TRUTH about the Irish – First slaves brought to the Americas – Forgotten History

There has been an ongoing debate as to whether the Irish were the first slaves in the Americas predating the first black African slaves by almost a decade. Slavery is perhaps one of the oldest profit-making endeavors in human history and the Irish were a special target for a thousand years throughout history the Irish were persecuted by one faction or another to include enslavement and indentured servitude. When did the Irish first become slaves how long did the selling of the Irish continue who is responsible.

Hello, I am Colin Heaton, former soldier, Marine Corps scout sniper, history professor, historian, and book author, and we have answered these questions and other issues on this segment of Forgotten History. Some groups deny the Irish slavery under English and later British rule claiming that this was nothing more than voluntary indentured servitude which did exist however there are counter arguments that will be challenged here. There is a legitimate dispute as to the numbers enslaved especially during the 17th century before the active Union in 1707. The official British legal terminology used was indentured servants whether the servants in question had willingly signed the indenture contract to immigrate to the Americas or refused to go many were forced therefore those transported unwittingly and effectively sold were not considered to be indentured. This included political prisoners vagrants convicts political activists thieves prostitutes or people who had been defined as undesirable by the English government.

The Irish introduction to slavery was during the first Viking race in the year 795 lasting through the mid 9th century this period saw the Irish killed and enslaved just like many other societies. The Vikings attacked most of these early raids were along the northern and eastern coast using hit and run tactics. The Vikings would then flee with treasure and slaves and return to either their holdings in Scotland or back to Norway usually. Many slaves who were valued were ransomed back to their families but others remained in captivity. Then from the year 837 onward larger targets such as the greater monastic towns of Armagh, Glendalough, Kildare, Slane, Clonard, Clonmacnoise, and Lismore were hit by larger forces. These large-scale raids generally spared the smaller local churches and villages further inland but slaves were still taken mostly to Scotland and Iceland. At 875 Irish slaves in Iceland launched Europe’s largest slave rebellion since the end of the Roman Empire when Hrolf Hallmorsson’s slaves killed him and fled to Vestmannaeyjar.

In 841 the port that became known as Dublin was taken and occupied by both Olaf and Ivar the Boneless and by 853 this part of Ireland was a Norse trading center and slaves were a large part of it. The slave trade did not stop with Ivar’s death in 873. Finally in 902 driven out of Dublin by the combined forces of Brega and Leinster but the Vikings came back in 914 and reclaimed all the territory taking more slaves. But Irish resistance was not over and 980 the Irish under Mael Sechnaill mac Domnaill King of Meath fought and managed to defeat the Vikings and freed all of their slaves. Some Vikings who remained assimilated and adapted to Christianity and became part of Irish society. The final nail in the coffin regarding Vikings holding land and taking slaves was in 1014 at the Battle of Clontarf when Brian Boru High King of Ireland attacked Dublin aided by the Limerick Vikings. They fought other Irish allied to the local Vikings in Dublin and Boru’s force won and all the slaves were again freed thus ending the legacy of constant Norse raids whether from Danes or Norwegians.

The period of forced enslavement and severity ended a century after the Norman invasion of England in October 1066. Subsequent Norman rulers of England eyed Ireland and slavery in its true form was abolished in 1102. In 1155 Pope Adrian IV supposedly gave Henry II of England a papal bull granting the king the authority to invade Ireland however many historians believe that this authorization was a forgery. Regardless Henry II of England faced excommunication for the murder of Thomas Becket the Archbishop of Canterbury so it is possible. However Adrian‘s successor Pope Alexander III granted the lands of Ireland to Henry II although it was not his land to give. The Norman conquest of England and Ireland were cataclysmic events that would shape Ireland’s as well as world history and create tensions with England for the next 800 years. The Normans were initially invited to Ireland by Dermot MacMurrough the deposed King of Leinster. He is sometimes referred to as Dermot of the Foreigners and his grandmother was the granddaughter of Brian Boru.

In October 1171 King Henry II landed in Ireland and allowed Dermot to recruit soldiers and mercenaries as Ireland was made up of several kingdoms at war with each other. The city of Dublin and the surrounding area were under Norman occupation and would be called The Pale or the safe zone going beyond that was considered foolish hence the term we used today going beyond the pale. But the Normans ended the practice of slavery in Ireland but not serfdom for at least a few hundred years. Despite the Norman abolishment of slavery serfdom was still alive and well. Serfs were unlike slaves bound to the land and the land meant everything so selling people into slavery would have left no one to farm and conduct agriculture.

Following the Battle of Kinsale in 1601 when the Irish and Spanish alliance was defeated the Irish aristocracy fled to Europe but the commoners remained and they left a power vacuum filled by English nobles. Reports vary and the numbers are in dispute but the high number is that English forces had thirty thousand captured Irish and Spanish soldiers. Other sources say half that number around fifteen thousand were engaged with seven thousand to eight thousand being captured. The Spanish allies were allowed to leave but not the Irish. In 1603 or 1604 King James the first of England crowned on March 23, 1603 reportedly issued the order of banishment. This allowed those Irish captured to be sold a permanent banishment. After nearly a decade the king gave permission for the English governor general to collect and sell the captured Irish soldiers as slaves and send them to the new world in the Americas.

