White slavery hidden from history - Portland and the "War Children".

With the rise of post-colonial voices since the 1970s, the white history and experience of slavery has often been obscured. Apart from general comments, I would be very interested in survivors and/or off-spring of the following examples of white slavery, and what the results of any compensation claims have been.
I am well aware of European slavery, particularly of the Jewish people, gypsies and Slavs, as well as of Stalin's on-going "stalags" post-World War Two. I'm also aware that convict labour to the colonies, particulary the US and Australia was a form of slavery.
However, here I want to highlight some lesser known forms of white slavery. My three proposed examples are: Barbary slavery, "shanghaiying" of whites in Portland (US), and the mistreatment of the innocent "war children".
My first example concerns the the slaves of the Barbary cosairs, and over a million white slaves were captured along British and European coasts (and even Americans at sea) only to be sold to cruel slavers in North Africa in the 17-18th centuries. www.amazon.com...
My second example focuses on the US city of Portland, where working men disappeared under trap-doors while enjoying a beer in a bar - only to be sold to cruel ship captains. cgs-mthood.tripod.com...
atlasobscura.com...
My third example focuses on the half-German "war-children", particularly from Scandinavia, who were sometimes used as forced labour, and medical guinea pigs for secret experiments. en.wikipedia.org...

[edit on 2-2-2010 by halfoldman]

One of my ancestors was snatched from Ireland and taken into indentured labor in the 1600's. He somehow he ended up in Massachuesettes. Wish I could remember more about this.

Slavery has and always will be an equal oppertunities employeer its just more political correct to talk about as if it only ever happend to black people.

Just look at serfdom in large parts of Europe before the plague, you had to have your lords permission to marry, move or make basic changes to your life that we see as our rights.

Sounds a lot like slavery to me.

I have wondered where Europe would be now if the plauge had never come along and I don't think it would be nice

Edit to add: the history of the pint glass can be linked to a form of slavery.

Press gangs would slip a coin into a persons drink if they got it in there mouths they accepted the queens/kings shilling and the service that came along with it (mostly navel)

To get over this glass bottoms where put in so people could see the shilling (the term bottoms up comes from this) eventually the pint glass came into existance because it was possible for the coin to lie on its rim and not be seen. With the drinking vessel being made entierly of glass it became imposible to hide the shilling in it.

[edit on 2-2-2010 by jpmail]
Edit spelling

[edit on 2-2-2010 by jpmail]

reply to post by EnlightenUp

Yes, the plight of the Irish was terrible.
In fairness when I started a course on history they did mention the "indentured labour". They reckon 50 000 people. They were branded and treated like slaves. I remember reading the diary of one "indentured" girl from the 1800s who was only about 11, and she was flogged with hundreds of lashes. She managed to crawl barely alive to a neighbouring farm, and the people there admonished her for being "wicked" and took her right back. Anyone who absconded had years added on, and died in virtual slavery. But there were also very real European slaves.
In the works of the German playwrite Schiller I read of the aristocricy selling men as soldiers to the British Crown. Conscription is one form of slavery too.
But in any case, back to history:

"White Slavery and Servitude in the Colonies of the West Indies

Although it is an inarguable fact that Africans were cruelly enslaved en masse by many European empires, most notably the British and French, as well as within the American republic as forced labor, there was also, however, a far less commonly known and rarely mentioned dimension of White, in particular Irish, slavery which also occurred as a consequence of empire. Much like many unfortunate Africans, the collective memory of the Irish of this era of British imperialism is one of persecution, dispossession, enslavement, and other untold sufferings. The brief but bloody reign of Oliver Cromwell following the English Civil War gave birth to an era of brutal oppression and exploitation of the subject Irish population. From 1652 until 1659 alone, it is estimated that well over 50,000 men, women, and children of Irish descent were forcibly transported to British imperial colonies in Barbados and Virginia to serve as slave labor in the plantation economy.(4) Other prisoners of war, as well as political dissenters, taken from conquered regions of England, Wales, and Scotland were also sent into permanent exile as slaves to Barbados. This essentially enabled Cromwell to purge the subject population of any perceived opposing elements, as well as to provide a lucrative source of profit through their sale to plantation owners.(5) The extent to which White prisoners were transported to Barbados was so great, that by 1701, out of the roughly 25,000 slaves present on the island’s plantations, about 21,700 of them were of European descent.(6) Later, as the African slave trade began to expand and flourish, the Irish slave population of Barbados began to drastically recede over time, due in part to the fact that many were worked to death early on in their arrival and also as a result of racial intermixing with Black slaves.

