White
Slavery, what the Scots already know
A famous history professor stated that history was not a science but a
continuing investigation into the past; a person’s conclusion is based
on their own bias. This story will offer evidence that the Alba, Scots,
Irish and Picts have been the longest race held in slavery. The reader
will be responsible for their own bias pertaining to White Slavery.
Alexander Stewart was herded off the Gildart in July of 1747, bound with
chains. Stewart was pushed onto the auction block in Wecomica, St Mary’s
County, Maryland. Doctor Stewart and his brother William were attending
the auction, aware of Alexander being on that slave ship coming from
liverpool, England. Doctor Stewart and William were residents of
Annapolis and brothers to David of Ballachalun in Montieth, Scotland.
The two brothers paid nine pound six shillings sterling to Mr. Benedict
Callvert of Annapolis for the purchase of Alexander. He was a slave.
Alexander tells of the other 88 Scots sold into slavery that day in “THE
LYON IN MOURNING” pages 242-243.
Jeremiah Howell was a
lifetime-indentured servant by his uncle in Lewis County, Virginia in
the early 1700’s. His son, Jeremiah, won his freedom by fighting in the
Revolution. There were hundreds of thousands of Scots sold into slavery
during Colonial America. White slavery to the American Colonies occurred
as early as 1630 in Scotland.
According to the Egerton
manuscript, British Museum, the enactment of 1652: it may be lawful for
two or more justices of the peace within any county, citty or towne,
corporate belonging to the commonwealth to from tyme to tyme by warrant
cause to be apprehended, seized on and detained all and every person or
persons that shall be found begging and vagrant.. in any towne, parish
or place to be conveyed into the Port of London, or unto any other port
from where such person or persons may be shipped into a forraign
collonie or plantation.
The judges of Edinburgh, Scotland during
the years 1662-1665 ordered the enslavement and shipment to the colonies
a large number of rogues and others who made life unpleasant for the
British upper class. (Register for the Privy Council of Scotland, third
series, vol. 1, p 181, vol. 2, p 101).
The above accounting
sounds horrific but slavery was what the Scots have survived for a
thousand years. The early ancestors of the Scots, Alba and Pics were
enslaved as early as the first century BC. Varro, a Roman philosopher
stated in his agricultural manuscripts that white slaves were only
things with a voice or instrumenti vocali. Julius Caesar enslaves as
many as one million whites from Gaul. (William D Phillips, Jr. SLAVERY
FROM ROMAN TIMES TO EARLY TRANSATLANTIC TRADE, p. 18).
Pope
Gregory in the sixth century first witnessed blonde hair, blue eyed boys
awaiting sale in a Roman slave market. The Romans enslaved thousands of
white inhabitants of Great Britain, who were also known as Angles. Pope
Gregory was very interested in the looks of these boys therefore asking
their origin. He was told they were Angles from Briton. Gregory stated,
“Non Angli, sed Angeli.” (Not Angles but Angels).
The eighth to the
eleventh centuries proved to be very profitable for Rouen France. Rouen
was the transfer point of Irish and Flemish slaves to the Arabian
nations. The early centuries AD the Scottish were known as Irish.
William Phillips on page 63 states that the major component of slave
trade in the eleventh century were the Vikings. They spirited many
‘Irish’ to Spain, Scandinavia and Russia. Legends have it; some ‘Irish’
may have been taken as far as Constantinople.
Ruth Mazo Karras
wrote in her book, “SLAVERY AND SOCIETY IN MEDEIVEL SCANDINAVIA” pg. 49;
Norwegian Vikings made slave raids not only against the Irish and Scots
(who were often called Irish in Norse sources) but also against Norse
settlers in iRELANDor Scottish Isles or even in Norway itself…slave
trading was a major commercial activity of the Viking Age. The children
of the White slaves in Iceland were routinely murdered en masse. (Karras
pg 52)
According to these resources as well as many more, the
Scots-Irish have been enslaved longer than any other race in the world’s
history. Most governments do not teach White Slavery in their World
History classes. Children of modern times are only taught about the
African slave trade. The Scots do not need to be taught because they are
very aware of the atrocities upon an enslaved race. Most importantly, we
have survived to become one to the largest races on Earth!!!
White Slavery in America
The topic of this story is a sensitive one
yet one of great importance. White slavery in America was real. There
are many documents that verify the bondage, kidnapping and transporting
of Brits to the Colonies as slaves. The importance of this story will
help those who cannot find a ship passenger list on their ancestor. This
story may not pertain to all who came to America that are not listed on
ship passenger lists.
The Journal of Negro History #52 pp.251-273
states, “The sources of racial thought in Colonial America pertaining to
slave trade worked both directions with white merchandise as well as
black.”
