Letter to the editor: A history lesson on slavery

Contrary to statements made by some of our current political leaders, white slavery predates Black slavery in America.

The white slaves not indentured, who began to arrive here in 1618, included hundreds of children who had been rounded up from the streets of London. Other slaves came from the ranks of the homeless and the poor, and also from England’s swelling prison population. King James believed the homeless and itinerant of London were spreading plague.

At the time the Constitution was ratified in 1788, there were fewer than 50,000 slaves in America, and the vast majority of them were white.

The 1619 project was written for the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in the Virginia colony in 1619.

History tells us of the first 300 white slaves to land in Virginia, only 12 managed to survive four years. The others died of ill treatment, disease, attack by native Americans or overwork.

If we are going to change the way we teach history in our schools, maybe teach American children that between 1641 and 1652 alone, the population of Ireland fell from 1,466,000 to 616,000. That’s because roughly 500,000 Irish were killed by the English and another 300,000 were sold as slaves. That’s over 50% of their entire people in 11 years. And considering that many Irish were simply worked to death, wouldn’t this be some kind of genocide?

William O’Neill

Penn Township, Westmoreland County