To Hell, Connaught, or Barbados
Though little has been discussed about them, thousands of Irish men, women, and children, were captured or arrested and shipped to the Caribbean as slaves. Because they did not factor into Oliver Cromwell's new plan of government, these people were gathered and shipped off, with no dignity, to work as slaves in the island plantations of the Caribbean. Their influence is left in those places, in the street names, the towns names, and in any local phone book. But, their stories have not been told.
(Photo is of Montserrat which is known as the 'Emerald Isle' of the Caribbean.)
Testimony of an Irish Slave Girl
~ Historical Fiction ~
Testimony of an Irish Slave Girl
Amazon Price: (as of 12/25/2009)
Kate McCafferty's period fiction reflects life as an irish slave in the Carribean and the relationships between irish slaves and black slaves. She spoke about writing this book in a news article at the University at Albany.
Teachers, and reading groups may want to check out this discussion guide for Testimony of an Irish Slave Girl.
More on Testimony of an Irish Slave Girl
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Testimony Of An Irish Slave Girl
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Just when you thought you had a reasonably good grasp of history, someone takes on the voice of a past that has been silent for so long. McCafferty's well researched novel, teaches more than most novels do - facts, emotions, and wisdom. This is...
Oliver Cromwell
Lord Protector of England from 1653 - 1658
Oliver Cromwell, in 1648, put down a rebellion in Ireland with such savagery and cruelty that is is nearly unimaginable. In his own words after the siege of Drogheda, "the officers were knocked on the head, every tenth man of the soldiers killed and the rest shipped to Barbados."Cromwell drove Irish men and women, as threats to his new government, from their homes into the relatively barren and inhospitable province of Connaught. He created a system of arresting people for terribly minor infractions and forcing them onto ships headed to the Caribbean, providing the British planters there with "indentured laborers". Often times they actually just 'captured' the Irish for no reason at all.
By his command, roughly 12,000 Irish people were sold into slavery under the Commonwealth. Thousands more were killed on the spot.
Were you surprised?
Did you know about this?
It seems that Irish slavery has escaped many texts, and therefore the entire education of many.
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To Hell or Barbados: The Ethnic Cleansing of Ireland
To Hell or Barbados: The Ethnic Cleansing of Ireland
Amazon Price: $15.71 (as of 12/24/2009)
The nonfiction book goes into the details of Cromwell's atrocities that American history books gloss over. It is a well written history of the genocide and enslavement of the Irish.
Articles About Irish Slaves
Learn More About Irish Slavery in the Americas
- ENGLAND'S IRISH SLAVES by Robert E. West
- Records are replete with references to early Irish Catholics in the West Indies. Gwynn in Analecta Hibernica, states: 'The earliest reference to the Irish is the establishment of an Irish settlement on the Amazon River in 1612."...
- Island paradise recalls Irish slavery
- A monument to commemorate Cromwell's Irish victims. In the Caribbean St. Kitts is one of those places holidaymakers dream about. However, there is a bit of history of the island which until recently has gone overlooked by virtually all visitors. That is the history of the Irish who suffered during Cromwell's reign in the mid 1600's.
- Out of Africa, Out of Ireland
- "Under Cromwell's policy, known as "To Hell or Connaught," Irish landowners were driven off millions of acres of fertile land. Those found east of the river Shannon after May 1, 1654, faced the death penalty or slavery in the West Indies. Cromwell rewarded his soldiers and loyal Scottish Presbyterians by "planting" them on large estates. The British set up similar "plantations" in Barbados, St. Kitts and Trinidad.
- Musical Origin: The Blues
- Although many credit the Mississippi Delta area as the region where Blues music originated, others cite its origins as beginning much earlier in the West Indies, where the Irish and African slaves produced a unique, yet sorrowful, blend of Celtic and African music prior to the emergence of the Delta Blues of the early 1900s.
- A Short History of the Irish in Jamaica, Part 1 of 3 -- The Wild Geese Today
- In this three-part series, I will attempt to solve a puzzle that has bothered and intrigued me from the time I first set foot in Jamaica some 20 years ago. What is it about this small island and its people, 6,000 miles from Ireland, hardly the size of the state of Connecticut, and with a population that originated mainly from a different continent, that made me feel so at home?
- Ireland's Slavery Memorial Day?
- Given that tens of thousands of Irish people were shipped into slavery, isn't it strange that Ireland has no day remembering them?
