Early History of white slavery in America and the First Fleet to Australia.

They Were White and They Were Slaves

African slaves were very expensive during the late 1600s (50 Sterling). Irish slaves came cheap (no more than 5 Sterling). If a planter whipped or branded or beat an Irish slave to death, it was never a crime. A death was a monetary setback, but far cheaper than killing a more expensive African.

The English masters quickly began breeding the Irish women for both their own personal pleasure and for greater profit. Children of slaves were themselves slaves, which increased the size of the master’s free workforce. Even if an Irish woman somehow obtained her freedom, her kids would remain slaves of her master. Thus, Irish moms, even with this new found emancipation, would seldom abandon their kids and would remain in servitude.

In time, the English thought of a better way to use these women (in many cases, girls as young as 12) to increase their market share: The settlers began to breed Irish women and girls with African men to produce slaves with a distinct complexion. These new “mulatto” slaves brought a higher price than Irish livestock and, likewise, enabled the settlers to save money rather than purchase new African slaves.

This practice of interbreeding Irish females with African men went on for several decades and was so widespread that, in 1681, legislation was passed “forbidding the practice of mating Irish slave women to African slave men for the purpose of producing slaves for sale.” In short, it was stopped only because it interfered with the profits of a large slave transport company.

England continued to ship tens of thousands of Irish slaves for more than a century. Records state that, after the 1798 Irish Rebellion, thousands of Irish slaves were sold to both America and Australia.

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There were horrible abuses of both African and Irish captives. One British ship even dumped 1,302 slaves into the Atlantic Ocean so that the crew would have plenty of food to eat.

There is little question that the Irish experienced the horrors of slavery as much (if not more in the 17th Century) as the Africans did. There is, also, very little question that those brown, tanned faces you witness in your travels to the West Indies are very likely a combination of African and Irish ancestry.

This story of white servitude is hidden and they represent (AT LEAST) 1/2 to 2/3 of the first settlers of the America colony.

They were temporary chattel.

They were:

The Forgotten White Slaves Of America

 The Redemptioners ( specially the Germans who came with all their family but the family members were frequently sold to different masters);
The Indentured Servants who sold themselves for a better life and a better place to live; they were lured with false promises ie “A land of milk and Honey is waiting for you in the new world”; and London was characterized by high poverty, famine and was “infested” with plagues…

By: Nehesy (Jan 2009)

- The kidnapped people of London, Bristol and Liverpool (Men, Women, Children); It was a Royal policy : POOR RELIEF;

- The poors and vagrants (Men, Women, Children) of the United Kingdom;

- The loose or lewd women (prostitutes);

- The convicts and criminals; who were highly preferred by planters because they were bound for 14 years at least; The child servants were praised for the same reason ( long period of bondage)…Maryland and Virginia were convicts’ states…

- The war prisoners ie Irish and Scottish ( Monmouth Rebels , Covenanters etc); the “Irish slave trade” is hidden into our history books but it’s a reality of the past …

- Apprentices , which was the best form of “bondage” (with the Redemptioners) because they could learn a job;

- Many indentured servants came from Europe (Italy and Greece) as well;

- Seamen impressed in ships ( they were bound to the master’s ship and could whipped in case of mutiny). They were often kidnapped in British Taverns; many case of desertions occurred in the Royal and Continental navies. As Richard Brandon Morris said they were the “last slaves” to be emancipated in 1915…Their hand could be cut off in a case of aggression against the ship’s captain…

It must be said that London ( Liverpool,Bristol) Merchants and British authorities ( Royalty; Mayor etc) were responsible for their temporary enslavement, and made huge profits in selling them to the colonies …

London ( Liverpool , Bristol) Merchants with British Authorities ( specially the Royalty) were also involved in the African slave trade…

When the supply of white servants happened to be insufficient in order to match the labor demand in the colonies, they created the Royal Company of Africa in order to import (kidnap) more Africans…

When you have a look at the first census in the American colonies , white servants or temporary slaves, outnumbered African slaves in all the British colonies ( America and West Indies).

The African slave trade and the possession of black slaves happened to be more profitable to the former servants traders/drivers and to the former servants masters in the colonies. This is why, we African or afro descendants suffered so much..

Planters were really harsh on them : many servants deaths were due to maltreatment…

After the American Revolution, British turned to Australia , as a convict colony. The Jails ships in London ( called “HULKS” were overcrowded).

When the African slave trade has been abolished, they turned to Asia for the “Pig” Trade or Coolie Trade, ( China and India). The same suffering, the same maltreatments, the same riots ( in the plantations and the slave ships)….

Only the European poor and the middle class went to the new world , the richest stayed in Europe.

Many white servants and black slaves married together because they suffered the same pains and maltreatments. Many white servants were involved in slave riots like in the New York Plot ( see Pr Richard Brandon Morris and Pr Abbott Emerson Smith), and some even fled to the Indians with their black brethren.

