Why is it so difficult for some Irish people to use the term indentured servitude when talking about INDENTURED SERVITUDE? There are very clear differences between it and chattel slavery in tenure and status without mentioning the racialized nature of slavery. Don’t do this.
Using the correct term - indentured servitude - doesn’t lessen what was an horrendous experience for many but it does recognise the basic legal differences of being recognized as a human being (IS) bonded for a term of service -v- being assigned as property (CS) perpetually.
It also recognizes that indentured servitude was a long-term mechanism, which included the mass, forced removal of the brutal Cromwellian conquest but has a much longer history. It was a condition that could be voluntary, could be voluntarily extended and wasn’t uniquely Irish.
Most importantly, history is not just something we study in the past, it can have real world repercussions through to today (as Irish people should know). The creation of an ‘Irish slave’ myth by the far right to weaponize Irish history as a tool of the far right is ongoing.
Do not claim that your own history has been misrepresented, downplayed and distorted (the Famine as a failure of crops but not British governance, anyone?) and then facilitate that to happen to other oppressed people. Show solidarity when and where it matters. #BLM
If you want to recourse to Irish history at a time when we should be opening our ears and showing solidarity with Black communities in the US (but also the UK, Ireland, everywhere) then do it to enhance and amplify their stories. Not to compete, distract or contradict them.
For further reading on #irishslave myths and their twisted use by the far right look no further than @Limerick1914 and here’s a succinct summary of the terminology we wrote with Matt Reilly historyireland.com/18th-19th-cent…
