April 8, 2024 • 10 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, slavery is one of the oldest profit-making endeavors, and the Irish were a special target for a thousand years. Colin D. Heaton, a military veteran and a host of the YouTube channel, "Forgotten History," tells us the story.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we continue with our American stories. There's been an
ongoing debate as to whether the Irish were the first
slaves in the Americas, pre dating the first Black African
slaves by almost a decade. Our next story comes to
us from Colin D. Heaton and Mike Droberg, two military
(00:30):
veterans and the founders of the terrific YouTube channel Forgotten History.
Their videos focus on military heroes, actions and events spanning
across the globe and are watched by hundreds of thousands
of people. Here's Colin Heaton with the story.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Some groups deny the Irish slavery under English and later
British rule, claiming that this was nothing more than voluntary,
intentioned servitude, which did exist. However, 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 were first to go. Many were forced. Therefore,
(01:14):
those transported unwillingly 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
(01:35):
first Viking rates in the year seven ninety five, lasting
through the mid ninth 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 returned to either
(01:57):
their holdings in Scotland or back to Norway. Usually, many
slaves who were of value were ransomed back to their families,
but others remained in captivity. Then, from the year eight
thirty seven onward, larger targets such as the greater monastic
towns of Armagh, Glendallah, Kildare, Slain, Clonard and Clonmacnoi's and
(02:19):
Lismore were hit by larger forces. These large scale rage
generally spare the smaller local churches and villages far inland,
but slaves were still taken, mostly to Scotland and Iceland.
In eight seventy five, Irish slaves in Iceland launched Europe's
largest slave rebellion since the end of the Roman Empire,
when Holfierff Holmarston's slaves killed him and fled to Vetsmaniyar.
(02:43):
In eight forty one, the port that became known as
Dublin was taken and occupied by both Olaf and Ivar
the Boneless, and by eight fifty three this part of
Ireland was a Norse trading center and slaves were a
large part of it. But Irish resistance was not over,
and nine eighty the Irish under mail sectional Macdomnel, King
(03:04):
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 ten fourteen at the Battle
of Clontarf, when Brian Burrew, High King of Ireland, attacked Dublin,
(03:27):
aided by his allies the Limerick Vikings. They fought other
Irish ally to the local Vikings in Dublin and Beru's
force I and all the slaves were again freed, thus
ending the legacy of constant Norse raids, whether from Danes
or Norwegians. In eleven fifty five, Pope Adrian the Fourth
supposedly gave Henry the Second of England a papal bull,
(03:48):
granting the king the authority to invade Ireland. However, many
historians believed that this authorization was a forgery. Regardless, Adyrian's successor,
Pope Alexander the Third, granted the lands of ire Ireland
to Henry the Second, although it was not his land
to give. The Normans were initially invited to Ireland by
Dermott macmurrah, the deposed King of Leinster. In October eleven
(04:11):
seventy one, King Henry Second landed in Ireland and allowed
Dermott 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
(04:32):
used today going beyond the Pale. Following the Battle of
Kinsale in sixteen oh one, when the Irish and Spanish
Alliance was defeated, the Irish aristocracy fled to Europe, but
the commoners remained After nearly a decade, King James the
First of England gave permission for the English Governor General
(04:52):
to collect and sell the captured Irish soldiers as slaves
and send them to the New World in the Americas.
Twelve 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
(05:12):
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 sixteen twenty five, James
the First's son, Charles the First, issued the decree, but
(05:34):
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 rabble 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
(05:55):
thousands of Irish men and women were sent to the
Eastern American colonies as well as Guyana, Antigua, and Montserrat
as well between sixteen twenty nine and sixteen thirty two,
as other Caribbean locations over the next few decades were infiltrated.
By sixteen thirty seven, approximately sixty nine percent of the
(06:15):
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 twenty to
fifty pounds sterling, a huge sum of money in those days. However,
Irish slaves were sold for nine hundred pounds of cotton
per person, but also traded for tobacco and indigo in
(06:37):
a straight barter system. The Irish then became the largest
source of slaves for English slave traders and plantation owners,
far surpassing the African slave trade until the early to
mid seventeen hundreds. Between sixteen forty one, during the Irish
Rebellion to sixteen fifty two, over five hundred and fifty
(06:57):
thousand 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 role. The greatest perpetrator
of this was Oliver Cromwell, who defeated Charles the First
in sixteen forty nine during the English Civil War and
(07:19):
had him executed. Cromwell, as Lord Protector, waged a ruthless
war against the Irish starting in sixteen forty nine. By
sixteen fifty it is claimed that nearly twenty nine thousand
Irish were sold to planters in Saint kitt during the
decade of the sixteen fifties. It is also claimed, as
well as disputed, that around one hundred thousand Irish children,
(07:41):
generally from ten to fourteen 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. Between sixteen fifty one and
sixteen sixty the Irish slaves far outnumbered the colonists in
all areas. In sixteen fifty two, Cromwell ordered that twelve
(08:04):
thousand Irish were to be sold to Barbadoes on one
May sixteen fifty four. His to Hell or to Connocht
Proclamation was issued during the Active Settlement of sixteen sixty two.
