Irish slavery Essay

Luther advocated for race equality and was keen to talk about economic systems that have the potential of creating forms of slavery and military industrial complex1. In this sense, slavery can be viewed as any condition that makes people to live in a state where they have no option of making the desired choices. Malcolm X clearly captured this aspect by explaining the difference between the “field Negro” and the “house Negro. ” In Malcolm’s view, it is evident that even the house Negro who was privileged than the field Negro (slaves) can be viewed as a slave since he somehow lived under a condition in which he had no freedom of making perceivable choices2. Gandhi also provided a precise definition of what slavery entails by articulating the color-based ethnic discrimination.

This paper is meant to discuss the slavery of the Irish people who are said to have come under the white servants. They were treated like slaves but in a different way in such a way that it was not easy to protest against mistreatments5. These Irish people were subjected to slavery in Barbados but their treatment was different from that of the African slaves among other slaves6. It has been argued that they were in one way or another treated much worse than those who were enslaved. It is clear that the white Irish ‘slaves’ were made to endure and work in worse environments that in some instances outweighed the black slaves7. Similar to the situation with the black slaves, the Irish workers served under strict contract to buy their freedom back once one had been subcontracted.

Although they were not sold like the case with the black slaves, the white servants were not granted the privilege of living the service at their wish once they had enrolled for service, which can be viewed as a form of slavery. In some way, compelling someone to do against their will or creating a threatening environment to their family forcing them to behave like they are slaves is a form of slavery in some way. Because slavery threatens people’s lives, the victims do not have any choice but to agree to become slaves so as to take care of their lives. In those cases, some people are not slaves because they wish but because they need to secure their lives and that of their families.

The indentured servitude, from my own point of view was worse than the slavery itself. This is because those servants who had the awareness of their human freedom were treated differently from the rest who knew nothing about their human freedom. Indentured servants were not considered as slaves and thus suffered from drudgery and bad attitude of their colonial master14. So even if the indentured servants were not treated as slaves, they still bore the same pain as slaves. According to the recent research, despite the fact that records provisioned and contracts enforced between colonial masters and servants in the year 1619, an indentured servant was never equal to his master according to the rights put in place. This means that they were forbidden by the law practices or having appointments with the military civil service.

The Catholics were not even allowed to get educated in any educational facility, serving as personal teachers, attending educational institutions or training their children from abroad17. Also, they did not have the permission to take part in the manufacturing or the selling of books, periodicals or any bear weapon. Additionally, they did not even have the right to horse possession which was also very expensive for them to afford. This shows how somehow some races can be mistreated by those in authority. For a man to receive a decent job in the future he had to become an apprentice of the master and in this case the man did not receive any payment from his master. The state offers of the Irish earners of wages was a bit better as there were some structures of workers that had been formed as movements of labor traditions.

Additionally, between the years 1641 and 1652, about 300,000 Irish people were sold as slaves with more than 100,000 kids belonging to the Irish people between the age of 10 and 14 were taken away from their families so as to be sold as slaves to the West Indians. Also, 52,000 Irish people who were mainly women and children were sold to Barbados and Virginia. Barbados was one of the most important colonies in the British Empire19. A black slave gets the security of necessity to crime in the lieu of which a free laborer does not even have a choice of the employers because he is a free laborer. The southern master can apply his lash but the other does not have the means of power to fulfill and enforce servitude.

Therefore, the Irish people did not realize their position actually and the main reason for being controlled over their whole life. They were meant to believe that their rules of the game were different from that of the slave holders by admitting that their position was different from that of the slaves. This is the reason as to why they did not insist on reforms seriously. To avoid this, the master had to hire the Irish workers. To some extend these Irish workers were treated as slaves another way. This way, the Irish workers’ lives was threatened just because of a paltry pay. People in this situation therefore had to adapt to the dirty, backbreaking and lowly paid works that other citizens of the land could not perform22.

After civil war ended and the questions about slavery were saved, the terrible work conditions of the wage workers were not solved because the wage workers who were mainly the Irish people did not want to be associated with the category of slaves. They were the victims and opponents of suppression in terms of races to slaveholders and the dominion of the white. Previous research shows that the Irish people did not come to the course of anti-slavery but because of class, race and the religion they fought for their different position which was not similar to that of the slaves. This is why they did not protest against the system of slavery because they wanted a better position in the society of the Americans as they had left their mother land.

If for example they had decided to protest against slavery, in some way or another they could be forced to take or act like slaves who worked but never got paid. This is also the reason as to why they supported the union and separated themselves from the representatives of the radical movement of abolitionism. The anti-slavery thoughts were declared. O’Connell attempted to talk to the repealers about the weakened stance on slavery but was in vain25. On the other hand, the Irish people did not despise the system of slavery but their position was a threat to the movement of the repeal itself on the Atlantic West side. However, their form was tenuous and the Irish people avoided disapprovals of expression.

Therefore, by the use of this strategy, the process of assimilating Irish people in America succeeded just like other ethnic groups in those other historical times. Nelson named this as the origin of nationalism and the radicalization of the Irish people in the 19th century. There was a parallel fight between the Irish and the fight concerning the slaves. It is an obvious thing that Irish slavery is not typical even though they were treated differently from the other slaves. However, the Irish people did not consider themselves as slaves but indeed they were considered as slaves. The fact that they were exposed to serious problems of political, economical and religious kinds of problems from their land and they thought of living it for a better life in America made them slaves.

1000 of the number was also for Irish people who were freed from labor because their time had expired and they had to leave the island. In 1660, Europeans were about 26 200 in number while the slaves were about 27 100 mainly from Africa. In the initial production stages of sugar, white servants could work side by side with the slaves and as the days passed by, the slaves became wild and extreme. In the mid of 1650, white servants had left all the work to the slaves and they were only required where skilled roles were needed or may be where a role of supervision to the slaves was required as they worked in the Barbados’ sugar production. Irish people in Caribbean Irish people or the servants in Barbados were poorly treated and the planters of Barbados had a cruel reputation towards the white servants and this made it difficult in convincing new servants to join the island.

This came from article 31 of Transactions of the Royal Historical Society claiming that the trade carried out by the Irish people was initiated and after some time crushed31. This article mentioned out those historians did not like calling the indentured servants slaves where n this case the Irish people who were the indentured servants would otherwise be called slaves. Many people have tried to end these conversations between race and slavery but have not yet succeeded. White slaves, hundreds of thousands of them were from Ireland and were sent to Barbados to participate in the sugar cultivation. Background of Irish people in Ireland before the Irish servant boom to the United States. Those who rebelled together with the criminals and their families were all deported to the plantations in the Island mainly in Barbados.

Majority of them were the indentured servants with some years of contract to work in the sugar plantations in Barbados. When their contract expired, they were now freed from the indenture. However, some of the masters could extend the periods of these contracts for those indentured servants who’s the contract was not a lifelong investment. Some of the African slaves worked as indentured slaves up to their death. Life of the poor Irish people In the 1700s, Ireland was termed as the Penal Era and age of Ascendency. These two terms describe the difference between the lives of the Catholics and Protestants living in the Ireland. The Irish Catholics comprised of the poor who made approximately 80% of the total population and owning one-third of the land.

The Protestants were termed as the owners of the land or the ascended and the Irish Catholics were the descended and had become desperate about life. The main reason as to why Ireland was termed as poor was because of the devastation caused by Oliver Cromwell’s armies which waged a war against the Irish people who rebelled against the rule of English. In the year 1722, the parliament of the Irish people set up 11 houses of work for those not employed and were poor but it was still not enough to add an impact to these poor people. The conditions of work in those houses were so harsh to an extent that those who were desperate or those that had been taken off the streets by force could enter into those houses of work.

Therefore, the provisioning of these houses did not solve their problems in the field of work. It is only through work that most people can evade poverty. The only kind of education the poor Catholics of Ireland could get was from the charter schools which were started by the government in the year 1733. England is not a country but it is United Kingdom or Britain. This British invasion treated people in Ireland badly. The invasion of Norman in the 12th century was the beginning of 800 years and more of the rule of English and thus the involvement of British in Ireland. The torture that the Catholics in Ireland received from the British colony made them migrate to the United States of America.

Immigration of the Irish people after 1846 was for the Catholics. Majority of them used the Canadian sea route to America because they could get stations where they could stay and work so as to earn enough fare to pay for their journey. In addition to the reasons of sickness and starvation from Ireland, they were also seeking for their human freedom so as to escape oppression from British. When they arrived in America, the Protestants in America did not trust them as the main problem these Irish immigrants faced was lack of skills although some were blacksmiths, masons of stone among others but they did not have prior experience. Women who were also immigrants could work as domestic servants but also did not have training for experience before.

Experience in these duties and responsibilities or rules denied the Irish immigrants their job aspirations. According to the history of Barbados, in the year 1655, 12000 war prisoners in total were alleged by Barbados’ planters to employ them which represented about half of the population of the whites. The question is “where these poor wish people slaves? According to the labor they provided in Barbados, it was slave labor and also considering their work circumstance which was much worse than that of other indentured servants who had arrived at the same time as the Irish people. They carried out indentured work voluntary and their time was limited. These Irish people provided forced slave labor refusing to call themselves slaves. They only deceived themselves.

The difference between the two labor forms is important in understanding racism development of slavery in the colonies of Britain. Indentured servitude is a term to describe the suffering and situation of not been free experienced by both indentured servants and slaves. The colonial servitude in Caribbean was temporal and not hereditary while the slavery of chattel was hereditary with some legal status of human40. It has been proven that the two statuses that is, that of slavery and that of an indentured servant can be referred to one term as slave if the profound differences can be erased. The denial to differentiated indentured servitude and slavery gives motivation of equating indentured servants under white servants with African slavery. There are those who had contracts but those who did not have the contracts where to serve the masters for some years as the master had to purchase them.

However, because of harsh conditions of work, most of the servants did not survive for long as they could die while serving the master. In this case, where servants were on contracts, this period can be termed as a temporal slavery of which there is no difference between temporal and perpetual slavery. About the experience of indentured servants, they worked alongside the African slaves and could be punished by the masters because of transgression. Some of the servants from various conditions that required treatment and forced the planters take precautions of incorporating some features of defense to their homes. They only did not like calling themselves slaves but in the actual terms, they were slaves. Forcing someone do against their will is slavery.

Irish people were forced to work in the plantations of sugar in Barbados, were also forced to work under harsh working conditions and minimally paid and could not carry out skilled roles or supervisory roles. Therefore, it is proven that Irish people were also slaves in other terms44. Bibliography YouTube. New West Indian Guide 91 (2017), pp. Handler, Jerome and Reilly Matthew. “Father Antoine Beit’s Account Revisited; Irish Catholics in Mid-Seventeenth-Century Barbados. ” Handler, Jerome. Father Antoine Biet’s Visit to Barbados in 1654. Smith, Abbott Emerson.  Colonists in bondage: White servitude and convict labor in America, 1607-1776. UNC Press Books, 2014. Zinn, Howard.  “A people's history of the United States. Verso, 2003. Allen, Theodore W. The invention of the White race.  London and New York: Verso, 1994.