The Irish standard., 1898-09-17
IN THE DAYS OF THE PENAL LAWS
AGAINST CATHOLICS
IRISH SOUGHT THE AMERICAN COLONIES
LARGE NUMBERS SHIPPED TO THE
NEW ENGLAND STATES.
THOUSANDS TRANSPORTED As SLAVES
MANY FOUND HOspITABLE HOMES IN
WILLIAM PENIS COLONY.

Edward T. McCrystal, president of the
Gaelic Society, New York, contributes
the following interesting article to the
Shan Van Vocht:
With the first discoveries and settle
ment of the American colonies men of
Irish blood are to be found. Among the
passengers on the Mayflower we find
John Alden or Allen, In the unsettled
condition of ireland subsequent to the
Elizabethan wars, many unfortunate
Irish were gathered and shipped to the
Virginias as servants or slaves. But it
was not until the latter half of the Sew
enteenth century, after the close of the
terrible eleven years war with Crom-
we'll, that the wholesale shipments of
unfortunate Irish were made. In 1853
the Irish gave up the struggle, and the
privilege was accorded the soldiers to
take service, if they desired, under
continental powers. Great numbers of
them did so, and Joined the armies of
France, Spain and Germany; some of
them afterwards found their way to
America from French, Spanish and Ger
man ports.
The large numbers of helpless people
who could not be taken along were left
to take care of themselves as best they
might. In this year 10000 men, women
and children were collected by parlia-
mentary order, transported to America
and sold as slaves to the farmers of New
England, and the planters of the Vir-
ginias and Carolinas
Some of these afterwards worked out
their own redemption-that is, after
certain number of years service they
had Cancelled the amount paid for them
by their employers. These were the first
OF that large contribution to the colonial
population, known as "Redemptioners,"
the memory Of whose wrongs and priva-
tions nerved themselves and their Off
spring to strike with such earnestness
at all forms of oppression, and eventu-
ally to repay England with interest
In 1929, a colony of Irish was settled
in Guiana under Calvert. In 1888 Leon
ard Calvert, Lord Baltimore, with a
number of Irish Catholics, settled at st.
Mary's, in Maryland, and there, for the
first time on American soil, was pro-
claimed the doctrine of absolute free
dom Of conscience to all. To every i'm
migrant was allotted SO acres of land.
in,
were calculated to encourage emigra-
tion. Strafford, by his nefarious COM
missions of inquiry into defective titles,
and by other schemes of robbery and
oppression, forced many to take advan-
tage of the opportunities which the new
country might Offer One Of the most
important acts Of this colony, and, as
showing political as we'll as religious
tolerance far in advance Of the narrow
conceptions Of the Puritan rulers Of
Massachusetts, was the enactment of a
law QG66) which granted right of asy-
lum and naturalization to aliens-a law
which has since enabled America to pro-
tect the political refugees from mon
archial persecution. This action was
Influenced entirely by that innate love
of liberty characteristic of the Celtic
lrishman. According to Bozman, the
population Of Maryland was greatly in
creased by the number of Irish who ar
rived after the failure of the war of
lG4l-53. The violation of the treaty Of
Limerick in like manner brought large
numbers to the colonies, and particular
ly to this, of which their countrymen
were the founders
During the period 1860 to 1880 large
numbers were shipped to the New Eng
land states. In 1868, Col. Leigh, the
Cromwellian governor of Waterford. or
dered that all Quakers in the neighbor-
hood should be arrested and shipped to
New England. Now, this respectable
body had no following in Ireland at that
time, and the only Quakers known were
few who had come over in 1649 in
Cromwells army. Nevertheless, large
numbers OF Irish were taken up, sold to
the greedy merchants of Bristol, and nv
them again sold to service in New Eng
land. 1t was some of these unfortunate
Irish, who, according to BENJAMIN ].
Losing, were subjected to such terrible
prosecutions under the guise of being
witches and the like at Salem and else
where. 1t is unnecessary to go into
proof of these facts; they are clear to
our own understanding. The signing Of
the cross by the unfortunate exiles and
sufferers was construed as the exercis-
ing of "devilish arts: and the unintellig-
ible words uttered were of course Irish.
TO arrive at any calculation as to the
exact number of these expatriated Irish
in the Massachusetts colony up to the
year 100 is no easy matter, but they
may be assumed to be numerous, in that
1t is claimed that nearly three-fourths of