那些來自愛爾蘭、英格蘭的白奴 《被埋葬的美國白奴史》（二·四）

圖：愛爾蘭奴隸童工

The trade in White slaves was a natural one for Jewish merchants in England who imported sugar and tobacco from the American colonies. Whites kidnapped in Britain could be exchanged for these goods in America, permitting the merchant ships to convey cargo in both directions. But the disposability of these humans in the minds of these inhuman merchants, staggers the heart. There are documented reports that one ship dumped more than 1,300 white slaves into the Atlantic Ocean to ensure an adequate food supply for the crew. Other documented reports tell of 20 or 30 children at a time being tossed into the ocean to drown. There was also a provision in many contracts that white slaves were sold in advance to plantation owners who would be responsible for full payment “if the slaves survived beyond the halfway point of the journey”. Apparently ship captains regularly stocked sufficient food for only the first half of their ocean voyage with the intention of starving the slaves for the remainder of the trip. One documented record stated, “Jammed into filthy holds, manacled, starved and abused, they suffered and died during the crossings in gross numbers.” Nobody bothered to record the number of deaths.

對于從美國殖民地進口糖和煙草的英國猶太商人來說，販賣白奴是一件很自然的事情。在英國被綁架的白人可以在美國交換這些貨物，這樣商船就可以在兩個方向上運送貨物。但這些人類在這些禽獸商人的頭腦中是可丟棄的，這讓人心驚膽戰(zhàn)。
其他記錄在案的報告稱，一次有20或30名兒童被扔進海里淹死。許多合同中也有條款規(guī)定，白人奴隸被提前賣給種植園主，“如果奴隸活過了旅程的一半”，種植園主將負責全額付款。顯然，船長通常只在海上航行的前半段儲備足夠的食物，目的是讓奴隸們在余下的航行中挨餓。一份有記載的記錄寫道:“他們被困在骯臟的船艙里，戴著手銬，挨餓和虐待，在過境期間，他們遭受了大量的痛苦和死亡?！睕]有人費心去記錄死亡人數(shù)。

Even those fortunate enough to land in the New World would fare little better, suffering a shocking mortality rate. Sixty percent of all white slaves reaching the Americas did not survive their first year. One clergyman visited a plantation outpost and described the scene as “a land of the living dead, a vault full of living corpses”. A policeman referred to them as “vermin-haunted heaps of rags”. He claimed that when he opened a door into one of their hovels, he saw, “Ten, twenty, thirty, who can count them? Men, women, children, for the most part naked, heaped upon the floor like maggots in a cheese factory, a spectral rising, unshrouded, from a grave of rags”. White slaves who rebelled or became disobedient were punished in the most savage and inhuman ways. Owners would hang their slaves by their hands and set their feet on fire. Often, they were burned alive, with their severed heads then placed on pikes in a public marketplace to serve as a warning to other slaves.

即使是那些有幸在新大陸登陸的人也不會有什么好轉，他們的死亡率令人震驚。到達美洲的白人奴隸中，有60%活不過第一年。一位牧師訪問了一個種植園前哨，并將現(xiàn)場描述為“活死人之地，一個滿是活死人的墓穴”。一名警察稱它們?yōu)椤耙欢褲M是害蟲的破布”。 他聲稱，當他打開一扇門進入他們的一個小屋時，他看到，“十個，二十個，三十，誰能數(shù)得清?”男人，女人，孩子，大部分赤裸著，像奶酪工廠里的蛆蟲一樣堆在地板上，（就像）一個幽靈從破布的墳墓里升起，毫無遮掩?！?反抗或不服從的白人奴隸會受到最野蠻、最不人道的懲罰。奴隸主會把奴隸的手吊起來，把他們的腳點著。通常，他們被活活燒死，他們被砍下的頭被釘在公共市場的長矛上，作為對其他奴隸的警告。

Particularly shocking was the abduction and enslavement of a great many white children who were openly seized from orphanages, workhouses and the streets, and shipped to America to labor in factories and plantations. There were countless shipments of these doomed children to America for perhaps 300 years, with very few living to become adults. In one case, when a census was taken in Virginia only seven children were listed as alive from the many thousands kidnapped that year. All the rest were dead, and statistics for other years are equally grim, with sometimes only three or four surviving that year.

尤其令人震驚的是，大量白人兒童遭到綁架和奴役，他們被公開從孤兒院、濟貧院和街頭抓走，并被運往美國的工廠和種植園勞動。在大約300年的時間里，這些注定要夭折的孩子被無數(shù)次運往美國，很少有人能活到成年。在一個案例中，在弗吉尼亞州進行的一次人口普查中，當年被綁架的數(shù)千名兒童中只有7名被列為活著。其余的人都死了，其他年份的統(tǒng)計數(shù)據(jù)也同樣嚴峻，有時當年只有三四個幸存下來。

Orphan children as well as the children of poor parents were targeted for the White slave trade, these latter being described as a “plague” and a “rowdy element”. The London police were instructed to seize any children found on the street and take them to a containment facility where they would await shipment to America. Often, their only crime was being in the street when a constable happened to pass by. The Jewish slave-traders specifically targeted poor families, demanding they surrender their children for sale on threat of being starved into submission by the withdrawal of all relief assistance from any source. They could give up their children to the slave-traders, or be forced to starve and die. This centuries-long inhuman use of “disposable” children was the beginning of the American fondness for child labor which began with the agricultural plantations, but which was soon extended to American factories.

