The Cromwellian (i.e., Puritan) government in Ireland gave the slave monopolies to good Puritan merchants who then sold on to other good Puritan merchants in the Caribbean, Virginia, and New England. (The Royalists/Anglicans got nearly nothing out of the Irish slave trade.) The first witch killed (1688) in the famous Massachusetts witch trials was an old Irish slavewoman (Anne Glover) who had been captured by Cromwellian forces and sold as a slave in the 1650s. She could recite the Lord's Prayer in Irish and Latin, but didn't speak English. So Cotton Mather and the boys hung her. Cotton Mather was quite proud of his visiting the poor woman in jail and interviewing her (tormenting her) at length on the nature of religion and her 'sins' through an interpreter. He wrote a book about it (Memorable Providences, which you can find at COTTON MATHER, MEMORABLE PROVIDENCES, RELATING TO WITCHCRAFTS AND POSSESSIONS
For more info: http://www.scoilgaeilge.org/academics/slaves.htm
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