In stark contrast to the small number of White indentured servants present on Barbados, who could at least theoretically look forward to eventual freedom no matter how bad their temporary bondage may have been, White slaves possessed no such hope. Indeed, they were treated the same as slaves of African descent in every manner imaginable. Irish slaves in Barbados were regarded as property to be bought, sold, treated and mistreated in any way the slave-owner saw fit. Their children were born into hereditary slavery for life as well.(7) Punitive violence, such as whippings, was liberally employed against Irish slaves, and was often used on them immediately upon their arrival in the colonies to brutally reinforce their enchained status, and as a warning against future disobedience.(8) The dehumanizing and degrading cattle-like physical inspections used to assess and showcase the "qualities" of each captive for prospective buyers, which reached infamy with the Black slave markets, was also practiced upon both White slaves and indentured servants in the colonies of the West Indies and North America. Irish slaves were marked off from their free White kinsmen through a branding of the owner’s initials applied to the forearm for women and on the buttocks for men by a red-hot iron. Irish women, in particular were seen as a desirable commodity by White slave owners who purchased them as sexual concubines. Others found themselves sold off to local brothels. This degrading practice of sex slavery made Irish men, women and children potential victims to perverse whims of many unsavory buyers."
www.wvwnews.net...




[edit on 2-2-2010 by halfoldman]

A rose by any other name.....

For some reason when it came to white slavery, the actual word, slave, was
avoided at all costs and substituted with other terminology like serf, indentured labourer etc. but the fact is, they were slaves, nothing more, nothing less.

reply to post by halfoldman


There were the mass exodus of many European immigrants that paid for the trip to the US by signing into indentured servitude contracts.

7 year contracts of slavery was very common.

One could do research into that aspect.

reply to post by endisnighe
Yes the same thing happened as far and as historically recent as Vancouver Island, when British people signed up for maybe up to 4 or 7 years of servitude in the mines of Vancouver Island in exchange for boat fare to the new world.

reply to post by halfoldman


Sometime in the 1600`s the Irish coastal village of Baltimore was raided by Barbary pirates and successfully kidnapping most of its population of men, women and children.
They were sold into slavery in North Africa. The sea captain was originally from Flanders ..... who in the language of the era was said to of "turned Turk" .

I believe a lot of coastal villages the length and breath of Britain and Ireland lived in fear of being spirited away in the night .




[edit on 2-2-2010 by UmbraSumus]

reply to post by Flighty


Indeed a rose by any other name.

Clearly there is some intent to provide a certain group with a false sense of identity, both of the group itself and how others perceive it. It is a quiet shift of emphasis to weaken that group in the long run while appearing to strengthen it in the short run. It's done to sew conflict and separation.

reply to post by EnlightenUp

I wanted to pull this straight into the thread, but the copywrited translation won't allow it.
The piece is from Friedrch Schiller's masterpiece "Cabal or Love", Act II, Scene II.
The royal lady begins to reject her own jewellery, as she considers that it was paid for by the slavery to the Americas of her own subjects. The servant she addresses becomes emotional, because his own sons were sold as slaves to the American Wars. This was about 1780.
books.google.co.za...



[edit on 2-2-2010 by halfoldman]

reply to post by halfoldman


The link seems to be truncated; probably need the url BB code. It's coming out "http://books.google.co.za/books?..."

reply to post by EnlightenUp

Apologies for the bad link - I tried everything, but the address used is the one given. I first googled "Schiller+'Cabal or love'+people sold to America". It got me just the right quote. It's actually from another book called: "The emergence of human rights in Europe: An anthology" by Jean Carpentier.
If anybody can find a better link or copy part of the 2 page translation
I'd be really grateful.


[edit on 2-2-2010 by halfoldman]

Originally posted by halfoldman
If anybody can find a better link or copy part of the 2 page translation
I'd be really grateful.

Link directly to Act II - Scene II.

[edit on 2/3/2010 by EnlightenUp]

Descendent of two home children - one on both sides. I suspect a third.

My g-g-g-grandfather absolutely considered himself to be a slave at least for many many years. As did many home children.

I am also the descendent of one, and possibly two Hessian soldiers.

These are soldiers mercenaries rented out to the British by German princes usually, and were used to fight in the Revolutionary war. Whom were often essentially picked up and pressed into service, and if they were caught trying to leave the involuntary service they were put to the Gauntlet.

So, slaves.

