The Myth of Irish Slaves

Irish slaves in America?  Well, since the allegation pops up on social media occasionally, I thought it worth exploring and dissecting. Let's be clear from the outset; it's a myth. But like most myths, this one has elements of truth. So let's look at those and then contrast and compare Irish "slavery" in America with the actual institution of slavery in America.

The Irish slave myth conflates indentured service with slavery. Many English men and women voluntarily entered into indenture contracts to make their way to America. They would work an agreed number of years in exchange for passage. On completion of their term of service men might be given deed to land or help establishing themselves in a trade. Women were usually "entitled" to a husband during or after their service was completed. 

English men and some women were also sentenced to transportation for lesser crimes. They were usually sentenced to a prescribed number of years and shipped off to one of the American colonies where they were turned over to bailiffs who in turn, farmed them out to plantations where they would work off their sentences. At the end of their sentence, if they survived, they were set free and usually stayed in the colony.

You may notice that I have referred to English indentured servants (okay, Welsh, Cornsh and Scots were indentured also) and this essay is supposed to be about Irish men and women. Well, while there was a steady stream of Irish immigrants to America, there weren't a lot of indentured servants. By the mid-1600s, England had established a harsh, iron grip over Ireland. No crime committed by an Irishman was minor enough to preclude hanging, shooting or just trampling under horses' hooves. There wasn't much interest in sentencing Irish men and women to transportation. Nor was there a financial interest in voluntary indenture agreements. Why clutch fractious Irish immigrants to your colonial breasts when they were likely to stir trouble and whose loyalty to the English crown was doubtful. 

By the way, the life of these indentured servants was not easy. Many (maybe 50% in some areas) were worked to death. Those sentenced to transportation certainly had it worse than those who entered into voluntary agreements. Transportation was also a 17th and 18th century version of today's private prison industry. Judges who sentenced young, healthy laborers to transportation (for even the least offenses) might expect a kickback from a colonial company's representative in England.

Of course, the real problem with indentured labor was that you couldn't keep them past a certain point. Also, if they escaped they might be hard to find, particularly if they were in a city such as Philadelphia, Boston, or New York. 

Starting fairly early in the 1800s, as the industrial revolution took hold in the United States, and at the same time canal and railroad construction drew large numbers of Irish immigrants to America, a popular argument took hold among slavery's apologists. The argument went thus: African slaves were better off than the "wage slaves" in the north, who were cruelly treated by overseers, paid a pittance and often bound to the companies they worked for by contracts and indebtedness. In contrast, African slaves in the southern states were cared for by their masters who fed and clothed them. Not only were the slaves cared for because they were valuable property, they were loved, as if they were family members. 

This argument gained traction after the Civil War and was integral to the "lost cause" myth perpetuated by the United Daughters of the Confederacy and others who sympathized with the "nobility" of the slavers. 

The context of the Irish Slave myth usually comes down to "White folk suffered too, maybe even worse than black folks. So, why are black folks getting all the attention and benefits?" Let's dissect that bit of mythology.

Yes, a lot of white immigrants to America suffered privation, hardship and early deaths. But pay attention to the critical word, immigrants. Leaving aside those who were sentenced to transportation  white men and women who departed their homes for America did so voluntarily. If any Africans voluntarily set sail for America in the 16th through 19th centuries, they were so few as to not matter. The millions who made it to Americs during those centuries did so in chains. 

Moreover, once they arrived, they  -- and their descendants -- were pretty much locked into involuntary servitude and given a status no different than farm equipment or livestock, forever. 

That was not a reality for any Irish -- or any other non-Africans who came to Anerica in those years.