Penal Transportation: Forgotten Gaelic Slaves
Such a nice girl
funny she never married.
Such a nice girl
money purchases only pearls.
Not so convicts
transported by merchants
auctioned off
to plantation owners
upon arrival
in the American colonies.
Penal labour
was slave labour severe
physical
punishment... included
capital
punishment by flaying.
British French Spanish
colonial empires exploited
parts of North America
as penal colonies to cheaply...
develop an economically
underdeveloped
part of a state's colonial
territories. Slavery
even disguised as indentured
servitude of youth.
Many prisoners died
from excessive
labour, hunger, disease,
medical neglect
or during escape attempts.
It is estimated that 50,000
British convicts
were sent to colonial America
approximately
one-quarter of all British
emigrants
during the 18th century.
Wisdom
Sentimentality Sincerity.
Are free
inflating hearts that cannot
be free upon arrival
[...] Read more
poem by Terence George Craddock
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