[edit on 2010/2/3 by Aeons]

Originally posted by EnlightenUp
One of my ancestors was snatched from Ireland and taken into indentured labor in the 1600's. He somehow he ended up in Massachuesettes. Wish I could remember more about this.

It has been argued extensively that indentured servitude is not slavery.

*I* think that argument is a bunch of horse manure. However, I thought I'd let you know.

One of my g-g-grandmothers was an indentured servant.

[edit on 2010/2/3 by Aeons]

Originally posted by Aeons
It has been argued extensively that indentured servitude is not slavery.
*I* think that argument is a bunch of horse manure. However, I thought I'd let you know.
One of my g-g-grandmothers was an indentured servant.

A pal of mine was born in India...a Brit... was indentured, and he takes serious umbrage at having been equated to a slave. He was indentured, paid it off and has the papers to prove it.

Mind you, the Black history activist that he 'corrected' on this issue was less than chuffed.


[edit on 3-2-2010 by JohnnyCanuck]

reply to post by jpmail


While there isn't much evidence left for it (as how would there be?) there are many stories about the droit de seigneur, or jus primae noctis, also called first night right.

Where the feudal lord had dibs on taking the virginity of the estate's virgins. Or the right to the woman's first wedding night.

While in modern times there seems to be some dispute as to the existence of this tradition, the WIDESPREAD, and multiple hundreds of years under which this practice was known about requires that one think that every person less than a feudal lord was a drooling idiot. Since apparently everyone knew it, but it never really happened.

well ask you selfs arnt we in a type of slavery now?? (by that i mean most of the world) we work hard and we get taxed on working why i dont know we try and enjoy are selfs gess what we get taxed on thet to we have to pay car tax, income tax, gas tax, even tv lisence whitch is a type of tax, council tax (even are army solgers have to pay this on there beds btw and there fighting for us why the hell do they have to pay tax ok risk your life but gess wat your guna get taxed on that to ), tax on water, vat on food is tax even beer ( whitch has now just gone up to at least £3.50 a pint and thats guna go up again when the budget comes in to £3.85) all because of tax sooooo i think that is a type of slavery the govenment is just another buiness trying to make money out of the people but gess what if you dont pay this tax gess where you get sent to and im gessing at this one but i think you might have to pay it there to its stupid no wonder so meny people are in det and there like how do we get these people out of det ive got an idea STOP F@@KING TAXING US !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! grrr i hope we have a cilvl war soon hint hint lol

reply to post by JohnnyCanuck

Agreed, one must be careful with the term "indentured". It has multiple meanings across histories. If your Brit pal is alive in these times, then the term refers to another contract system than that in the 19th century and before.
In South Africa for example Chinese indentured labour was brought to work the gold mines of Johannesburg in the mid 19th century, and Indian indentured labour was brought to work the sugar-cane fields of Natal. Due to anti-Chinese xenophobia most of the Chinese were returned to their homeland. The Indains however remained as the largest Indian expatriate community outside India, eventually bringing their wives and families - although they were largely confined to the Natal province.
The treatment of the "indentured" was often deplorable, with corporal punishment and other degrading abuse. Many died, even en route, and it was little better than press-gang slavery. However, it was also different in many respects from the condition of slavery, which had then been outlawed by the British.
In both "indentured" cases certain skills were needed - the Chinese and their knowledge of explosives and mining, and the Indian knowledge of tropical farming.
This was quite different from "indentured labour" in the early American colonies for example. Apart from persecuted religious sects, few Europeans were interested in settling America at first. So it was a kind of forced settlement, and eventual freedom was theoretical for most, and hardly any had any hope of seeing their homeland again.
My examples of white slavery in my OP post are however not limited to indentured labour, but I still feel that in many cases this, and convict labour was a de facto form of white slavery.

Teaching people they're ancestors were victims, and that's why they are victims, is like telling someone that because they're parents were thick, they'll be thick too. However it is for black-white relations second only to telling unemployable, white people, that the reason why they don't have a job is because of immigration.
All these positions encourage despair & anger that can leave the beholders in a less creative mindset than they were in before accepting the information-political position. This is because the focus fault the lies with others, and each of us knows that no matter how much we may like things to be different, our ability to change others, world history, or indeed even the great bulk of humanity, is highly limited.
This is quite unlike our ability to change ourselves, which is very high.
So for minorities to accept that "the cruelty of slavery is white injustice, not suffered as much by whites, is both true and untrue because even where true it still obscured by the wider history which is no human (white or black) has had a very good record of treating the vulnerable particularly pleasantly.