Irish slaves

{{Pseudohistory}}
'''Irish slaves''' is a term and a myth which refers to the supposed historical exploitation of [[Irish]]men as [[slave]] labor. It is frequently evoked by [[White supremacy|white supremacists]], [[White nationalism|white nationalists]], [[Neo-Nazism|Neo-Nazis]], [[Stormfront]] users, and [[Neo-Confederate]]s claiming that the enslavement of [[African]]s doesn't matter because "[[Whataboutism|White people were slaves too]]."

==Origins==
The origin of this myth is from a 1993 book called ''They Were White and They Were Slaves: The Untold History of The Enslavement of Whites in America'', self-published and written by [[Conspiracy theory|conspiracy theorist]] and [[Holocaust denial|Holocaust denier]] Michael A. Hoffman II. The myth was further advanced in [[Ireland]] by journalist Sean O'Conaghan in the book ''To Hell or Barbados: The Ethnic Cleansing of Ireland'' and other books such as ''White Cargo: The Forgotten History of Britain's White Slaves''. Since then, the "Irish slaves" myth has been repeated frequently on social media such as [[Facebook]], often with unrelated images as "pictures" of Irish slaves. One common version, debunked by Reuters, is that "the first slaves imported into the American colonies were 100 White children in 1619, four months before the arrival of the first shipment of Black slaves". In fact, the first slaves imported were black Africans, and there's no evidence of the 100 white children.<ref>[https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-fact-check-irish-slaves-idUSKBN23O2BS Fact check: First slaves in North American colonies were not “100 white children from Ireland”], Reuters, June 17, 2020</ref>

The most common themes of the "Irish slaves" myth according to Wikipedia are:
* The media and historians are covering it up.
* The Irish people were enslaved after the Cromwellian Invasion of Ireland in 1649
* Irish slaves were treated worse than African slaves and female Irish were [[Black brute|forced to reproduce with male Africans]].
* Using a forged 1625 declaration attributed to King James II sending thousands of Irish prisoners to the West Indies as slaves (despite the fact that James II hadn't even been born at the time — he lived from 1633-1701, reigned 1685 to 1688).
* Taking actual slave atrocities such as the 1781 Zong Massacre and substituting African slaves with Irish ones.

== Worldwide "white" slavery ==
Let's not get exclusively US-centric or even America-centric about "white slaves" or "Irish slaves". (After all, [[Fun:Virginia|Virginians]] did not invent slavery...)

* Several societies have practiced equal-opportunity enslavement, recruiting their human resources from [[Europe]] just as readily as from Africa - the [[Roman Empire|ancient Romans]], for example, and the [[Ottoman Empire | Ottoman]] Turks (though the Ottomans did sometimes favor Circassians as slave harem-fodder).<ref>
{{wpa | Circassian beauty#Circassian slave trade}} </ref> The moral of this - slavery can get tough whatever the hue of your skin.
* Roxelana,<ref>
{{wpa | Roxelana}}
</ref> a Polish/Lithuanian/Ruthenian/Ukrainian woman captured in a Crimean Tatar slave-raid<ref>
{{wpa | Crimean–Nogai slave raids in Eastern Europe}}
</ref> and sold  down-river<ref>
{{wpa | Southern Bug}}
</ref> to Constantinople/Istanbul,<ref>
{{wpa | Istanbul}}
</ref> entered the Sultan's harem, seduced the Sultan Suleman I the Magnificent<ref>
{{wpa | Suleiman the Magnificent}} 
</ref>, sensibly converted to [[Islam ]] and ended up influencing the Ottoman state - in person<ref>
{{wpa | Sultanate of women}} 
</ref> and through her descendants.<ref>
{{wpa | Ottoman family tree}}
</ref> The moral of this - Roxelana represents one exception amongst millions of slaves. Alternative moral: {{wpl | slavery#Ottoman slavery | Islamic slavery}} appears milder or more flexible than North American slavery.<ref>
{{wpa | Slavery in the United States}}
</ref>

==Debunked==
The problem with this whole idea is that the "Irish slaves" were in fact '''indentured servants'''. While both indentured servitude and chattel slavery may be considered subcategories of "slavery", and indeed both are banned within the United Nations' ''1956 Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery'',<ref>[https://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetailsIII.aspx?src=IND&mtdsg_no=XVIII-4&chapter=18&Temp=mtdsg3&clang=_en ''United Nations Treaty Collection, Chapter XVIII: Penal Matters'']</ref> the two are very different concepts in practice. Indentured servants agreed to work for a period varying between 2 to 7 years in exchange for being transported to the Americas. At the end of this period, they were free. Chattel slavery, however, as is well known, was ''permanent'' and persisted to the descendants of slaves. While indentured servants probably had it bad, the difference between indentured servitude and slavery is enormous, as described by Liam Hogan:<ref name=opendemocracy>[http://www.opendemocracy.net/beyondslavery/liam-hogan/%E2%80%98irish-slaves%E2%80%99-convenient-myth ‘Irish slaves’: the convenient myth], Liam Hogan.</ref>

