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Old 05-03-2008
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Tautog Tautog is offline
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Member Since: Sep 2007
Location: MA
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United_States     Massachusetts

Re: The White New World Slaves

Quote:
Originally Posted by O'Sullivan Bere View Post
I've always felt it was tragic that history almost always ignores this horrendous experience shared with black slave history.

Hundreds of thousands of whites, mostly Irish but some others like Scots Highlanders, were actually enslaved by the English and sent to their New World colonies during the 1600s-1700s. They were not indentured servants, but slaves.

They were usually hated and abused more than the black slaves due to ethnic and religious bigotry against them and because black slaves were more expensive to purchase. Both torturing and killing them was lawful, with common punishments being things like hanging them and then setting their limbs on fire in gruesome spectacles.

They had far more difficulty adjusting to the climate than African slaves did. This fact, coupled with more abuse of them due to hatred of them and their cheaper value, resulted in killing them off regularly in mass numbers.

Using the women as sex slaves was popular, however, and breeding the white slaves with black ones was very lucrative given a high premium could be had for mulatto women on sex appeal. The British eventually banned the practice because it was interfering with the profitability of the Royal African Company, the slave trade corporation.

This researcher did a great job detailing the history IMO:

Caomhánach - Article - Irish slaves in the Caribbean

It's an extremely easy, quick, highly educational and bone-chilling read, a sad tale from start all the way through the finish.

Yet, the events of white slavery in the Americas almost never gets any mention in history books, never mind in any detail. That's sad--it shouldn't be the case.

Does this mean I can demand reparations too?~
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