They suffered the “middle passage” as well, because they died like flies in the ships who brought them to the colonies, they were packed like “herring”….

With the time, white servants became overseers, and hatred was installed between the two communities, by the planters who divided them in order to ruled them…Some white servants were used in the militia in order to defend the colony from French and Spanish , but also to kill Indians or suppress slaves insurrections.

The “Divide and Rule” technique was used against the Indians (first slaves in America) in order to get allies and slaves. Europeans would give guns to their Indian allies in order to enslave other Indians. They used this technique in Canada, North America, South America ( Mexico) , the West Indies (Cuba) and in Africa as well… But the Indians slaves in North America died like flies, and could flee easily because after all it was their country.

Europeans kidnapped Indians , or caused wars between Indians tribes in order to response to their labor demand.

The American used the race card in order to ally with the white servants (or former servants), even if they really despised them , by calling them names : “White Trash”; “Redneck”; “Hillbillies”; “White niggers” etc.

It’s must be said that white servant preceded the black slave into the South plantations.

And the system which was imposed to them ( punishment, tortures, rapes, separation of families etc) was ready to absorb the black Africans slaves ( See Pr Ulrich B Phillips).

It was really “A NASTY” period for poor whites and anything colored ( Blacks, Indians etc).

The European rich class caused a lot of suffering to these people , even if they were white like them ….

Nothing better could happened to blacks, Chinese or Indians who were bound to that same class !!!

The seeds and the framework of their suffering can be found in the story of the white “slaves” who peopled American and West Indies colonies.

The racial card and segregation was played against them, and the white colonists had any mercy for them : Burned alive, Emasculation; Cutting the limbs; Extreme cases of torture …

This is stories they won’t tell you at school, or in Hollywood movies. In order to know a little research process is compulsory…

Related Posts:

• Hidden History: The White Slaves Of Americas – By – Nehesy
• Global Slave System of the Western World Europeans: Nehesy
• White Slavs in Americas – Edited by Ogu Eji Ofo Annu
• Portuguese Slave Raiders in Africa: The old Luso-African kingdom of Angola – written by – Nehesy; edited by Rasta Livewire
• The Irish Slave Trade – The Forgotten “White” Slaves

Posted in Rastas.

The First Fleet and the exportation of white slaves (called convicts) to Australia was just a continuation of a practice which had been going on for hundreds of years.http://www.revisionisthistory.org/forgottenslaves.html
to the West indies and America.

First Fleet and early history

• Australian heritage photographic library
• The Founders of a Nation: Australia's First Fleet—1788—Cathy Dunn and Marion McCreadie
• First Fleet Online
• Law and justice
• A Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay
• A Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson

Heritage listed convict sites

• Brickendon Estate, Tasmania
• Cascades Female Factory, Hobart
• Coal Mines Historic Site, Tasman Peninsula
• Cockatoo Island, Sydney
• Commissariat Stores, Brisbane
• Darlington Probation Station, Maria Island
• Fremantle Prison, Western Australia
• Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney
• Kingston and Arthurs Vale Historic Area (KAVHA), Norfolk Island
• Old Government House and Government Domain, Parramatta
• Old Great North Road
• Port Arthur Historic Site, Tasmania
• Richmond Bridge, Tasmania
• Windmill Tower, Brisbane
• Woolmers Estate, Tasmania

Convicts

• Convict Life
• Convict Australia: Convict Life
• Convict tokens - National Museum of Australia
• Convict transportation registers 1787-1867 database
• Database of details on persons convicted in South Australian courts to transportation
• National Archives of Ireland: Transportation Records Database
• Norfolk Island

Convict women

• Convict Women and Sexual Subjugation in Nineteenth-Century Australia
• Disrupting the Boundaries: Resistance and Convict Women, by Joy Damousi
• The History of Female Prostitution in Australia, by Raelene Frances

Genealogy

• Claim a convict—A complete alphabetical listing of the convicts transported to New South Wales between 1793 and early 1800
• Convicts to Australia: A Guide to Researching Your Convict Ancestors
• Descendants of Convicts Group
• Internet Family History Association of Australia: Genealogy Course
• Family History: Convicts—State Library of New South Wales

Listen, look and play

• Convict Sydney, videos and articles. Historic Houses Trust.
• James Porter and the capture of the Frederick 2009, audio. ABC Radio.
• Fremantle Prison, video, 5 mins. Part of Australia's Heritage: National Treasures. Screen Australia.

Other resources

• Australia—Birth of a Nation 2006, DVD recording, On the Mark Film Productions

Convict ditties with sample tunes from the Australian Folk Songs website [archived]

• Botany Bay
• Convict Maid
• Female Transport
• Moreton Bay
• The Transport
• Van Diemen's Land

Print references