{{cquote|Chattel slavery was perpetual, a slave was only free once they were no longer alive; it was hereditary, the children of slaves were the property of their owner; the status of chattel slave was designated by ‘race’, there was no escaping your bloodline; a chattel slave was treated like livestock, you could kill your slaves while applying “moderate correction” and the homicide law would not apply; the execution of ‘insolent’ slaves was encouraged in these slavocracies to deter insurrections and disobedience, and their owners were paid generous compensation for their ‘loss’; an indentured servant could appeal to a court of law if they were mistreated, a slave had no recourse for justice. And so on…|||}}

(Comma splices in original)

It's also relevant that the period in which Irish people were placed in indentured servitude was during the 17th century, whereas black slavery continued for another 200 years: most "Irish slaves" were exported to the Caribbean by the British. Where "Irish slaves" augmented an existing workforce, the enslavement and exploitation of black slaves was an integral part of the economy. "Irish slaves" were primarily exported by Oliver Cromwell, some hundreds of years before the major waves of Irish immigration to the US, so it was never really relevant to Irish Americans — in fact, many Irish people moved to [[the South]] and strove hard to become slaveowners themselves. The American Dream, huh? It was such an issue that prominent Irish politician Daniel O'Connell began petitioning Irish Americans not to take part in the slave trade.

==Actual Irish slaves==
Throughout [[Classical antiquity|antiquity]], the [[Medieval|medieval period]], and as recently as the early modern era, there were in fact many Irish slaves and slave raids on the island. However, these were orchestrated by [[Gaelic]] raiders<ref>''Medieval Ireland (2005): An Encyclopedia'', Ed. Sean Duffy, 2017, Taylor & Francis. p 430-431.</ref>, [[Vikings]]<ref>[https://www.medievalists.net/2015/08/the-scale-of-slave-raiding-and-the-slave-trade-in-northumbria-and-ireland-7th-11th-centuries/ The Scale of Slave Raiding and the Slave Trade in Northumbria and Ireland, 7th-11th Centuries]. Fontaine, Janel M.</ref>, and {{wpl|Barbary pirates||.}}<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20241130094052/http://www.westcorktravel.com/Features/Baltimore.htm Baltimore]</ref> [[Saint Patrick]] was said to have been a slave for a part of his life, and many Irish throughout history could find themselves as the slaves or enslavers of other Irish.<ref>"[https://ccel.org/ccel/patrick St. Patrick]". ''Christian Classics Ethereal Library''. 7 April 2013.</ref> By the 18th century the threat of the Irish being enslaved had faded into history, as the institution was abolished on the island and British naval power meant Barbary pirates were no longer a threat; the big existential crisis for the Irish became starvation.

==Scottish slaves==
Similar claims have been made about [[Scotland|Scottish]] people, including on the American website Electric Scotland, where an article suggests "the Alba, Scots, Irish and [[Picts]] have been the longest race held in slavery." Again, actual claims relate either to Vikings in the early medieval period or to indentured servitude from the 17th century.<ref>[https://www.electricscotland.com/history/other/white_slavery.htm White Slavery, what the Scots already know], Kelly D. Whittacker, Electric Scotland</ref> This has also become tangled up with people who seek to deny that Scots were involved in the transatlantic slave trade: in reality, Scots were deeply involved in running plantations and profiting from the goods produced there (even Robert Burns, Scotland's national poet, considered a career as an overseer on a slave plantation). But some eccentric Scots move from denying Scotland's complicity in the cruelty of slavery, to assert falsely that Scots were actually the victims of slavery rather than some of the perpetrators; Stephen Mullen, author of ''It Wisnae Us: The Truth About Glasgow and Slavery'', has debunked these myths.<ref>[https://sceptical.scot/2016/03/the-myth-of-scottish-slaves/ The myth of Scottish slaves], Stephen Mullen, Sceptical Scot, March 2016</ref>

==See also==
*[[Confederate States of America]]

==External links==
*[http://www.thejournal.ie/article.php?id=2369653 The unfree Irish in the Caribbean were indentured servants, not slaves], Liam Hogan, Laura McAtackney, and Matthew Connor Reilly.
*[http://web.archive.org/web/20150629060022/https://www.academia.edu/9475964/The_Myth_of_Irish_Slaves_in_the_Colonies The Myth of “Irish Slaves” in the Colonies], Liam Hogan
*[http://medium.com/@Limerick1914/the-imagery-of-the-irish-slaves-myth-dissected-143e70aa6e74 Debunking the imagery of the “Irish slaves” meme]
*[http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/history/2015/09/slavery_myths_seven_lies_half_truths_and_irrelevancies_people_trot_out_about.html Slavery Myths Debunked]

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Nationalism]]
[[Category:Pseudohistory]]
[[Category:Racism]]
[[Category:Race]]
[[Category:Slavery]]
[[Category:Ireland]]

Categories: Nationalism, Pseudohistory, Racism, Race, Slavery, Ireland