Irish Enslavement

Both of my great-great grandparents were Irish, my grandmother was only sixteen when she came to America after her mother died, she was tough as nails! I grew up being reminded of the enslavement of Irish men, women, and children but was never informed of it during my time spent in public school. 

  I ask my friends if they were ever taught about how the British enslaved Irish prisoners and they always answer "No". The first of the enslaved Irish were 30,000 prisoners in 1625.

"By the mid-1600s, the Irish were the main slaves sold to Antigua and Montserrat. At that time, 70% of the total population of Montserrat were Irish slaves."-Source

  The light shed on this subject is slim to none in the public school system, it’s is an important part of history being forgotten with no respect and the lives lost during this time was exponential.

"From 1641 to 1652, over 500,000 Irish were killed by the English and another 300,000 were sold as slaves. Ireland’s population fell from about 1,500,000 to 600,000 in one single decade."-Source

The fathers of Irish families were taken and enslaved which in turn left starving, broken, and homeless women and children on the streets. Britain decided to make sell children as young as age 10 were sold along with mothers to Jamaica, Virginia, the West Indies and more to English settlers.

  The website I sourced shares more information about this subject that breaks my heart to write, I admire their effort to make it clear that public and private schools are not teaching children about this. What if it was apart of their family history that they aren't learning about?

"None of the Irish victims ever made it back to their homeland to describe their ordeal. These are the lost slaves; the ones that time and biased history books conveniently forgot."-Source

  Please remember and respect these lives that were lost and stolen.

Mia Mason