Thomas Burton recorded in his Parliament Diary 1656-1659
vol. 4 pp. 253-274 a debate in the English Parliament focusing on the
selling of British whites into slavery in the New World. The debate
refers to whites as slaves ‘whose enslavement threatened the liberties
of all Englishmen.’
The British government had realized as early
as the 1640’s how beneficial white slave labor was to the profiting
colonial plantations. Slavery was instituted as early as 1627 in the
British West Indies, The Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series of
1701 records 25000 slaves in Barbados in which 21700 were white slaves.
George Downing wrote a letter to the honorable John Winthrop
Colonial Governor of Massachusetts in 1645, “planters who want to make a
fortune in the West Indies must procure white slave labor out of England
if they wanted to succeed.” Lewis Cecil Gray’s History of Agriculture in
the Southern United States to 1860 vol.1 pp 316, 318 records Sir George
Sandys’ 1618 plan for Virginia, referring to bound whites assigned to
the treasurer’s office. “To belong to said office forever. The service
of whites bound to Berkeley Hundred was deemed perpetual.”
The
Quoke Walker case in Massachusetts 1773 ruled that; slavery contrary to
the state Constitution was applied equally to Blacks and Whites in
Massachusetts.
Statutes at Large of Virginia, vol. 1 pp. 174, 198,
200, 243 & 306 did not discriminate Negroes in bondage from Whites in
Bondage.
Marcellus Rivers and Oxenbridge Foyle, England’s Slaves
1659 consists of a statement smuggled out of the New World and published
in London referring to whites in bondage who did not think of themselves
as indentured servants but as “England’s Slaves” and “England’s
merchandise.”
Colonial Office, Public Records Office, London
1667, no. 170 records that “even Blacks referred to the White forced
laborers in the colonies as “white slaves.” Pages 343 through 346 of
Historical Sketch of the Persecutions Suffered by the Catholics of
Ireland by; Patrick F. Moran refers to the transportation of the Irish
to the colonies as the “slave-trade.”
Ulrich B. Phillips, Life
and Labor in the Old South explain that white enslavement was crucial to
the development of the Negro slave system. The system set up for the
white slaves governed, organized and controlled the system for the black
slaves. Black slaves were “late comers fitted into a system already
developed.” Pp 25-26. John Pory declared in 1619, “white slaves are our
principle wealth.”
The above quotations from various authors are
just the tip of the iceberg on the white slave trade of the Americas.
People from the British Isles were kidnapped, put in chains and crammed
into ships that transported hundreds of them at a time. Their
destination was Virginia Boston, New York, Barbados and the West Indies.
The white slaves were treated the same or worse than the black slave.
The white slave did not fetch a good price at the auction blocks.
Bridenbaugh wrote in his accounting on page 118, having paid a bigger
price for the Negro, the planters treated the black better than they did
their “Christian” white servant. Even the Negroes recognized this and
did not hesitate to show their contempt for those white men who, they
could see, were worse off than themselves.
Governments have
allowed this part of American and British history to be swallowed up.
The contemptible black slavery has taken a grip on people associated
with American History. Yet, no one will tell of these accountings that
are well established on to the middle 1800’s.
Slavery is not
something to be proud of but it is a fact that happened to every
country, kingdom and empire that has been on this earth. Each of us
needs to search our hearts and find the answer to stop racial hatred.
One place to begin; realize that the black race was not the only race in
the last 400 years that was in bondage.
See also:
Irish slaves
Prisoners from
Battles of Dunbar and Worcester
The Crown
Any contributions will be
gratefully accepted
Errors and Omissions
|
|
The Forum
|
|
What's new?
|
|
We are looking for your help to improve the accuracy of The Douglas
Archives.
If you spot errors, or omissions, then
please do let us know
Contributions
Many articles are stubs which would benefit from re-writing.
Can you help?
Copyright
You are not authorized to add this page or any images from this page
to Ancestry.com (or its subsidiaries) or other fee-paying sites
without our express permission and then, if given, only by including
our copyright and a URL link to the web site.
|
|
If you have met a brick wall
with your research, then posting a notice in the Douglas Archives
Forum may be the answer. Or, it may help you find the answer!
You may also be able to help others answer their queries.
Visit the
Douglas Archives Forum.
2 Minute Survey
To provide feedback on the website, please take a couple of
minutes to complete our
survey.
|
|
We try to keep everyone up to date with new entries, via our
What's New section on the
home page.
We also use
the Community
Network to keep researchers abreast of developments in the
Douglas Archives.
Help with costs
Maintaining the three sections of the site has its costs. Any
contribution the defray them is very welcome
Donate
Newsletter
Our newsletter service has been temporarily withdrawn.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
