Jonathan Swift’s (1667 – 1745) word usage; his matter-of-fact manner; his use of numbers when explaining how much each young carcass could bring on the market; even his way of explaining how to cook the babes of the poor to the rich adds to the horror Swift was trying to convey concerning the Irish’s position due to the constant abuse suffered at the hands of the English. It is the contextual analysis that serves us, the reader, the most.
First, concerning Swift and why he would chance his position in England to write A MODEST PROPOSAL, as well as his other political pieces concerning the abuses suffered by the Irish. He was English & Irish and seems he was best when taking jabs at the crown of England, exposing their shortcoming.
The opening paragraph reads as follows: It is a melancholy object to those who walk through this great town or travel in the country, when they see the streets, the roads, and cabin doors, crowded with beggars of the female sex, followed by three, four, or six children, all in rags and importuning every passenger for an alms. These mothers, instead of being able to work for their honest livelihood, are forced to employ all their time in strolling to beg sustenance for their helpless infants: who as they grow up either turn thieves for want of work, or leave their dear native country to fight for the Pretender in Spain, or sell themselves to the Barbadoes. (Swift)
It seems a simple laying out of the sad situation in Ireland, but the end line: who as they grow up either turn thieves for want of work, or leave their dear native country to fight for the Pretender in Spain, or sell themselves to the Barbadoes. Swift gives hint to Swift’s anger concerning how the Irish are forced to become thieves because they cannot find work, many being Catholic, and most jobs, as well as the best jobs, go to the Protestant Irish or the English that have taken over jobs. He also mentions, “or leave their dear native country to fight for the Pretender in Spain,” referring to James II who declared himself King of England & Scotland, in 1685, and several countries agreed, among those countries was Spain, but lost the crown to William & Mary when James II had a son by his Catholic wife, Mary of Modena. (BBC History, 2013) As for, “or sell themselves to the Barbadoes” Swift is referring to the poor Irish becoming slaves, including in America.
According to History of White Slave Trade: The Irish slave trade began when James II sold 30,000 Irish prisoners as slaves to the New World. His Proclamation of 1625 required Irish political prisoners be sent overseas and sold to English settlers in the West Indies. By the mid-1600s, the Irish were the main slaves sold to Antigua and Montserrat (70% of the total population of Montserrat were Irish slaves at this time). From 1641 to 1652, over 500,000 Irish were killed by the
English and over 300,000 were sold as slaves. Ireland's population fell from about 1,500,000 to 600,000 in one single decade. During the 1650s, over 100,000 Irish children between the ages of 10 and 14 were forcibly taken from their parents and sold as slaves in the West Indies, Virginia and New England. Another 52,000 Irish (mostly women and children) were sold to Barbados and Virginia while 30,000 Irish men were sold to the highest bidder. In 1656, Oliver Cromwell ordered that 2000 Irish children be taken to Jamaica and sold as slaves to English settlers. African slaves were very expensive (50 Sterling), had to be transported long distances and paid for not only in Africa but in the New World. Irish slaves were cheap (no more than 5 Sterling) and most often were either kidnapped from Ireland, prisoners or forcibly removed. They could be worked to death, whipped or branded without it being a crime. Many, many times they were beat to death and while the death of an Irish slave was a monetary setback, it was far cheaper than the death of an expensive African. Therefore, African slaves were treated much better in Colonial America. The importation of Irish slaves continued well into the eighteenth century, long after the importation of African slaves became the norm. Records state that after the 1798 Irish Rebellion, thousands of Irish slaves were sold to both America and Australia. Irish slavery didn't end until Britain decided to end slavery in 1839 and stopped transporting slaves. (History of White Slavery, 2013)
The enactment of 1652 in the British Isles: it may be lawful for two or more justices of the peace within any county, citty or towne, corporate belonging to the commonwealth to from tyme to tyme by warrant cause to be apprehended, seized on and detained all and every person or persons that shall be found begging and vagrant. in any towne, parish or place to be conveyed into the Port of London, or unto any other port from where such person or persons may be shipped into a forraign collonie or plantation." The judges of Edinburgh Scotland during the years 1662-1665 ordered the enslavement and shipment to the colonies a large number of rogues and others who made life unpleasant for the British upper class. (Register for the Privy Council of Scotland, third series, vol. 1, p 181, vol. 2, p 101) from the Virginia Gazette, March 28, 1771
It is in paragraph 11, where Swift writes: whereof only one-fourth part to be males; which is more than we allow to sheep, black cattle or swine; and my reason is, that these children are seldom the fruits of marriage, a circumstance not much regarded by our savages, therefore one male will be sufficient to serve four females.