- Hoffman reveals: The Forgotten Slaves--Whites in Servitude
- When White servitude is acknowledged as having existed in America, it is almost always termed as temporary "indentured servitude" or part of the convict trade, which, after the Revolution of 1776, centered on Australia instead of America. The "convicts" transported to America under the 1723 Waltham Act, perhaps numbered 100,000...
- Tangled Roots: "Barbadosed": Africans and Irish in Barbados
- Historical research project from Yale.
- Irish Slavery in America
- One of the topics of interest to a number of our people is the Irish language in America. This is intimately related with the subject of indentured servitude and slavery in America. Gerry Kelly has contributed the following information, as a sample of the research...
- The Irish in the Caribbean 1641-1837: An Overview
- By Nini Rodgers
- The People Who Came: The Arrival Of The Irish
- The Irish arrived in Jamaica over 350 years ago in the mid-1600s at the time of British Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell's capture of Jamaica...
- In memory of Irish victims of the Irish Slave trade
- Few people know that the majority of Slaves in the Carribean, during the 17th Century, were actually Irish
Primary Sources
Available to Be Viewed Online
If want to hear it strait from the horse's mouth, or you are writing a report and realize that primary sources are the best, visit these links:
- Salem Quarterly Court, Master Samuel Symonds against Irish slaves
- Law Case, Master Samuel Symonds against Irish slaves. William Downing and Philip Welch. Salem Quarterly Court. Salem, Massachusetts. June 25, 1661. Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex...
- Letters from Mr Corker: 4 of 5 | British History Online
- Digital library containing some of the core printed primary and secondary sources for the medieval and modern history of the British Isles. Created by the Institute of Historical Research and the History of Parliament Trust, we aim to support academic and personal users around the world in their lea
- Oliver Cromwell's letters and speeches, with elucidations
- This is a 40MB PDF files which is a scan of Thomas Carlyle's entire 1438 page book. A copy of the book as just the text, and therefore searchable is located at questia.
- Calendar of state papers: colonial series, America and West Indies 1689-1692
- Page 644
On May 31, 1692 we see Mary Peters who was an "indentured servant" attempting to receive her freedom after having served eight years. However, her master and his mistress had her marry a negro which then made her a slave.
Damien Dempsey
Music CD
To Hell or Barbados
Amazon Price: $14.98 (as of 12/24/2009)
A true man of the people in Ireland, and always looking to sing Irish issues into the hearts of the rest of the world, Dempsey's upcoming release and title track, "To Hell Or Barbados" refers to Oliver Cromwell's campaign against Ireland in the mid 1600s, during which many Irish were deported and sent as slave labor to Bermuda and Barbados.
Download the MP3 of the song To Hell Or Barbados
Published References to Irish Slavery in the Caribbean
- History of Ireland: from the earliest times to the present day
- By Edward Alfred D'Alton
Published 1792 - Page 460 (bottom) - A memoir on Ireland, native and Saxon By Daniel O'Connell
- Published 1843
Page 73, right column - paragraphs 3-4 - A historical geography of the British colonies, Volume 2
- Published 1890 - page 186
Authors Sir Charles Prestwood Lucas, Reginald Laurence, Sir Charles Alexander Harris, Henry Charles Miller, John Davenport, Hugh Edward, R. E. Stubbs, Chewton Atchley
Irish Slave Genealogy
- The Cavanaugh's
- Irish slaves in the Caribbean - There are a great many K/Cavanaughs in North America who trace their ancestry back to a Charles Cavanaugh, who...
- Notes on Barbadoes and Irish Slaves
- Genealogical references to Irish slaves
- The Caribbean Y-DNA Project
- My goal is to find out the ancestry of many of the Europeans who immigrated and settled or conquered most of the Caribbean Islands. Also the Native population and the African population in result of the slave trade. Especially the Irish population who many have been forgotten by the latter immigrations and the current Irish population in Ireland and the World. I am interested in finding the ancestry of the surnames associated with these countries who immigrated to many of the island of the Caribbean and the Caribbean coastal countries. Possibly one day finding a link between various different families in the Caribbean.
- McGinley - IRISH IN THE CARRIBEAN
- The surname McGinley, along with many other Irish names, can be found throughout the Carribean today. Some are 20th Century settlers but some are descended from Irish slaves who were transported to the islands hundreds of years before.
