This page has been visited times since March 17, 1999.

A Serpent Underfoot

This is intended as an interactive webpage for scholars, historians, and history buffs. Our purpose is to use this page to collect information about Irish slaves (not indentured servants) in the New World during the colonial period (i.e., until 1783), including their names, their occupations, their places of origin, the process by which they became slaves, how and why they were transported here, how they survived, how they resisted, and how they died. Special attention will be paid to their use of the Irish language and that language's survival into this century, not only on the North American frontier in places like Maine and Nova Scotia but in slave colonies like Montserrat.

If you have a direct quote about Irish slaves (not indentured servants) or about the Irish language from a primary source (i.e, from a 17th or 18th century English, Irish, or colonial document), please enter it on our bulletin board along with detailed information about your source such as name of document, author, volume, year of origin, year of publication, page, paragraph, and the library or place in which you found your source.

Based in Babylon, Long Island, Scoil Gaeilge Ghearóid Tóibín is a grass-roots, non-profit organization dedicated to 1) teaching the Irish (Gaelic) language, and 2) spreading the use of Irish as a living language. Not only do our volunteers offer 7-10 levels of instruction in the Irish language (including a children's class) for free every Thursday night, but our living language activities include our Coiste Fhístéipe Gaeilge ('Irish Language Videotape Committee'). This committee of volunteers has been researching the Irish and the Irish language in colonial America (including South America and the Caribbean) for over three years.

'Irish Slaves In The New World' is our last topic of research before beginning to script documentaries which we intend to produce in Irish and English. Based on what we've discovered already [like the many non-English speaking Irish, Scots, Welsh, French, Germans, and Italians(!) at Jamestown], we already know our work will throw new light on the ethnic complexity and diversity of Colonial America.

Many volunteer researchers have helped us already. Anyone who does help us will be recognized with a screen credit approximately in the following form: "Research on Irish slavery in Colonial America was contributed by the following individuals: ....". Any proceeds from the documentary will be used to further our organization's goals of teaching the Irish language and spreading its use as a living language. Any help you can give will be very greatly appreciated. Go raibh maith agat / Thank you.