P.J.’s answer to “Are you still interested in my research on Irish slaves in colonial America? I would like to send i…” > Likes and Comments

Laurel Booher’s Background info for WHITE Slavery in America

A friend sent me a fact I had never heard about Irish History. He told me there were white slaves that were treated much worse than black slaves. This fact was hard to believe, and I wanted to do some research.

Because I was intrigued with the idea of White Slavery, I wanted to find a book that talked about their role in early America. This was very difficult. It was not easy to find material on this subject.
I am a former (retired) elementary school teacher, and I so hurtfully remember the reaction of my Afro American students as I taught them of the horrors of African slavery. Whether it was said or not, it gave them a feeling of inferiority as they learned that the white ancestors of their teacher and classmates had enslaved their black ancestors. The textbook mentioned white European indentured servants. I taught what the textbook said, they were volunteers who agreed to work 7 years to pay for their passage.
Now as a retired teacher, I have come across this idea of "white slaves" and wanted to research this to see if it were indeed true. I have read 4 books--most merely mention their huge numbers and mention their role. Most acknowledge that they were treated as "less valuable than their black cohorts.”
White slaves were sold on the auction block as well as black slaves. Blacks usually sold for higher prices, were fed better rations, and generally treated better. I feel this is a big misjustice of the history we are teaching our children--and even racist to exclude this fact from our children. I’m hoping that Mr. Kelley may considering writing one. If he agrees with my research, I hope he—or others will help get this important fact into our nation's textbooks.
Mrs. Laurel Booher
Retired Ohio Public School Teacher

Here are references I read for this….

1001 Things Everyone Should Know About Irish-American History by Edward T. O'Donnell


This first book I read was fascinating, but didn't touch on the subject I was looking for --so I read many more books here to try to discover this bit of history.

It's interesting to learn how the Irish and English became such enemies. There was no specific incident, but the first I read of any animosity began when Edward the Bruce (d. 1318) brother of Robert the Bruce, king of Scotland invaded Ulster in 1315. He tried to expel Anglo-Saxons from Ireland, and establish a Scotch-Irish independent state. After his death, the English were shocked at how the Anglo-Saxon's there began to be assimilated into the Irish culture there instead of visa versa.

To halt this problem, Britain passed the Statutes of Kilkenny in 1318 which severely hindered any expansion of the Irish culture there. The statutes forbade intermarriage. Anglos weren't allowed to speak Irish, wear Irish clothing, ride on Irish saddles, employ Irish minstrels or poets. They drew a mark on the map ( the Pale of Settlement) that became a boundary between Irish enemies and obedient Irish.

The statutes didn't work. Later (1395) King Richard II tried to push his Lordship over the Irish. Even though he was able to get the kings to pay homage, it was really 3 Irish Earl Families that had power over the people. In 1466 Ireland decreed that it was in independent country from Britain. Since Britain was embroiled in the War of the ROSES at the time, it couldn't fight it until the war ended in 1495.

The Irish Empire: The Story Of The Irish Abroad by Patrick Bishop

I Learned a lot about Irish History in this nonfiction history book. I was intrigued with why the Irish and English have such a dislike of each other, and learned that by studying their sordid history. Here are some of the most interesting facts. Ireland's Celts endured in isolation, untouched by Roman occupation on the mainland, which began in earnest in 43 B.C. and lasted the next 360 years. In 367 Ireland attacked Britain when they saw the Roman occupation declining. In the 5th century Irish slavers raided Britain and took British slaves to Irish slave markets...among them was 16 year old "Patricias"...renamed Patrick. In Ireland slave Patrick was sold as a shepherd slave, the property of Miliuce a local king who ruled in Antrim. After 6 years of slavery a "voice" led him to jaunt 200 miles to Wexford where he boarded a ship to Europe. Patrick taught the sailors to pray and they saw miracles happen. In Europe, Patrick trained as a priest. He was ordained and eventually was sent on his way as a bishop. He went as a missionary to Ireland...but he wasn't the first missionary there, just the most famous.

By the 9th century, Ireland was mostly Catholic. In 655 A.D. they were a beacon of learning in a very dark era in history. Free of invasions since prehistoric times, the country was unified and cohesive. The church added to their unity. In 790 Vikings arrived and looted, raped, and burned cities. By the 830's Vikings began to settle near Dublin, Limerick, and Waterford. By the end of the 10th century, Brian Boru and and another ruler divided the country between them. Castles and bridges were built mid 12th century. King Henry of England arrived in Ireland in 1109 and acquired it, but didn't conquer it. His people intermarried and became assimilated into Irish culture. Three great Earldoms arose, Fitzgerald, Butler, and Kildare. The Earldoms announced themselves independent of English rule. England was too embroiled in "The war of the Roses & the 100 years war to bother with Ireland until these wars ended. In 1524 England's King Henry VIII dealt with the "Irish problem" by killing the Fitzgeralds and Kildares.

In 1599, English began importing Irish labors as servants. In 1641 Oliver Cromwell killed 1/3 of the Irish population and many more were transported as slaves to the west Indies. Cromwell gave away the confiscated Irish lands to soldiers in lieu of payment. Now the protestants held 3/4 of the cultivable lands. Irish not killed or sent into slavery were forced to move to Connaught, the poorest of Ireland's 4 provinces.

The British monarchy was restored in 1660 with King Charles II. iN 1685 Charles's catholic brother James took the throne and was sympathetic to the Irish. England didn't like his policies and overthrew him as king and brought in William of Orange and his wife Mary to rule in 1688.


