Slavery had already existed inIreland for centuries by the time theVikings began to establish their coastal settlements, but it was under theNorse-GaelKingdom of Dublin that it reached its peak, in the 11th century.[1]
Early medieval legal texts provide a wealth of knowledge on the practice of slavery.Gaelic raiders kidnapped and enslaved people from across theIrish Sea for two centuries after theFall of the Western Roman Empire destabilisingRoman Britain;Saint Patrick was kidnapped by Gaelic raiders.[2]
In theBrehon Laws,Senchus Mór [Shanahus More] and theBook of Acaill [Ack'ill], a "daer fuidhir" ("servile inferior") was a name applied to all who did not belong to a clan, whether born in the clan territory or not. This was the lowest of the three classes of the non-free people. This class also was sub-divided into saer and daer, the daer fuidhirs being the class most closely resembling slaves. Even this lowest condition was not utterly hopeless; promotion was possible, and in constant operation. Therefore all families did not remain permanently in this kind of servitude but had the possibility of gradually rising from a lower to a higher degree according to a certain scale of progress, unless they committed some crime which would arrest that progress and cast them down again further.[3] Slaves could be obtained through war, purchase and marriage to outsiders. The inheritability of slavery depends on the precise original relationship, while fuidher have been seen as a transitional status, after three generations serving the same lord, their children fell under the category senchléithe, akin to a semi hereditary serf status, while the law texts also provide details of downward mobility as well.[4][5]
From the 9th to the 12th century Viking/Norse-GaelDublin in particular was a major slave trading centre which led to an increase in slavery.[6] In 870,Vikings, most likely led byOlaf the White andIvar the Boneless, besieged and captured the stronghold ofDumbarton Castle (Alt Clut), the capital of theKingdom of Strathclyde in Scotland, and the next year took most of the site's inhabitants to the Dublinslave markets.[6]
When the Vikings establishedearly Scandinavian Dublin in 841, they began a slave market that would come to sellthralls captured both in Ireland and other countries as distant asMuslim Spain,[7][8] as well as sending Irish slaves as far away asIceland,[9] where Gaels formed 40% of the founding population,[10] andAnatolia.[11] In 875, Irish slaves in Iceland launched Europe's largestslave rebellion since the end of the Roman Empire, whenHjörleifr Hróðmarsson's slaves killed him and fled toVestmannaeyjar.[citation needed] Almost all recordedslave raids in this period took place inLeinster and southeastUlster; while there was almost certainly similar activity in the south and west, only one raid from theHebrides on theAran Islands is recorded.[12]
Slavery became more prevalent throughout Ireland in the 11th century as port cities built up by Vikings flourished, with Dublin becoming the biggest slave market inWestern Europe.[12][8] Its main sources of supply were the Irish hinterland, Wales and Scotland.[12] The Irish slave trade began to decline afterWilliam the Conqueror consolidated control of the English and Welsh coasts around 1080, and was dealt a severe blow when theNormans abolishedslavery in 1102.[13][9][12][14] The 1171 Council of Armagh freed all Englishmen and women who were enslaved in Ireland.[15] where contemporary sources detail that the English sold their children as slaves, as stated in the Decree of the Council of Armagh, . "For the English people hitherto throughout the whole of their kingdom to the common injury of their people, had become accustomed to selling their sons and relatives in Ireland, to expose their children for sale as slaves, rather than suffer any need or want."[16].
Baltimore, County Cork, was depopulated in 1631 in theSack of Baltimore, a raid byBarbary pirates from eitherOttoman Algeria orSalé (Morocco).[17] Between 100[18] and 237 people were abducted and sold into theBarbary slave trade,[19] of whom only two or three ever saw Ireland again.[17]
As was true for societies across Europe, Asia, & Africa during this time, there were individuals born in Ireland who became involved with theAtlantic slave trade between 1660 and 1815.[20][21] Librarian Liam Hogan[22] has described how Irish merchants profited from the trade, mostly indirectly asprovisioners.
In more direct involvement for example, William Ronan worked for theRoyal African Company and rose to become chairman of the committee of merchants atCape Coast Castle on theGold Coast (modernGhana), running one of the world's largest slave markets between 1687 and 1697.[23]Antoine Walsh, a Frenchman of Irish descent and prominentJacobite based inNantes, used his wealth generated from the slave trade to finance theJacobite rising of 1745.[24]Benjamin McMahon worked for eighteen years as an overseer on Jamaican plantations, later becoming an abolitionist and writing about his experiences.[25]Tralee-born Irishman David Tuohy emigrated toLiverpool and became a captain onslave ships before settling down in the city to manage his business activities, which included the slave trade.[26]Felix Doran (1708–1776) was an Irish Catholic, born in Ireland and moved toLiverpool where he became very wealthy from the slave trade, financing at least 69 slave voyages.[27]
Several Caribbean Islands have significant Irish communities descended fromindentured servants deported from Ireland by colonialBritish authorities following the 15th & 16th centuryPlantations of Ireland, with the like ofMontserrat once hosting large Anglo-Irish owned and run sugar plantations that were dependent on slave labour.[28]
Prominent US Civil Rights campaignerJesse Jackson acknowledges his descent from“Scots-Irish” slave owners (i.e. colonial settlers from Britain who arrived in Ireland in the 17th century during the crown’sPlantation of Ulster) plantation owner, in South Carolina.[29]
An Ulster-Scottish slave-owning great-great grandfather of US SenatorMitch McConnell also came to the US from Ireland. McConnell brought up this family history during the2020 United States presidential election campaign to liken himself toBarack Obama.[30]
The UCL Legacies of British Slavery database identifies the Irish Slave owners, compensated by the British Government, on abolition of legal slavery, in the British Empire.[31]
The USDepartment of State criticised Ireland in 2018 for "not meeting the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking"; types ofmodern slavery andforced labour includeprostitution,trawler fishing and domestic service.[32][33]
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