FEATURE— MYTH-BUSTING were forcibly deported from Britain THE IRISH IN THE and Ireland to the Caribbean in the mid-seventeenth century cannot be accurately described simply as ANGLO-CARIBBEAN: ‘slaves’ but as indentured servants. Where does the truth lie and is this servants or slaves? simply a question of semantics? Semantics? Rather than academic ‘quibbling’, as is often suggested by those who per - WHY WE NEED TO CONFRONT THE ‘IRISH petuate the ‘Irish were slaves too’ SLAVE MYTH’ AND HOW TERMINOLOGY IS NOT meme, the differences and common - SIMPLY SEMANTICS alities between these two forms of unfree labour are of fundamental By Liam Hogan, Laura McAtackney and Matthew C. Reilly importance to our understanding of the development of racialised per - petual chattel slavery in the British colonies. The term ‘indentured hen John Grenham century and that ‘refusing to call servitude’ is not a denial of their suf - asked the question them slaves is quibbling’. Such state - fering or unfree situation but rather W‘Were there Irish slaves ments are part of a larger and in Barbados?’ in an Irish Times growing public sentiment that article on 7 September 2015 he unequivocally declares the experi - Below: Black slaves cutting sugar cane on a answered in the affirmative. He ences of the Irish in Barbados to be plantation established by the Delaps of Donegal, from Ten views of the island of claimed that there were ‘Irish slaves’ those of slavery. In contrast, scholars Antigua by William Clarke, 1823. (British in Barbados in the mid-seventeenth of the period agree that those who Library) 18 /HISTORY IRELAND / March–April 2016 an accurate term to describe their a racist political agenda. legal status, few rights and harsh The distinction between volun - reality. Colonial servitude in the tary and involuntary indentured Anglo-Caribbean was temporary and servitude is also an important one. non-hereditary, with legal person - It is true that some Europeans, par - hood, while chattel slavery was per - ticularly prisoners of war or political petual and hereditary with sub- prisoners, were sent to places like human legal status. It is inevitable the Caribbean against their will and that if we refer to these two differ - without a predetermined period of ent statuses in the same historical servitude. Upon arrival, however, context using the same term (‘slave’) those without contracts were, by these profound distinctions are law, required to serve the master erased. The refusal to differentiate who purchased their labour for a often reveals a motivation to equate limited number of years, depending indentured servitude for Europeans on their age. It is also true that with African chattel perpetual many servants did not live to see slavery to claim spuriously that the end of their period of servitude slavery had nothing to do with race. owing to brutal treatment, climatic Of course, the word ‘slavery’ can be conditions and their harsh work applied to any situation involving regimens, but while under the con - coercion or a lack of freedom and it ditions of servitude they were is frequently deployed as a subject to the same laws that gov - metaphor or as rhetoric. ‘Slavery’ is erned European servants, not thus a general term, so it is neces - ‘Negroes’. The oft-quoted popular sary to contextualise its meaning in ‘history’, Seán O’Callaghan’s To Hell the colonial Caribbean. Our argu - or Barbados , may be to blame for the was added to their term of inden - ment will focus on the Anglo- conflation of all forms of servitude ture. Enslaved Africans, who were Caribbean, specifically Barbados and with chattel slavery, but these dis - owned for life, were beaten for Montserrat, but similar case-studies tinctions demand careful attention. similar infractions. If indentured ser - can also be undertaken in other vants assaulted another servant or a colonial realms. Not simply a case of comparing slave it was treated as a misde - In the formative years of the temporary ‘slavery’ and perpetual meanour and they were fined. If English colonies in the Caribbean, slavery they assaulted their master, they legislators debated the terms, treat - There are few accounts that describe were whipped. Their indenture was ment and rights reserved for labour - the experiences of indentured ser - legal property, and therefore a ers. While the status of Amerindians vants in the mid-seventeenth- servant’s remaining time could be was rather ambiguous, by the 1640s century Caribbean. In short, ser - left in wills, traded for commodities (shortly after the official settlement vants often worked alongside and sold. Since one’s labour is insep - of Barbados in 1627) laws had been enslaved Africans, were punished by arable from one’s person, inden - established that explicitly differenti - their masters for transgressions and tured servants in Barbados were ated between servants (as reserved had a meagre diet. Many grew dis - temporarily treated as a sort of com - for Europeans) and the enslaved (as contented with their conditions, modity. reserved for ‘Negroes’). Bonded and Richard Ligon, who was in Ligon is often sourced to help Europeans were classified as inden - Barbados from 1647 to 1650, notes gird the argument that indentured tured servants under colonial law that planters took precautions to servants were treated ‘worse’ than and were afforded particular rights incorporate defensive features into slaves before 1661, but his view was not extended to the enslaved (how their homes ‘in case of uproar … ideological rather than historically regularly they were able to take either by Christian servants or negro consistent. His own notes under - advantage of these rights is, of slaves’. French priest Father Antoine mine this argument, including his course, unclear). They were all tem - Biet visited Barbados in 1654 and description of how the conditions porarily (if they survived long lamented how poorly the servants for servants had improved markedly enough) unfree, and those who were were treated. He commented that during his time on the island. For forced into servitude, just like those some of the families who were incarcerated today, can legitimately forcibly deported to the colony were be described as being ‘enslaved’ in split up and purposely sold to differ - Above: The oft-quoted popular ‘history’, the broader sense. There are, and ent planters as part of their punish - Seán O’Callaghan’s To Hell or Barbados , may have been, many types of slavery. ment. If servants left the plantation be to blame for the conflation of all forms of servitude with chattel slavery, but these When the term is applied carelessly, without permission from their distinctions demand careful attention. however, it can be exploited to serve master, this unaccounted-for time (O’Brien Press) HISTORY IRELAND / March–April 2016 / 19 ‘servants’ while others were expli- citly for ‘Negroes’. Wider role of the Irish in the Caribbean The majority of the Irish who arrived on Caribbean shores served as labourers and suffered hardships at the hands of overseers. Some suf - fered particularly cruel treatment owing to colonial antagonisms that existed between the Irish and the English. What underlines the histo - riographical vandalism of the ‘Irish slaves’ narrative is that some of those who tortured slaves and were cruel to servants were Irish. As Biet made his way across the island, he was befriended by an Irishman on a sugar plantation: Ligon, as well as other seventeenth- years old, whose body was full of century English observers, it was scars which she claimed had been ‘One day I went to visit my likely the shock of seeing Europeans caused by her master’s [applying] Irishman. He had in irons one of in such conditions that drew their the fire-brand to her’. Such mutila - these poor Negroes who had stolen attention and the analogy to slavery. tions of slaves were permitted. It a pig. Every day, his hands in irons, While planters in Barbados was lawful for conspiratorial slaves the overseer had him whipped by were paranoid about the Irish under to be burned alive, beheaded, gib - the other Negroes until he was all their watch, by 1667 nearly 2,000 beted and castrated. covered with blood. The overseer, Irishmen were members of the One of the worst recorded inci - after having had him treated thus colony’s militia. Enslaved Africans dents of servant abuse in Barbados for seven or eight days, cut off one were also permitted to be in the appeared before a court in 1640. of his ears, had it roasted, and militia, but only in cases of emer - John Thomas, likely an Englishman, forced him to eat it.’ gency and they were never permit - had been suspended from his wrists ted to wield firearms. The 1661 slave by his masters and burning matches This anecdote reveals that the Irish code ordered overseers to search had been placed between his fingers. were also involved in the inhumane ‘negro houses’ for ‘clubs, wooden He had ‘lost the use of several treatment of enslaved Africans in swords’ so that they could be confis - joints’. In a rare case of a servant the Anglo-Caribbean. cated and burnt. Furthermore, if an successfully suing for redress, the While Barbados had very few Irish servant encountered an African court freed Thomas from his inden - Irish planters, the island of slave in the act of stealing, he could ture and ordered his former masters Montserrat is an important place to kill the slave and the homicide law to remain in prison and to pay for include in our discussions. would not apply. The killer would his medical treatment, plus compen - Montserrat illuminates not only the be rewarded with a large amount of sation amounting to 5,000 pounds ‘Irish slave’ experience but also the sugar and the owner of the slave of cotton.