Product Description

The previously untold story of over 50,000 Irish men, women and children who were transported to Barbados and Virginia.
Between 1652 and 1659 over 50,000 Irish men, women and children were transported to Barbados and Virginia. Yet until now there has been no account of what became of them.

The motivation for the initial transportation of the Irish was expressed by King James 1 of England: "Root out the Papists and fill it [Ireland] with Protestants."

The author's search began in the library of the Barbados Museum and Historical Society and its files on Irish slaves. Sean O'Callaghan for the first time documents the history of these people: their transportation, the conditions in which they lived on plantations as slaves or servants, and their rebellions in Barbados.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #126957 in Books
• Published on: 2001-05-18
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 248 pages

Sunday Tribune
A fascinating read.

Irish Examiner
Essential reading.

Irish World
Hell or Barbados is such a valuable book.

Customer Reviews

Hidden History
Cromwell's solution to the Irish problem seems to have been an attempt to simply remove the local inhabitants, by transporting them to work in slavery on the sugar plantations of the West Indies. The author has painstakingly unearthed a really shameful episode of the English history in Ireland - primary historical records are understandably rare and frequently uncatalogued - and traced its fascinating human consequences in present-day Barbados. This is a journalistic rather than an academic work. O'Farrell is far from dispassionate about his subject, which in my view occasionally clouds his judgement; and he dwells a little too long occasionally on the details of brutality and cruelty. But it is his very passion which brings this history to light and life. A fascinating historical discovery for me.