In 1612 the first recorded Irish slaves were sold possibly to the Portuguese and taken to the Amazon River Basin in their colony in modern-day Brazil. This brought them to the new world. There has been some dispute as to whether these people were indentured servants or slaves but it is clear that they were forced out of Ireland to the new world so it seems illogical and ridiculous to assume that they went voluntarily hence the status of slaves. It has been chronicled that in 1625 James the first son Charles the first issued the decree and it may be possible before his death in March 1625 but given the timeline on James’s death it would appear that his son Charles probably did issue the world decree authorizing the Irish slaves. This included prisoners captured those deemed to be common criminals and rebel rousers who were sold. They were to become the property of the English plantation owners in the North American colonies. As a result tens of thousands of Irish men and women were sent to the Eastern American colonies as well as Guyana, Antigua, and Montserrat as well between 1629 and 1632 as other Caribbean locations over the next few decades were infiltrated but the exact number may never be known.

By 1637 approximately 69 percent of the population of Montserrat were Irish. Many were indentured servants yet some were slaves. The rationale was simple black slaves had to be purchased at a cost of around 20 to 50 pounds sterling a huge sum of money in those days. However Irish slaves were sold for 900 pounds of cotton per person but also traded for tobacco and indigo in a straight barter system. It would appear that the Irish then became the largest source of slaves for English slave traders and plantation owners at that time far surpassing the African slave trade until the early to mid 1700s. Between 1641 during the Irish Rebellion to 1652 it has been stated that over 550,000 Irish were killed by English forces and three hundred thousand more were sold as slaves mostly military-aged men. Their children especially women and girls were sold and considered quite valuable in the domestic service roles.

The greatest perpetrator of this was Oliver Cromwell who defeated Charles the first in 1649 during the English Civil War and had him executed. Cromwell as Lord Protector waged a ruthless war against the Irish starting in 1649. By 1650 it is claimed that nearly 29,000 Irish were sold to planters in St. Kitts. During the decade of the 1650s it is also claimed as well as disputed that around 100,000 Irish children generally from 10 to 14 years of age were taken from their parents and were also sold and sold themselves also as slaves or indentured servants in the West Indies, Virginia, the Carolinas, and New England. It is also claimed that between 1651 and 1660 the Irish slaves far outnumbered the colonists in all areas. In 1652 Cromwell ordered that twelve thousand Irish were to be sold to Barbados and those numbers are not in dispute only their status. On May 1, 1654 his to hell or to Connacht proclamation was issued during the active settlement of 1662. This was when the English began confiscating all Irish-held lands and the native Irish were relocated west of the Shannon River.

Those who resisted were sent to the West Indies as slaves or executed. His own words proclaimed quote those who failed to transplant themselves into Connacht or County Clare within six months shall be attained of high treason and to be sent to America or other parts beyond the seas. Those banished who returned ought to suffer the pains of death as felons by virtue of this act without benefit of clergy end quote. The English could kill the Irish without penalty but selling them offered great profit. It is claimed that over 80,000 more Irish were sold with 52,000 going to the colonies of Barbados and Virginia but again we cannot verify the exact numbers. Many argued that these were indentured servants not slaves yet there are no records of contracts between those forcibly removed and their benefactors. One may assume that given the barter system of using tobacco and cotton as a trade item for workers that these deported Irish were in fact slaves.

In 1656 the Council of State ordered the roundup of 1,000 Irish girls and 1,000 Irish boys in their early teens even some children to be rounded up and sold to Jamaican planters. These numbers are in dispute but do seem reasonable as these would be children whose parents were already deported. Part of this order was an edict passed on October 2, 1655 which stated quote upon report of committee for America concerning proposals for transporting persons from Long Island to Jamaica to confer with the committee for Jamaica end quote. The persons were Irish and no indentured servant would be released to go to Jamaica. These had to be forcibly exported Irish who were already present in New York. In fact some of the English receiving these Irish slaves seemed rather concerned hence this following report quote commission appointing Cornelius Holland, Colonel Owen Rowe, Sir Thomas Roth, and 14 others accompany by the name of the governor and company of the city of London for the plantation of the Somers Islands to take into consideration the present condition of those plantations many well-affected persons there having been much oppressed and unjustly dealt with in relation to matters of conscience end quote Whitehall, June 28, 1653.

This situation with the forcibly removed Irish not being a people to take subjugation lightly appeared to have created the fear of an uprising and this seems to be explained in the Whitehall document from November 18, 1656 quote the Council of State to Captain Wilkinson importance of the Somers Islands to the interest of the Commonwealth supposition that the Spaniards will endeavor to get a footing there doubtful that a principle of disaffection may yet be retained by some of the inhabitants. He is encouraged to attend to his duties as commander of the fort to keep a vigilant eye upon the malignant and discontented party that they may have the less opportunity to prejudice the island’s safety and to use his best endeavors to secure the interest of the Commonwealth end quote. This referred to the Irish population that must have been slaves and they feared an uprising with no reason to worry about indentured servants. So whether one accepts the reality of Irish slavery or not the fact remains that there were Irish people forced into slavery however the exact numbers may never be known. We hope you enjoyed this segment of Forgotten History please click like and subscribe for free and please stay tuned and be engaged and informed. Send us comments if you have questions or even show ideas and we will respond to all requests and comments as soon as we can. Thank you.