Irish Slaves in the New World

You just got to love capitalism.  Importation of Irish slaves to the New World came because they proved cheaper than African slaves.

[....Indeed, the Irish have a gruesome history as being traded as slaves as well and subjected to similar and sometimes worse treatment than their African contemporaries of the time.

Strangely though, the history of Irish and ‘white’ slavery is by and large ignored in the American educational curriculum today.

In his article, John Martin writes “The Irish slave trade began when James II sold 30,000 Irish prisoners as slaves to the New World. His Proclamation of 1625 required Irish political prisoners be sent overseas and sold to English settlers in the West Indies. By the mid 1600s, the Irish were the main slaves sold to Antigua and Montserrat. At that time, 70 percent of the total population of Montserrat were Irish slaves.”

“Ireland quickly became the biggest source of human livestock for English merchants. The majority of the early slaves to the New World were actually white....”

During the late 1600s, writes Martin, African slaves were far more expensive than their Irish counterparts - Africans would sell for around 50 sterling while Irish were often no more than 5 sterling.]
Read more: http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Irish-the-forgotten-white-slaves-says-expert-John-Martin-188645531.html#ixzz2LNpX9hQC