{{about|the conflation of Irish indentured servitude and African chattel slavery|the actual Irish slave trade|slavery in Ireland|the sending of prisoners to British colonies|penal transportation|the system of unfree labour in return for passage across the Atlantic|indentured servitude}}

The '''Irish slaves myth''' is a conflation of the [[penal transportation]] and [[indentured servitude]] of [[Irish people]] during the 17th and 18th centuries on one hand, and the [[chattel slavery]] of [[Africans]] kidnapped for the [[Atlantic slave trade]] and their descendants on the other, usually in order to undermine contemporary [[African American]] demands for equality and reparations.<ref name="opendemocracy.net">{{cite web|url=https://www.opendemocracy.net/beyondslavery/liam-hogan/%E2%80%98irish-slaves%E2%80%99-convenient-myth|title=‘Irish slaves’: the convenient myth|date=12 January 2015|publisher=}}</ref> It has been a common trope on the [[white supremacist]] website [[Stormfront (website)|Stormfront]] since 2003, and has most recently been used to attempt to undermine the [[Black Lives Matter]] movement.<ref name="rawstory.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.rawstory.com/2016/04/irish-slaves-historian-destroys-racist-myth-conservatives-love-to-share-on-facebook/|title=‘Irish slaves’: Historian destroys racist myth conservatives love to share on Facebook|publisher=}}</ref> The myth is also employed by some [[Irish nationalists]], both to highlight British oppression of Irish people and to obscure Irish involvement in the African slave trade.<ref name="opendemocracy.net"/>

The myth asserts that the first slaves in [[North America]] were Irish and that this has been covered up by historians in a liberal conspiracy.<ref name="splcenter.org">{{cite web|url=https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2016/04/19/how-myth-irish-slaves-became-favorite-meme-racists-online|title=How the Myth of the "Irish slaves" Became a Favorite Meme of Racists Online|publisher=Southern Poverty Law Center}}</ref> It is especially popular with apologists for the [[Confederate States of America]].<ref name="rawstory.com"/> The most influential book to assert the myth was ''They Were White And They Were Slaves: The Untold History of The Enslavement of Whites In Early America'', self-published in the US in 1993 by [[Holocaust denier]] [[Michael A. Hoffman II]] (who blamed [[Jews]] for the African slave trade). This was followed in Ireland in 2001 by the equally ahistorical ''To Hell Or Barbados'' by Sean O'Callaghan, which introduced the concept of Irishwomen being forcibly bred with African men in order to produce [[mulatto]]s, who are represented as being more valuable than African slaves. It is not made clear why this is the case, or why it wasn't possible to achieve the same result with European men and African women.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2016/04/19/how-myth-irish-slaves-became-favorite-meme-racists-online|title=How the Myth of the "Irish slaves" Became a Favorite Meme of Racists Online|author=|date=|work=splcenter.org}}</ref>

The myth has since been circulated widely in the United States, and has recently begun to become common in Ireland after the "Irish slaves" [[meme]] went viral on social media in 2013.<ref name="opendemocracy.net"/><ref name="splcenter.org"/>

==References==

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Irish nationalism]]

[[Category:Propaganda]]

[[Category:White supremacy]]