Show #115 – Barbado’ed – early slavery in America and the Caribbean

Slaves in the sugar fields of Barbados

From the end of the 16th Century until the late 17th, thousands of people from England, Ireland and Scotland – from criminals and street children, to people who fought against Cromwell’s army, we sent into slavery in American and the Caribbean. Many more were hoodwinked or kidnapped into “indentured servitude” that, for most, led to them being worked to death. When these European slaves joined with the new African slaves to rise up against the slave masters, the horrors of perpetual slavery and modern racism were born.

In this show, Donnacha talks to Don Jordan, one of the authors of White Cargo: The Forgotten History of Britain’s White Slaves in America, about the forgotten period of slavery.

Listen now:

And, if you liked the snippet of Damien Dempsey’s song at the end, here’s the full nearly 8 minutes of it: