefits for the elite. History deniers and propagandists are still at work in America attempting to rewrite or completely omit what actually happened historically for the benefit of an elitist agenda. Liam the Limerick librarian knows that Irish slavery was a reality, but he just cannot admit that the evil institution of slavery is slavery no matter the skin color of its victims.
So, why is the history of Irish slavery being ‘white-washed’?
Herbert Byrd Jr, author of Proclamation 1625: America’s Enslavement of the Irish, who himself is an Irish African American, answers this question: “The moment the Irish became accepted as ‘white’, there could be no reference of them ever having been slaves on American soil. You cannot preach and practice white racism with its foundation based on “white superiority” and make it general knowledge that during the early colonial period that the now ‘white’ Irish were enslaved.”
Dr. John Donoghue, an associate professor of early American history at Loyola University, Chicago, was correct when he said, “interracial solidarity may be the only means by which we can lift the curse of Cromwell that still haunts the Irish in America.”
Propagandists polluted the minds of the English centuries ago against the Irish as they did in the early colonies against African Americans - all to achieve certain benefits for the elite. History deniers and propagandists are still at work in America attempting to rewrite or completely omit what actually happened historically for the benefit of an elitist agenda. Liam the Limerick librarian knows that Irish slavery was a reality, but he just cannot admit that the evil institution of slavery is slavery no matter the skin color of its victims.
So, why is the history of Irish slavery being ‘white-washed’?
Herbert Byrd Jr, author of Proclamation 1625: America’s Enslavement of the Irish, who himself is an Irish African American, answers this question: “The moment the Irish became accepted as ‘white’, there could be no reference of them ever having been slaves on American soil. You cannot preach and practice white racism with its foundation based on “white superiority” and make it general knowledge that during the early colonial period that the now ‘white’ Irish were enslaved.”
Dr. John Donoghue, an associate professor of early American history at Loyola University, Chicago, was correct when he said, “interracial solidarity may be the only means by which we can lift the curse of Cromwell that still haunts the Irish in America.”