Southpaw, you have enough grasp of the written English language to understand the tone a word is “said” when it is bracketed in “quotes”, yes?
I’ve always been under the impression that there were indeed many Irish sold off as slaves as early as 1664 to the French on St. Barts, and that English ships stopping in Ireland on the way to the Americas, frequently had a cargo of Irish to sell in the Caribbien as late as the 18th century.
In fact, I read on a great Jimi Hendrix blues record that I have that it was the rhythms of Africa coupled with the lyricism of Irish ballads sung by Irish slaves, especially in Jamaica, that ultimately evolved into the blues.
Check this out too:
irelandsown.net/irishblue.html
and this:
petrolrecords.org/petrol/africa.htm
I believe most of the ‘slaves’ referred to were prisoners captured by Cromwell or various rebellions who were transported and made to work for British colonies for set periods. Admittedly a form of slavery in itself.
…
But a lot of stuff I’d never heard about such as the orphans etc. This explains a lot of blacks with irish surnames. That period is overshadowed by the famine in irish history and of course those people never came home to tell their tales and it’s not as ‘glorious’ as fighting losing rebellions… No wonder they like guinness in Jamaica and speak with similar accents!
Then I came across this interesting piece
geocities.com/CapitolHill/Pa … dex12.html
Notably the guy has placed the pan-African flag at the top. What he doesn’t know is that the green represents the idea of irish liberty and solidarity in the flag!
Georgia was the original Australia - a convict colony. In American History class such temporary slaves (usually of a set period of about 7 years or so) were referred to as ‘indentured servants’.