Testimony of an Irish slave girl by Kate McCafferty

This was a very informative book about a fictional Irish slave, Cot Daley, who was kidnapped and sent to work in the tobacco fields of Barbados. Though it probably had many similarities to the life of the life of an Irish slave in early America, this book did not fit the bill of exactly what I want to research. I am looking for a book about white slavery in the Early America. I have read several books, that reference that Irish slaves had a very real presence in our earliest history, but not much more information. There were references in this book to some Irish slaves being sent from Barbados to work the tobacco plantations in Virginia, but no information about their lives there.

Between the reign of Elizabeth I of England (1588-1603) and the restoration of the monarchy with Charles II in 1660, an estimated 50,000 to 80,000 Irish men and women and children were shipped to Barbados as “indentured servants”. That term seems inappropriate when you learn that they were not volunteers, but “Conscripted” through an English statute. Many were peasants who had their farms appropriated and war spoils. During the 1650’s Peter Stubber, governor of Galaway, held as usual practice taking people out of their beds at night and selling them as slaves to the Indies.

These slaves were urgently needed to clear the rain forests of the colony of Barbados for plantation crops such as indigo, tobacco, and cotton. After the Battle of Drogheda, Irish slaves were sold at £3 to £5 a head, payable to the mercantile companies whose ships transported the kidnapped, exiled, or trepanned slaves. Trepanned means procuring through ensnarement or entrapment. Many slaves were trepanned through administering alcohol or drugs, or sexual seduction. (p. 210)

Masters sold, traded and gambled away these servants, flogged them to death occasionally, and in other ways demonstrated ownership of their bodies. They matched them for forced breeding. White servants were treated as inferior chattel because they were cheaper and easy to obtain than Negro slaves. (preface)

The majority of the Irish “indentured servants” brought to Barbados between 1630 and 1660 received no contract, but were sold upon the Open Market. (p.205)

Irish went to auction blocks to be sold to the highest bidders. Adults were supposedly sold for 7 years and children were sold till they were 21 years of age. (P.35)

Irish was their master’s to bestow or dispose of. He could lash them, or starve them. (P.63) Masters chose their breeding partners. (p.65), sold infants away from mothers (p.68) Whipped them (p.70)

Often their “7 year indenture” was lengthened to pay for any infraction. Some as much as seven additional years were added if caught stealing. (p.126) Seven additional years were added if caught trying to run away. (p.139) Masters could bring false accusations at any time, and the slave had no recourse to contest a false accusation. Some were sold off to another to pay a debt (such as a gambling debt) and the length of service would be started over. (p. 81)

Proclamation of 1657, People of the Irish nation, being slothful, dissolute, lewd, evil, and pilfering had placed upon them corrections for their idle, wandering ways. It listed all kinds of rules and corresponding punishments. (p.90)

Irish slaves were the dirtiest lot. (P.92) Irish got less rations than Black slaves. P.93) Irish Catholics could be hanged if caught “gathering” on a Sunday. (p.96)

When Cot’s final “indenture” was up in 1680—29 years after her service began, they would not allow her to stay. She wanted to stay with her infant, who was the “master’s property”, but they said,”No!” and forced her to fend for herself. When caught hiding in the woods nearby the plantation, they had her flogged. (p.195)

There were many slave uprising on Barbados. History has recorded them in 1675, 1686, 1688, and 1692. (206)


Between 1558 and 1603, the British government sought to meet the needs of a growing empire by sending tens of thousands of Irish men, women and children to the New World. They were technically indentured servants not slaves but this distinction was illusory: the initial term of indenture could be extended indefinitely. McCafferty explains this neglected piece of history in the preface to her debut novel. The brief recital of historical facts sets the tone for a story in which much is told and little is shown. This tendency is inherent in the novel's form: most of the tale is delivered as an oral narrative, told by Cot Daley, who was 10 years old when she was kidnapped from Galway and sent to Barbados. Now a young woman, she has been imprisoned for her role in an uprising in which Irish servants and African slaves rebelled against the plantation owners. Cot's largely unrelieved rendition of her life story paragraph after paragraph of her "testimony" never acquires the immediacy of a compelling voice, being more a litany of brutal experiences than an affecting insight into a woman's inner life. Interruptions by a secondary character the British officer interrogating Daley are jarring reminders of the awkward construction. Unfortunately, this form undermines the author's gifts as a stylist. And despite the legendary Celtic propensity for poetic speech, it is hard to believe that an unschooled Irish peasant would say anything even approximating "For once again I felt the manic demiurge called hope."
It won't let me add anymore here. Would you want to give me your e-mail address so I can send you the complete file?

Sure, I thought you already had it: yllekjp@yahoo.com
I enjoyed reading this, and got a lot out of it. A lot of times what I'm looking for are clues which will lead me to further discoveries, a habit probably derived from "Googling", where I start from a position of complete ignorance and basically journey towards adequate background knowledge.
I will look for something I found about the Irish Slave Trade and send it to you. It was part of some project a former New Jersey governor had.
Whatever you send me, I will create permanent page on my blog for (linked yo my website). Some people are interested in this topic. African Americans and people from the West Indies know a lot about it. Half of them have Irish names. Probably understanding the causes of History might help prevent this kind of thing.
It was good to hear from you Laurel, and I look forward to reading the rest of your file.

Thank

P.J. Kelley

Ok, PJ. I'll send my whole file...(repeating a lot of this) to your e-mail.