He is referring to the fact that the poor seldom marry, as marriage was mainly intended for those landowners or persons of wealth. (A. Cosgrove, 2013) In paragraph 13 Swift takes a swipe at the landlords: I grant this food will be somewhat dear, and therefore very proper for landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the parents, seem to have the best title to the children.
According to Land Issues: In 1530 Catholic Irish owned 100% of the land in Ireland. In 1703 they owned 14% of the land in Ireland. From early times the land in the west of Ireland was under the control of landlords while tenant farmers maintained small holdings at little or no profit. Although they had to pay rent to the landlord the Irish peasantry were very attached to the land on which their forbearers had lived and would do almost anything to remain in the place of their ancestry. Many landlords did NOT live in Ireland. Their properties were administered by local agents. Some landlords, who actually lived on their estates, had a paternalistic relationship with their tenants. However, since the landlord had total economic control over his tenants, he also had control on the political and social relationships that existed under his domain. Many tenants were "tenant at will" meaning they held no lease on the land, could be evicted at any time, and had no recourse in disagreements with the landlord. Tenant eviction and land agitation were issues in Ireland
from at least the early 1700s when landlords determined that they could make more money from grazing than from the rents of their tenant framers. (Land Issues, 2013) In paragraph 14 he writes: Infant's flesh will be in season throughout the year, but more plentiful in March, and a little before and after; for we are told by a grave author, an eminent French physician, that fish being a prolific diet, there are more children born in Roman Catholic countries about nine months after Lent than at any other season; therefore, reckoning a year after Lent, the markets will be more glutted than usual, because the number of popish infants is at least three to one in this kingdom: and therefore it will have one other collateral advantage, by lessening the number of papists among us. Again, he is referring to the majority of Ireland’s poor Catholic, and therefore most abused because of their faith.
In chapter 19 he writes: But in order to justify my friend, he confessed that this expedient was put into his head by the famous Psalmanazar, a native of the island Formosa, who came from thence to London above twenty years ago, and in conversation told my friend, that in his country when any young person happened to be put to death, the executioner sold the carcass to persons of quality as a prime dainty; and that in his time the body of a plump girl of fifteen, who was crucified
for an attempt to poison the emperor, was sold to his imperial majesty's prime minister of state, and other great mandarins of the court, in joints from the gibbet, at four hundred crowns. Neither indeed can I deny, that if the same use were made of several plump young girls in this town, who without one single groat to their fortunes cannot stir abroad without a chair, and appear at playhouse and assemblies in foreign fineries which they never will pay for, the kingdom would not be the worse.
Swift is referring to George Psalmanazar (1679? – 3 May 1763), who claimed to be the first Formosan to visit Europe: For some years he convinced many in Britain but was later revealed to be an impostor. He later became a theological essayist and a friend and acquaintance of Samuel Johnson and other noted figures of 18th-century literary London. (Berman, 2010) In paragraph 32 Swift makes mention of, “For this kind of commodity will not bear exportation, and flesh being of too tender a consistence, to admit a long continuance in salt…” that is because of the following: Absentee landlords drew off some £800,000 p.a. in farm rents in the early part of the century, rising to £1 million, in an economy that amounted to about £4 million. Completely deforested for timber exports and a temporary iron industry in the course of the 17th century, Irish estates turned to the export of salt beef and pork and butter and hard cheese through the slaughterhouse and port city of Cork, which supplied England, the Royal Navy and the sugar colonies of the West Indies. The bishop of Cloyne wondered "how a foreigner could possibly conceive that half the inhabitants are dying of hunger in a country so abundant in foodstuffs? (Grada, 2009) One must read A MODEST PROPOSAL in the light and heart that Swift intended it to be read in. It is a revolting proposal for a revolting situation.
Works Cited
A. Cosgrove. (2013). CELT. Retrieved from Marriage in Early Ireland: http://www.ucc.ie/celt/marriage_ei.html BBC History. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/james_ii.shtml
Berman, R. (2010). Mutantfrog Travelogue. Retrieved from Mutant Frog: http://www.mutantfrog.com/2010/08/04/george-psalmanazar-fraud-of-formosa/ Grada, C. O. (2009). In Famine: A Short History. Princeton: Princeton University Press. History of White Slavery. (2013). Retrieved from Save Your Heritage: http://www.saveyourheritage.com/white_slavery.htm Land Issues. (2013). Retrieved from Maggieblanck: http://www.maggieblanck.com/Mayopages/LandIssues.html