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
(08:25):
slaves or executed. His own words proclaimed, those who failed
to transplant themselves into Connacht or County Claire with a
six months shall be attained of high treason, or to
be sent to America or other parts beyond the Seas.
Those banished who return ought to suffer the pains of
death as felons. By virtue of this act, without benefit
(08:48):
of clergy, the English could kill the Irish without penalty,
but selling them offered great profit. It is claimed that
over eighty thousand more Irish were sold, with fifty two
thousand going to the one. These are Barbados and Virginia.
Many argued that these were indentured servants, not slaves. Yet
there are no records of contracts between those forcibly removed
(09:08):
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 sixteen fifty six, the Council of State ordered the
roundup of one thousand Irish girls and one thousand Irish
boys in their early teens, even some children, to be
(09:29):
rounded up and sold to Jamaican planters. As these would
be children whose parents were already deported, 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. So, whether one accepts the reality
(09:49):
of Irish slavery or not, the fact remains that there
were Irish people forced into slavery. Therefore, those transported unwillingly
and effectively sold were not considered to be indentured. These
deported Irish were in fact slaves.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
And a terrific job on the production editing and storytelling
by our own Greg Hangler. By the way, Colin Heaton
and his buddy Mike Droberg do terrific work on their
YouTube channel Forgotten History. His type Forgotten History on the
YouTube bar, and you'll find all of their great work.
The line that tells it all. The English could kill
(10:24):
the Irish without penalty. They could be sold profitably. That
explains slavery throughout the world. It's so much more than
skin colored slavery. It's about war, it's about the vulnerable,
and it was always and still is about profit. The
story of the Irish being the first slaves in America.
(10:46):
Here on our American Stories.
And we continue with our American stories. There's been an
ongoing debate as to whether the Irish were the first
slaves in the Americas, pre dating the first Black African
slaves by almost a decade. Our next story comes to
us from Colin D. Heaton and Mike Droberg, two military
(00:30):
veterans and the founders of the terrific YouTube channel Forgotten History.
Their videos focus on military heroes, actions and events spanning
across the globe and are watched by hundreds of thousands
of people. Here's Colin Heaton with the story.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Some groups deny the Irish slavery under English and later
British rule, claiming that this was nothing more than voluntary,
intentioned servitude, which did exist. However, 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 were first to go. Many were forced. Therefore,
(01:14):
those transported unwillingly 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
(01:35):
first Viking rates in the year seven ninety five, lasting
through the mid ninth 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 returned to either
(01:57):
their holdings in Scotland or back to Norway. Usually, many
slaves who were of value were ransomed back to their families,
but others remained in captivity. Then, from the year eight
thirty seven onward, larger targets such as the greater monastic
towns of Armagh, Glendallah, Kildare, Slain, Clonard and Clonmacnoi's and
(02:19):
Lismore were hit by larger forces. These large scale rage
generally spare the smaller local churches and villages far inland,
but slaves were still taken, mostly to Scotland and Iceland.
In eight seventy five, Irish slaves in Iceland launched Europe's
largest slave rebellion since the end of the Roman Empire,
when Holfierff Holmarston's slaves killed him and fled to Vetsmaniyar.
