Historical Melungeons: How Blacks have Irish Last Names

Monday, October 19, 2015

How Blacks have Irish Last Names

Ever wonder how a lot of African Americans have Irish last names? It is not because of Irish slave owners, no erase that foolishness……don’t think Gone With The Wind and the O’Hara plantation. What a lot of people don’t know is that Irish were slaves too, hundreds of thousands were sent to work in the West Indies and they blended with the black slaves thus we have Irish names like McFadden, McDonalds, etc.

They came as slaves; vast human cargo transported on tall British ships bound for the Americas. They were shipped by the hundreds of thousands and included men, women, and even the youngest of children.

Whenever they rebelled or even disobeyed an order, they were punished in the harshest ways. Slave owners would hang their human property by their hands and set their hands or feet on fire as one form of punishment. They were burned alive and had their heads placed on pikes in the marketplace as a warning to other captives.

We don’t really need to go through all of the gory details, do we? We know all too well the atrocities of the African slave trade.

But, are we talking about African slavery? King James II and Charles I also led a continued effort to enslave the Irish. Britain’s famed Oliver Cromwell furthered this practice of dehumanizing one’s next door neighbor.

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% of the total population of Montserrat were Irish slaves.

Cont. here:
http://trianglebelowcanalstreet.com/2015/02/04/how-blacks-have-irish-last-names/

Related: This phenomena has been noted for the Welsh as well. And few of the Welsh were slave owner. I don't think it is far fetched to extrapolate this explanation to include the Welsh, because the English were notoriously cruel to the Welsh. JEC

Supplemental reading about Irish slaves:

http://historical-melungeons.blogspot.com/2008/07/persons-of-mean-and-vile-condition.html

http://historical-melungeons.blogspot.com/2008/07/persons-of-mean-and-vile-condition-pt-2.html

http://historical-melungeons.blogspot.com/2008/07/persons-of-mean-and-vile-condition-pt-3.html

http://historical-melungeons.blogspot.com/2008/07/persons-of-mean-and-vile-condition-pt-4.html

http://historical-melungeons.blogspot.com/2008/07/history-of-life-of-james-revel-unhappy.html