Irish slaves? Librarian demolishes myth peddled by racists who claim PC historians have covered up “white slavery"

Propaganda is cheap to produce on the web. And a purposeful lie in an age of "viral content" not only can race around the world in a day but resurface time and time again with surprising resiliency. 

Such is the case with the myth of "Irish slaves," an ahistorical reimagining of real events weaponized by racists and conspiracy theorists before the Web and now reaching vast new audiences online. 

In short, the "Irish slaves" myth argues that the first slaves brought to the Americas were Irish, that they were white, and that this fact, covered up by liberal historians, undermines the legacy of the African slave trade and proves that modern theories of racial inferiority are true. 

Predictably, this revisionism has attracted Neo-Nazis, White Nationalists, Neo-Confederates, and even Holocaust deniers, while racist trolls have deployed the myth to attack the Black Lives Matter movement. More worrisome, though, is its widespread adoption by principally American Internet users as if it were a point of "Irish pride." 

Irish scholar Liam Hogan has been tracking and debunking this reincarnated meme since he first saw it in 2013. Last year, Hogan published an impressive five-part series exposing the myth and provided a detailed historical analysis of the origins and evolution of the meme.  

Hatewatch reached out to Hogan (who you should follow on Twitter) and asked him to share what he's learned in his work.

What’s your academic background particularly as it applies to the study of systems of slavery? 

I’m a research librarian at the Limerick City Library and an independent scholar. I am particularly interested in the complex historical relationship between Ireland and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. While researching this, I noticed that there existed many common misconceptions about what is termed “Irish slavery,” which is applied in various ways to the Irish experience in the Anglo-Caribbean, Colonial America and the United States. I’ve since tried to contextualize this important part of Irish diasporic history for the general public while debunking some of the more egregious pieces of disinformation that are currently en vogue. I also track white nationalist groups and others who have purposefully spread “white slavery” or “Irish slavery” propaganda online since at least 1998. ...