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Irish-born prisoners and indentured servants [2] were first brought to Jamaica in large numbers under the English republic of Oliver Cromwell following the capture of Jamaica from the Spanish in 1655 by William Penn and Robert Venables as part of Cromwell's strategic plan to dominate the Caribbean: the "Western Design".
Modern map of the Caribbean. The Irish went to Barbados, Jamaica and the Leeward Islands.. Irish indentured servants were Irish people who became indentured servants in territories under the control of the British Empire, such as the British West Indies (particularly Barbados, Jamaica and the Leeward Islands), British North America and later Australia.
Each of the other five soon capitulated without resistance, when Ayscue's fleet arrived to replace their governments. Following the conquest of Scotland and Ireland by the Commonwealth, Irish prisoners, and a smaller number of Scottish and English Royalists, were sent to the islands as indentured servants and became known as Redlegs.
In addition, some fifty thousand Irish people, including prisoners of war, were sold as indentured servants under the English Commonwealth regime. [ 19 ] [ 20 ] [ 21 ] They were often sent to the English colonies in North America and the Caribbean where they subsequently comprised a substantial portion of certain Caribbean colony populations in ...
Irish transport to Barbados dates back to the 1620s, when Irish people began arriving on the island. The majority were emigrants, indentures, and merchants, though with an unknown number of political and convict transportees during the 1650s [ 1 ] [ 2 ]
Despite the fact that Jamaica was an English colony, Cromwell increased the island's white population by sending indentured servants and prisoners captured in battles with the Irish and Scots, as well as some common criminals. [11] [12]
During the 17th century, British and Irish went to Barbados as both masters and as indentured servants. Some went as prisoners. [82] During the Wars of the Three Kingdoms many Scottish and Irish prisoners of war were sold as indentured laborers to the colonies. [83] There were also reports of kidnappings of youngsters to work as servants.
According to folk etymology, the name is derived from the effects of the tropical sun on the fair-skinned legs of white emigrants, now known as sunburn.However, the term "Redlegs" and its variants were also in use for Irish soldiers who were taken as prisoners of war in the Irish Confederate Wars and transported to Barbados as indentured servants.