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On 31.05.2012 18:39, michael perelman wrote:
Regarding Irish slavery, here is a section from my new book ms. Sex, Lies, and Economics. Earlier, Petty proposed to improve upon his dream by engineering a wholesale dislocation of the Irish people. This measure offered a potential means to wipe out backwardness while providing profit both for affluent people, such as himself, as well as those with whom he sought to ingratiate himself. One such program had already begun before Petty's arrival -- the enslavement of the Irish people sent to be employed in the Americas. This program peaked around 1652-3, just when Petty landed in Ireland (Jordan and Walsh 2008, p. 147). The scale of this program was substantial: ##It is impossible to say how many shiploads of unhappy Irish were dispatched to America by the sole negotiation of the commissioners of precincts. No mention of such shipments would be likely to appear in the State Papers, and no record of them is likely to be discovered elsewhere. They must have been very considerable in number. It is only in those cases of a merchant or captain who petitioned the government for special license to transport such vagrants that any information remains. [Smith 1927, p. 165] Also, on September 18, 1655, Henry Cromwell wrote to Secretary of State, John Thurloe, that 1,500 or 2,000 boys of twelve or fourteen years be sent to the West Indies plantations (Smith 1927, p. 169). The best estimate from the number of Irish transported to Europe and the West Indies runs about 50,000 (Gwynn 1931, p. 301).
I don't know the sources but I do remember being taught about Irish youth being shipped to the West Indies as slaves in school in Ireland in the early 1960s. I believe Montserrat was one major destination - surnames of Irish origin are quite common there as is red hair, apparently. At least that's what we were told.
I'M very interested in reading more about this, being as I'm descended from people who were sent "to Hell or to Connacht" and arrived in the latter.
Einde O'Callaghan ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
