Irish Slavery “The Irish were often referred to as Negroes turned inside out and Negroes as smoked Irish” Irish and Africans Americans had much in common during the slave period; the live side by side and shared work spaces. In the early years of Irish and African slavery, and during period of mass immigration to America the poor Irish and blacks were thrown together, part of the lowest class competing for the same jobs. In the census of 1850, the term mulatto appears for the first time due primarily to inter-marriage between Irish and African Americans. The Irish were often referred to as Negroes turned inside out and Negroes as smoked Irish. A famous joke and cartoon of the time attributed to a black man went something like this: My master is a great tyrant; he treats me like a common Irishman. 19th Free blacks and Irish were viewed by the white supremacy movement of Nativists\Nativism as related, somehow similar, only fit to perform lowly same tasks in society . The Irish in America made the decision to embrace whiteness, thus becoming part of the race system which dominated and oppressed blacks. This absolutely contradicted the experience of the Irish in their own country, but in the United States it meant freedom for the white Irish here since in the US blackness meant slavery. A black writer in an 1860 edition of the Liberator argued that the Irish u attained their objectives: Fifteen or twenty years ago, a Catholic priest in Philadelphia said to the Irish people in that city, You are all poor, and chiefly labourers, the blacks are poor labourers; many of the native whites are labourers; now, if you wish to succeed, you must do everything that they do, no matter how degrading, and do it for less than they can afford to do it for. The Irish followed this plan; they lived on less than the Americans could live upon, and worked for less, and the result is, that nearly all the menial employments are monopolized by the Irish, who now get as good prices as anybody. Once the Irish secured themselves employment, they kept blacks were out. Needing to distance themselves from African Americans they realized that as long as they continued to work alongside blacks, they would be considered no different, even as the Irish became prominent in the labour movement, African Americans were excluded from participation... The “enslaved and oppressed race, Irish Catholics, collaborated in the oppression of another race, Africans in America, in order to secure their place in white America.. However many Irish Americans such as the soldiers from St. Patricks Battalion who fought on the side of Mexico in the War of 1848, fought against racial oppression. Maybe we should remember the words in the 1991 movie “The Commitments, when it was stated that The Irish are the blacks of Europe, so say it loud, Im black and Im proud. Image: In 1863, federal troops were sent to quell race rioting in New York, when Irish immigrants attacked the citys black population after learning that the new conscription law meant that they would likely be drafted to fight a war on behalf of blacks. The debate over slavery was more an issue of economic competition than racial oppression; southern slave owners feared the loss of wealth and political power, while European immigrants in the North were afraid that newly emancipated slaves would compete for jobs. The controversy grew more intense when it was revealed that conscripted men could buy a waiver for $300, which led to charges that it was a rich mans war but a poor mans fight. Black neighbourhoods were burned and many blacks were lynched from lampposts. After four days of rioting, the bloodshed finally ended with more than 100 killed. Similar riots took place in Philadelphia and Detroit.
Posted on: Sun, 09 Nov 2014 13:15:45 +0000
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