What many Americans don't know is that the Irish preceded the Africans as slaves in the early British colonies of America and the West Indies. They toiled in the tobacco fields of Virginia and Maryland …

Nov 6, 2020 · Irish people were not enslaved in Colonial America, nor were they the first people indentured in Early Virginia. The claim that they were the “first slaves of America” is rated as false on …

During the 1650s , over 100,000 Irish children, generally from 10 to 14 years old, were taken from their parents, and sold as slaves in the West Indies, Virginia and New England.

The Irish slaves myth is a fringe pseudohistorical narrative that conflates the penal transportation and indentured servitude of Irish people during the 17th and 18th centuries, with the hereditary chattel …

May 3, 2016 · Myth #1: There were enslaved Irish people in the American colonies. As historian and public librarian Liam Hogan wrote: “There is unanimous agreement, based on overwhelming …

In the last few years, a pseudo-historical claim has gone viral which suggests that Irish people who travelled to North America as indentured servants were slaves in the same way as Africans who …

Jun 18, 2020 · Claims that Irish people were enslaved in British North America are a longstanding myth and online meme sometimes associated with neo-Confederates and white nationalists.

Nov 7, 2025 · As Thomas Sowell recounts, when railroads and canals were later built in the American South, it was Irish immigrants who were sent into the swamps and dynamite zones instead of black …

Mar 3, 2025 · America’s past is layered with stories—some celebrated, others obscured. The Irish, often seen as victims of oppression, also played complex roles in America’s slave history. Were they …

This petition is one of the first extant primary sources that refers to a concept of white slavery in the Americas. Almost four centuries later, sources like the Foyle/Rivers petition are the seeds of a …