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.

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James Hoban. Irish Architect. Member of the Royal Dublin Society. Hoban designed and built the White House and based it upon the top exterior and interior two floors of Leinster House, then known as Kildare House, which is now the current Irish Parliament building. He was also a supervisory architect of the US Capitol Building.

I couldn't agree more. Also mostly ignored is the fact that the American society treated Irish immigrants not as slaves, but possibly just as bad.

For those Irish (and some other nationalities) that emmigrated to the USA during the time of slavery here, they were "hired" to do some of the most dangerous jobs because, having a slave do that job with the high possiblity of being permanently injured or dying, would cost much more money than having an Irish immigrant do the same work for a pittance.

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I am an American. That's the way most of us put it, just matter of factly. They are plain words, those four: you could write them on your thumbnail, or sweep them clear across this bright autumn sky. But remember too, that they are more than just words. They are a way of life. So whenever you speak them, speak them firmly, speak them proudly, speak them gratefully. I am an American. ...a tradition

Well I could go off on a tangent regards why it is, that this never gets a place in history books etc.....but I think its fairly apparent why, it doesn’t feed a victimization pathology, because they never practiced it.

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We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile....

I believe you have hit head the nail on the head - it isn't talked about so much because, like 95% of all slavery, - the people who were slaves fought their way out of it - and went on to blend in with society through the years.

There is no victim to talk about - in the black culture it is still used as an excuse for poor productivity and still is believed compensation is due to them (which fogs my brain to no end).

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The most serious threat to the United States is not someone hiding in a cave in Afghanistan or Pakistan, but our own fiscal irresponsibility 2008 - David Walker, Controller General of the United States

I 100% agree with the last two posts. I bet Bill Cosby would agree as well.

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I am an American. That's the way most of us put it, just matter of factly. They are plain words, those four: you could write them on your thumbnail, or sweep them clear across this bright autumn sky. But remember too, that they are more than just words. They are a way of life. So whenever you speak them, speak them firmly, speak them proudly, speak them gratefully. I am an American. ...a tradition

Yes, the dikes built around New Orleans have thousands of skeletons of Irish and German workers who perished building them. They just tossed them in a hole whereever they dropped. Slaves cost too much; as Fredrick Olmstead once said a man told him when he visited: 'Dead paddies only cost $10 to the local priest, and there are thousands of them. dead slaves cost $300 in compensation to their owners' , or something to that effect.

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"The real question of life after death isn't whether or not it exists, but even if it does, what problems this really solves." - Ludwig Wittgenstein

"A day without sunshine is, you know, night."- Shannon

Well, I must admit I had no idea about this. Terrible.

The intensity of the English/Irish conflicts within my own family only died away in the last half century, after tearing apart several generations as the result of intermarriage on both sides - my father's family and my mother's as well - that began in the nineteenth century. I'm not surprised the conflicts lasted as long as they did.

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"Our fears in Banquo
Stick deep; in his royalty of nature
Reigns that which would be fear'd: 'tis much he dares;
And, to that dauntless temper of his mind,
He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valour
To act in safety."

Macbeth 3:1

Good post. Another thing that is often ignored is that there are currently more slaves in the world today than at any other time in history.

Andrew

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Ethanol is a fabulous solution to our energy dilemma because it will provide more fuel for us to drive around and look for food.

-- Unknown

Just like very few history books will point out the fact that slavery was outlawed in Europe and America before it ever was in most African countries, or the fact that African tribe leaders collaborated with white slave traders to sell out members of their own race.

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"Officeholders are the agents of the people, not their masters."- Grover Cleveland

The 10 Planks of the American Populist Party
-Liberty
-The Bill of Rights
-Decentralization
-Democratic Process
-Non-agression
-Constitutional gov't
-Anti-militarism
-Oversight in gov't
-Read the Bills Act
-Accountability

Under the pressure of colonialism.

Andrew

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Ethanol is a fabulous solution to our energy dilemma because it will provide more fuel for us to drive around and look for food.

-- Unknown

And their pocketbooks, or satchels, or whatever they carried their money around in.

I'm not saying that white people where completley innocent in perpetrating slavery, just that neither were black people.

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"Officeholders are the agents of the people, not their masters."- Grover Cleveland

The 10 Planks of the American Populist Party
-Liberty
-The Bill of Rights
-Decentralization
-Democratic Process
-Non-agression
-Constitutional gov't
-Anti-militarism
-Oversight in gov't
-Read the Bills Act
-Accountability

Of course neither the black nor white slave traders were innocent. The point i was trying to make is that the black people sold out their own people under the pressure of European and Arab colonialism.

After it became illegal in the new world and Europe it is no surprise that the powers that be in Africa kept the trade going, and still do today, and still under the pressure of the west (and now asia) and our insatiable need for resources. Be it blood diamonds, oil, pipelines, coltan, or whatever.

Slavery is still alive and well in the world, and the western and asian consumer is still the major beneficiary, even if we pretend to be enlightened and progressive in our own domestic populations.

Andrew

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Ethanol is a fabulous solution to our energy dilemma because it will provide more fuel for us to drive around and look for food.

-- Unknown

the colonialism you allude too was in its infancy in that era andrew...if not, they would have collected the slaves themselves. But they bought them from tribes who they had conquered or kidnapped other rival tribe members etc.

__________________
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile....

Colonialism in Africa by the "west" goes all the way back to the ancient world.

Andrew

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Ethanol is a fabulous solution to our energy dilemma because it will provide more fuel for us to drive around and look for food.

-- Unknown

Not quite.... if you are talking about roman mauretania, egypt i.e. the coast, perhaps, but thats not what we are referring to. I.e. Nigeria, Cameroon the gulf of guniea , central africa...etc. Those were the primary lanes or routes of the slave trade as we were concernend.

__________________
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile....