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American Age of Discovery, Colonization, Revolution, & ExpansionMilitary history of North America. Sponsored by Wild West magazine.
Appears this is an old thread and seems some of you are touchy on the Irish/English relationship. That aside, I hope Cromwell is still rotting a slow miserable death. I also had an ancestor shipped to Australia during the famine for stealing a loaf of bread, poor woman. With all that said, and only imagining the racism my ancestors felt at the hands of the English (and Americans), racism is foolish and no Irishman should ever hate another, knowing how awful it feels themselves. No time for it.
First of all the trade of Irish slaves is legitimate history; there's nothing wrong with discussing it and there's certainly no reason for anyone here to get defensive about it and try to paint such a discussion as anti-English prejudice. Second peter_sym's comments - putting the word slaves in quotes for example - are repulsive and show bigotry and a detachment from reality. Third, the people on here whining about what their ancestors went through need to grow up; playing the victim because of incidents that took place centuries ago is an example of the insanity (voting for sinn fein scum for example) that ethnic nationalism (the 19th century's long gone kiddies) leads to.
Aye, the Irish Americans were discriminated against almost as much as African Americans.
I read an article somewhere a while back, when building the transcontinental rail roads, they'd hire Irish and Cantonese workers for cheap labor, and the owners/managers would sometimes not pay them and tell them that would have them physically fight each other for the money and to keep the job...
(maybe I misread it)
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Surrender? NutZ!
-Varro
Regard your soldiers as your children, and they will follow you into the deepest valleys; look on them as your own beloved sons, and they will stand by you even unto death. -Sun Tzu
Discrimination against African-Americans was far worse and I say err type that as an American with significant Irish heritage (although I identify as European rather than Irish or American), there was no Irish-American equivalent of the Jim Crow laws and even during the worst periods of anti-Irish sentiment an I-A would just have to disguise his accent or change his surname to fit in; a fictional example would be how Joseph Armagh passes himself off as a Scot in Captains and the Kings. Is it too much to ask that people take pride in their heritage without whining or hating entire ethnic groups?
Last edited by The Highwayman; 16 Jul 10 at 03:12..
I'm so confused. Since I have both English and Irish ancestors, should I apply for reparations to the English for their oppression of my Irish ancestors or to the Irish for their oppression of my English ones?
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Plus, if we look at zombies as a species, they are pretty much designed for failure. Their main form of reproduction is also their only source of food and their top predator.
During the Great Immigration, the Irish who arrived were even looked down upon by the Irish already in America, referred to as "Black Irish", and given the worst paid and most menial jobs.
Thousands and thousands of them died on passage alone, since the average passage vessel they could afford was a converted slaver, often with the ringbolts still in place.
If you think it's funny for a man to have to work himself to death in a mine or slave in a factory, or for a woman to have to sell her body to survive, you have no business even discussing history, let alone passing judgement on it.
The point you should be understanding is that blacks have no claim whatsoever on misery, hardship or involuntary servitude, and there were a hell of a lot more Irish - ten per cent of the entire American population in the 1800's - and Chinese than there were African blacks to begin with.
History is what is is, not what is now considered politically convenient.
__________________ I'll keep my money, my guns and my freedom - you keep the "change".
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Who is watching the watchers?
During the Great Immigration, the Irish who arrived were even looked down upon by the Irish already in America, referred to as "Black Irish", and given the worst paid and most menial jobs.
Thousands and thousands of them died on passage alone, since the average passage vessel they could afford was a converted slaver, often with the ringbolts still in place.
If you think it's funny for a man to have to work himself to death in a mine or slave in a factory, or for a woman to have to sell her body to survive, you have no business even discussing history, let alone passing judgement on it.
The point you should be understanding is that blacks have no claim whatsoever on misery, hardship or involuntary servitude, and there were a hell of a lot more Irish - ten per cent of the entire American population in the 1800's - and Chinese than there were African blacks to begin with.
History is what is is, not what is now considered politically convenient.
Perhaps you meant to say that blacks don't have the market cornered on misery and hardship. Certainly not to deny that, as a group, they also experienced a very difficult life in the 19th century. Let us not forget, the Irish immigrants came voluntarily because things had gone so terrible in Ireland that life in the US (even at the low end of the pole) represented an increase in their standard of living.
Are you suggesting the Chinese population in the US rivaled the black population in the US? Of note also, many (if not most) of the Irish population in the 19th century US were not the freshly immigrated group whose lot was so terrible. Many were just US citizens of Irish descent who had been around for generations.
Aye, the Irish Americans were discriminated against almost as much as African Americans.
I read an article somewhere a while back, when building the transcontinental rail roads, they'd hire Irish and Cantonese workers for cheap labor, and the owners/managers would sometimes not pay them and tell them that would have them physically fight each other for the money and to keep the job...
(maybe I misread it)
nope.
the Union Pacific was built from the east going west and employed many people of Irish origins, along with civil War vets and any other males typical of that era.
the Central Pacific was building the railroad from California heading east and employed large amounts of Chinese labor in the effort.
the two companies didn't meet until they got into Utah..
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