Goodwife "Goody" Ann Glover
Twice Persecuted
Goodwife "Goody" Ann Glover is an Irish slave that you may have actually heard of before. Ann Glover was the last woman hanged in the Massachusetts witch trials. She was sold as a slave to the Barbados under Englishman Oliver Cromwell reign, during the occupation of Ireland in the 1650s. By 1680 Anne and her daughter were living in Boston, housekeepers for John Goodwin. When the Goodwin children became sick, Goody Glover was accused of being a witch and afflicting them. She insisted on only speaking Irish during her trial, and was subsiquently found guilty and hung. Learn more about Goody Glover. Flogging Molly by Tobacco Island
The Artist: Flogging Molly
The Song: Tobacco Island
The Album: Within a Mile of Home
Release: 2004
Flogging Molly's Myspace Page
Blogger Dave Short's analysis of this song
LYRICS:
All to hell we must sail
For the Shores of sweet Barbados
Where the sugar cane grows taller
Than the god we once believed in
Till the butcher and his crown
Raped the land we used to sleep in
Now tomorrow chimes of ghostly crimes
That haunt Tobacco Island
'Twas 1659 forgotten now for sure
They dragged us from our homeland
With the musket and their gun
Cromwell and his roundheads
Battered all we know
Shackled hopes of freedom
We're now but stolen goods
Darken the horizon
Blackened from the sun
This rotten cage of Bridgetown
Is where I now belong
[Chorus]
Red leg down a peg
Blistered burns the soul
The floggings they're a plenty
But reasons there are none
Our backs belong to landlords
Where branded is there name
Paid for with ten shillings
Cheap labor never breaks
The silver moon is shinin'
Cools the copper blood
Where the livin' meet the dead
And together dance as one
[Chorus]
Agony, will you cleanse this misery?
For it's never again I'll breathe
The air of home
From this sandy edge
The rolling sea breaks my revenge
With each whisper a thousand waves
I hear roar
I'm coming home
Dark is the horizon
Blackened by the sun
This rotten cage of Bridgetown
Is where I now belong
[Chorus]
End Slavery Today
One reason that I made this page, is to remind people that slavery was not a one time thing that attacked one group of people. Throughout time worldwide, slavery has existed: in Ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome; in medieval Europe; under the viking rule; the Jews under the Nazi regime; in the Arab world; in Africa; in Brazil; in China; in India; and indeed in America.
You would think that in a world as modern as ours, where people pride themselves on being educated, that slavery would be gone. Unfortunately that is not the case. Slavery exists today, as in any other time. It is merely covered up and disguised (most of the time). People being traded as sex slaves, children being sold off, factories that pay nearly nothing and provide threats of violence if people try to quit, immigrants enslaved to pay for their trip and fake papers - it is all happening today. And, it is slavery. Help end slavery today.
You would think that in a world as modern as ours, where people pride themselves on being educated, that slavery would be gone. Unfortunately that is not the case. Slavery exists today, as in any other time. It is merely covered up and disguised (most of the time). People being traded as sex slaves, children being sold off, factories that pay nearly nothing and provide threats of violence if people try to quit, immigrants enslaved to pay for their trip and fake papers - it is all happening today. And, it is slavery. Help end slavery today.
- iAbolish - Slavery Today
- Slavery didn't end during the Civil War. Today, 27 million men, women, and children endure brutal working conditions for no money and under the constant threat of beatings, torture, and rape. Check out Modern Slavery 101 for some fast facts about slavery in the 21st century: where it's happening, why it's happening, and what's been done to stop it.
Slavery is Not History
Slavery is alive today. These are just a few of today's headlines from Yahoo News related to issues of slavery:
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Share with us your thoughts on Irish Slavery...
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- almawad almawad Dec 6, 2009 @ 5:34 am
- My husband does not want to believe it .He thinks whites did not force other whites to work as slave ... and only black Africans were sold as slaves ...
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- mulberry mulberry Aug 27, 2009 @ 11:15 am
- I have a passing knowledge of Irish slavery from historical novels I've read. Slavery here in America as well as in the Caribbean. Sounds like some excellent reading.
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- kab kab Aug 27, 2009 @ 10:05 am | in reply to Bonni
- Exactly what part to you find to be rubbish?
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- Bonni Bonni Aug 27, 2009 @ 9:59 am
- Why would you say such things? What rubbish.
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- gemenerni1 gemenerni1 Jul 30, 2009 @ 9:37 am
- Wow, really awesome pictures you got on this lens. It actually brings back memories from my best Caribbean cruises ever that I went on last year.
We did not meet any Irish slaves though. Lol. :-)
Best regards,
Gem
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- mearns pollock mearns pollock Jul 18, 2009 @ 4:29 pm
- The same old story.
irish slavery in barbados.
What a cover up.
