The New Slave Industry

The antebellum South saw a great rise in the agriculture industry. This profitable commerce needed a labor force for working the fields, cooking and serving the meals, and for general labor. Slaves from Africa bore most of the burden, but slaves from countries like Ireland were also used. Irish slaves came to America and the West Indies as early as 1625 when James II sold 30,000 Irish prisoners as slaves to the New World. It is estimated that approximately 100,000 Irish men, women, and children were transported to the colonies as slaves. Not to be called racist, Britain, in the 17th and 18th centuries, was an equal opportunity exploiter of human flesh, having sold over 600,000 Irish, Scottish, and Catholics into slavery. In early America, slavery was not a race issue, it was primarily a financial one. It was not until well into the 19th century, when the fusion of race, slavery, politics, and with the beginning of the ascension of the former white slaves, that people of African origin began to be known as Negros.

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