(02:43):
In eight forty one, the port that became known as
Dublin was taken and occupied by both Olaf and Ivar
the Boneless, and by eight fifty three this part of
Ireland was a Norse trading center and slaves were a
large part of it. But Irish resistance was not over,
and nine eighty the Irish under mail sectional Macdomnel, King
(03:04):
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 ten fourteen at the Battle
of Clontarf, when Brian Burrew, High King of Ireland, attacked Dublin,
(03:27):
aided by his allies the Limerick Vikings. They fought other
Irish ally to the local Vikings in Dublin and Beru's
force I and all the slaves were again freed, thus
ending the legacy of constant Norse raids, whether from Danes
or Norwegians. In eleven fifty five, Pope Adrian the Fourth
supposedly gave Henry the Second of England a papal bull,
(03:48):
granting the king the authority to invade Ireland. However, many
historians believed that this authorization was a forgery. Regardless, Adyrian's successor,
Pope Alexander the Third, granted the lands of ire Ireland
to Henry the Second, although it was not his land
to give. The Normans were initially invited to Ireland by
Dermott macmurrah, the deposed King of Leinster. In October eleven
(04:11):
seventy one, King Henry Second landed in Ireland and allowed
Dermott 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
(04:32):
used today going beyond the Pale. Following the Battle of
Kinsale in sixteen oh one, when the Irish and Spanish
Alliance was defeated, the Irish aristocracy fled to Europe, but
the commoners remained After nearly a decade, King James the
First of England gave permission for the English Governor General
(04:52):
to collect and sell the captured Irish soldiers as slaves
and send them to the New World in the Americas.
Twelve 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
(05:12):
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 sixteen twenty five, James
the First's son, Charles the First, issued the decree, but
(05:34):
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 rabble 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
(05:55):
thousands of Irish men and women were sent to the
Eastern American colonies as well as Guyana, Antigua, and Montserrat
as well between sixteen twenty nine and sixteen thirty two,
as other Caribbean locations over the next few decades were infiltrated.
By sixteen thirty seven, approximately sixty nine percent of the
(06:15):
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 twenty to
fifty pounds sterling, a huge sum of money in those days. However,
Irish slaves were sold for nine hundred pounds of cotton
per person, but also traded for tobacco and indigo in
(06:37):
a straight barter system. The Irish then became the largest
source of slaves for English slave traders and plantation owners,
far surpassing the African slave trade until the early to
mid seventeen hundreds. Between sixteen forty one, during the Irish
Rebellion to sixteen fifty two, over five hundred and fifty
(06:57):
thousand 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 role. The greatest perpetrator
of this was Oliver Cromwell, who defeated Charles the First
in sixteen forty nine during the English Civil War and
(07:19):
had him executed. Cromwell, as Lord Protector, waged a ruthless
war against the Irish starting in sixteen forty nine. By
sixteen fifty it is claimed that nearly twenty nine thousand
Irish were sold to planters in Saint kitt during the
decade of the sixteen fifties. It is also claimed, as
well as disputed, that around one hundred thousand Irish children,
(07:41):
generally from ten to fourteen 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. Between sixteen fifty one and
sixteen sixty the Irish slaves far outnumbered the colonists in
all areas. In sixteen fifty two, Cromwell ordered that twelve
(08:04):
thousand Irish were to be sold to Barbadoes on one
May sixteen fifty four. His to Hell or to Connocht
Proclamation was issued during the Active Settlement of sixteen sixty two.
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
(08:25):
slaves or executed. His own words proclaimed, those who failed
to transplant themselves into Connacht or County Claire with a
six months shall be attained of high treason, or to
be sent to America or other parts beyond the Seas.
Those banished who return ought to suffer the pains of
death as felons. By virtue of this act, without benefit
(08:48):
of clergy, the English could kill the Irish without penalty,
but selling them offered great profit. It is claimed that
over eighty thousand more Irish were sold, with fifty two
thousand going to the one. These are Barbados and Virginia.
Many argued that these were indentured servants, not slaves. Yet
there are no records of contracts between those forcibly removed
(09:08):
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 sixteen fifty six, the Council of State ordered the
roundup of one thousand Irish girls and one thousand Irish
boys in their early teens, even some children, to be
(09:29):
rounded up and sold to Jamaican planters. As these would
be children whose parents were already deported, 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. So, whether one accepts the reality
(09:49):
of Irish slavery or not, the fact remains that there
were Irish people forced into slavery. Therefore, those transported unwillingly
and effectively sold were not considered to be indentured. These
deported Irish were in fact slaves.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
And a terrific job on the production editing and storytelling
by our own Greg Hangler. By the way, Colin Heaton
and his buddy Mike Droberg do terrific work on their
YouTube channel Forgotten History. His type Forgotten History on the
YouTube bar, and you'll find all of their great work.
The line that tells it all. The English could kill
(10:24):
the Irish without penalty. They could be sold profitably. That
explains slavery throughout the world. It's so much more than
skin colored slavery. It's about war, it's about the vulnerable,
and it was always and still is about profit. The
story of the Irish being the first slaves in America.
(10:46):
Here on our American Stories.
Host
Lee Habeeb
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