There was'nt any irish slaves in 17th Century.
The only Irish slaves were the gaelic population brain washed by the Latin Church.
what about the irish sex slaves used by the latin Church in the 2oth century.
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- Tia Tia Jul 13, 2009 @ 9:43 pm
- i was priviledged enough to learn irish history in my school i reckon the world should know about it. Cause i believe the conflict between irish catholics and english have influenced the world in many levels. Like for eg the liberal party was first created by the english and the labour by the irish catholics in Australia
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- FamilyTreeFellow FamilyTreeFellow Jul 12, 2009 @ 10:08 am
- I had no clue of the Irish slaves. I knew of the "potato famine" but I guess there is a lot of history about my Irish heritage that is unbeknownst to me. Time to brush up, thanks for the info!
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- Demaw Demaw Jun 11, 2009 @ 11:31 am
- There was a book recently about a German child who was sold into slavery in the US in the mid 1800s after her parents died. She forgot who she was and thought she was a very fair skinned black person. The law said a drop of black blood makes you black and therefore able to be a slave even if you look white. It is believed that many white children were sold as mixed race, the number is not known as many may have been orphans. And the reason ? Profit of course. Sadly slavery of many forms are still with us and we need to fight against it. 5* lens.
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- DougP DougP May 17, 2009 @ 4:11 pm
- This is a piece of history that I was not aware of, and yes, slavery still exists! Thanks for all of the great info.
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- Barns Barns Apr 25, 2009 @ 5:39 am
- Hey,
Great stuff!! I'd love to read more about the topic, too! Is there any literature/poems/songs etc left from the actual slaves?would be extremely interesting!
I read somewhere that many of the irish slaves were well educated, so I could imagine they left their traces somehow... Any hints would be well appreciated!
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- susanelainegalloway susanelainegalloway Mar 29, 2009 @ 4:55 am
- Hi Kab,
This is a really unusual lens have read it from top to bottom great stuff.
Take care all.
Sue.xxx
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- kiwisoutback kiwisoutback Mar 19, 2009 @ 3:54 pm
- I never knew that Irish slaves were sent to the Carribbean. I did know that many Irish were treated like dirt from many different countries over the years. Interesting. Happy Irish Heritage month!
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- Robin_Forlonge_Patterson Robin_Forlonge_Patterson Mar 8, 2009 @ 8:05 am
- I never knew about that. Not much Irish history taught in New Zealand. Maybe I should disown my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-uncle Oliver Cromwell instead of embellishing his article on the Genealogy Wikia. But, in the interests of openness and truth, I'll probably find a way to mention the slavery in the article. And I should look up those genealogy sites to see if their writers want to get a bit more Web exposure by putting their details on the wiki too. See http://www.squidoo.com/Genealogy-Wiki
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- Perilouswish Perilouswish Jan 14, 2009 @ 6:10 pm
- Thank you so very much for providing such an excellent lense. I have made it one of my goals in life to help educate my friends, co-workers and associates about this untaught portion of history. It is disappointing and insulting that this is not taught in school along with black slave historical information.
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- Tracey_M Tracey_M Nov 24, 2008 @ 6:47 pm
- Thanks for an amazing 5* lens. I've learned a lot from this that I heard nothing of in school, studing Irish history. Would you consider adding it to my new Irish group
http://www.squidoo.com/groups/theirishconnection
thanks
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- paperfacets paperfacets Aug 19, 2008 @ 3:03 am
- What a good lens.
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- spirituality spirituality Aug 17, 2008 @ 2:34 am
- Wow. Great lens. I didn't know this - and I'm ashamed to say it, because I actually did a paper on Ireland in high school...
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- Minx Minx Jul 29, 2008 @ 2:37 pm
- Why is this not covered in most history books? Well, some of it might have to do with modern Irish immigrant narrative as we've come to know it. The Irish, often through both positive and negative efforts of its people/ex-pats over the years, more than likely aren't really considered by the rest of the world to be "oppressed" anymore, particularly when whiteness as a construct in places like the United States has come to mean disposing of particular ethnic narratives in order to fashion a type of pan-Whiteness, and therefore have access to avenues of influence and power that others don't. Perhaps in Ireland this has not been the case over the years but it certainly has here. If nobody knows much about this stuff, some of the blame could probably be laid at the feet of the Irish descendants themselves. The loss of history/ethnic identity is usually one of the highest costs of assimilation.
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- CherylK CherylK May 26, 2008 @ 7:30 am
- This is so well done. Great job. Five stars.
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