孤兒和窮人家的孩子成為白奴貿易的目標，后者被描述為“瘟疫”和“吵鬧分子”。倫敦警方接到指示，要抓住在街上發(fā)現(xiàn)的任何兒童，把他們帶到一個收容設施，在那里等待運往美國。通常情況下，他們唯一的過錯就是在街上碰巧有個警察經過。
猶太奴隸販子尤其以貧窮家庭為目標，要求他們交出自己的孩子出售，威脅說他們會因饑餓而屈服，并從任何來源撤回所有救濟援助。他們可以把自己的孩子交給奴隸販子，或者被迫餓死。這種對“一次性”兒童長達幾個世紀的不人道使用是美國人對童工的喜愛的開始，這種喜愛始于農業(yè)種植園，但很快就擴展到美國的工廠。

It appears to be generally accepted that Ireland was severely depopulated in the past, the most quoted percentage reduction being 80%. One useful article on England’s Irish slaves: The current standard narrative attempts with some vigor to attribute this severe population reduction to disease or famine, but the reality appears to be that kidnapping for slavery was the main reason. There are sufficient records to tell us that the Irish were abducted and shipped by the hundreds of thousands, this including not only adults but even the youngest of children being forcibly taken from their parents and sold as slaves in the US and the West Indies. We can certainly credit Henry Cromwell for much of this, since he seemed especially determined to capture and deport all Irish women: “Concerning the young [Irish] women, although we must use force in takinge them up, yet it beinge so much for their owne goode, and likely to be of soe great advantage to the publique, it is not in the least doubted, that you may have such number of them as you thinke fitt to make use uppon this account.” There is no way to misunderstand the man’s words, and Cromwell wasn’t referring to “indentured servitude” in these remarks.

人們似乎普遍認為，愛爾蘭過去人口嚴重減少，最常引用的百分比是減少了80%。一篇關于英格蘭的愛爾蘭奴隸的有用文章提到:
目前的標準敘述試圖將這種嚴重的人口減少歸因于疾病或饑荒，但事實似乎是，綁架奴隸是主要原因。有足夠的記錄告訴我們，成千上萬的愛爾蘭人被綁架和運送，其中不僅包括成年人，甚至包括最小的孩子，他們被強行從父母身邊帶走，賣給美國和西印度群島（加勒比海）為奴。
我們當然可以把這歸功于亨利·克倫威爾（注：英國將領），因為他似乎特別決心捕獲并驅逐所有愛爾蘭婦女: “關于年輕的(愛爾蘭)女性，盡管我們必須使用武力來招募她們，但這是為了她們自己的利益，而且可能對公眾有很大的好處，毫無疑問，你可以有這么多你認為合適的人來利用這個理由?！?br /> 沒有辦法誤解這個人的話，克倫威爾在這些評論中并不是指“契約奴隸”。

The first white slave sales document was drawn up in 1612, seven years before the first African slaves arrived in Jamestown, Virginia. In 1625 James II officially decreed that all Irish prisoners be sent to the West Indies (Caribbean) and sold to plantation owners. The first ships deported 30,000 Irish, by the mid-1600s they constituted the majority of slaves in the colonies. A Portuguese website gives us the following: “The proclamation of 1625 required Irish political prisoners to be sent abroad and sold to English settlers in the West Indies. In 1600, the Irish were the main slaves sold to Antigua and Montserrat. At that time, 70% of Montserrat’s total population were Irish slaves. Ireland quickly became a huge source of human cattle for English traders. Most of the first slaves in the New World were actually white.”

第一份出售白人奴隸的文件是在1612年起草的，比第一批非洲奴隸到達弗吉尼亞州詹姆斯敦早了7年。1625年，詹姆斯二世正式頒布法令，將所有愛爾蘭囚犯送到西印度群島(加勒比海)，賣給種植園主。第一艘船驅逐了3萬愛爾蘭人，到17世紀中期，他們構成了殖民地奴隸的大多數(shù)。
一個葡萄牙網站告訴我們:“1625年的公告要求將愛爾蘭政治犯送到國外，賣給西印度群島的英國殖民者。1600年，愛爾蘭人是賣到安提瓜和蒙特塞拉特島的主要奴隸。當時，蒙特塞拉特總人口的70%是愛爾蘭奴隸。愛爾蘭很快成為英國商人的人形牲畜的巨大來源。新大陸的第一批奴隸實際上大部分是白人?！?/b>

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