Download To Hell Or Barbados: The Ethnic Cleansing Of Ireland epub

As a direct descendant of an Irishman who supposedly emigrated to Barbados as a planter and later settled himself comfortably in Virginia, according to the family history published in the very early 1900s, I was more than interested in this book; indeed, I was immediately skeptical of the flowery adjectives and all that, that I had previously read in the published genealogy of my ancestor.

I purchased this book here at amazon.com, and have just finished a first reading of it. I am stunned to learn the terrible truth of what my grandfather and my people endured on Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad and elsewhere in the West Indies. My grandfather, though a slave, did marry a Scottish woman. His wife gave birth to two sons and then she died, along with the younger son. In sheer compassion for father and remaining son, a kind ship's captain arranged to have my ancestor and his remaining son come to Virginia Colony, where they began life anew. These things I learned while doing online research and reading the book concurrently.

I descend through his second wife, whom he married in Virginia Colony

Were it not for Sean O'Callaghan's caring, his carefully and completely incisive treatment of this ugly chapter in the history of England before it became Great Britain, and of the British Empire after the Act of Union of 1707, modern seekers of historical realities would be at a great loss. I do not wish to ignore the many other writers of history who also expose the barbarities thrust upon the Irish.

This book is not a quick read, at least not for me. Each and every sentence is of great importance; time is needed to absorb, digest and metabolize the poison of England's panoramic rush to destruction of the Irish race. Mr. O'Callaghan carries us through this painful panorama; to see it in his words is to experience the agonies of the Irish AND Scottish slaves.

He takes us further in time than the initial clapping in arms of the Irish. He brings us full circle to our current day, an Epilogue some would call it, and he invites us to accompany him to visit the descendants of Irish and Scottish slaves still living -- or rather, barely surviving -- in the West Indies. We discover their terrible plight today; the inexcusable poverty and racial prejudice thrust upon them, the ever-present class distinction which was NEVER vanquished, the utter hopelessness of an entire race of people who know not their own ancestors more than two generations back in time. And all this after 350 years of white slavery! We also witness their stubborn pride and fierce efforts to defend their small communities from all strangers.

Mr. O'Callaghan brings us to understand that these descendants are yet slaves; the reader must find out for himself why this is so.

This book, though not large in volume, packs a powerful WALLOP and is not for wimps or those who deny historical reality. This book is definitely a keeper and should be read at least three or four times so as to allow every truth presented therein to be well remembered and never forgotten.

The four vs five stars does not reflect on the author. It reflects on the limited amount of documentation available to anyone thanks to periodic natural disasters in the Caribbean that destroyed many records and to the IRA for burning down the Dublin Customs House in 1922 along with records held there. Hence virtually all the histories of 16th century BWI that I've encountered.

This book is directed toward presenting the little known story of white slaves mostly Irish in the early English colony of Bardadoes. The author provides some context for this, namely the English response to the Irish rebellion of 1641. In fact the book has as much space devoted to historical context than than it does about the slaves themselves. This worked for me since I was looking for more information about the Caribbean colonies which the main focus of the English in the 1600's rather than the mainland colonies such as Virginia and New England. This is where fast money was to be made - first in tobacco (which didn't work out too well on the islands) and the sugar which dominated world trade much like petroleum does today.

This book and others of the period suggest the English were pretty clueless about the whole colonizing bit as well using slaves. All the histories I've read point to initial failures and false starts. Using white slaves was a "poor business plan". They were a hodgepodge of defeated insurrectionists, starved and homeless farmhand, political prisoners, common criminals etc. They ere mostly Irish but included some Scots and English as well. They might be of any state of health and physical capability. The English government simply wanted them gone. Eventually black slaves supplanted the earlier white - not because of any innate greater suitability but because they were inspected and selected for good health and robustness before bought and shoved aboard ship.

There is nothing at all in this book or any other source that I've found to suggest that anyone European or African questioned the idea that one human could be held by another as property. That changed sometime during the subsequent (18th) century and the abolishionist sentiment which held that no person could be owned by another was just appearing by 1776. I think likely that it was a product of the Enlightenment.