I am also interested in obtaining more information on 17th and 18th
century Irish migration to America, particulary of those who may have
been brought involuntarily. The sources I have been able to find so far
hardly exhaust the topic. They include:
--A. Roger Ekirch, in <Bound for America: The Transportation of British
Convicts to the Colonies> (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987), estimates
that some 13,000 Irish convicts were transported to America between
1718 and 1775. Hillary Beckles makes some reference to involuntary Irish
migrants during the earlier period (including, I believe, those "spirited" to
America) in <White Servitude and Black Slaves in Barbados, 1627-1715
>(Knoxville: U. Tennessee, 1989). I believe that the topic is also
broached (but not thoroughly explored) in two books by Carl
Bridenbaugh, <Vexed and Troubled Englishmen> (Oxford: Oxford UP,
1968) and <'No Peace Beyond the Line'> (I have mislaid the cite.)
--A number of articles and book chapters also exist which discuss
Cromwell's shipment of Irish to America in the 1650s.
John Scanlan
Indiana University School of Law
Bloomington, IN
e-mail: JohnScanlan@law.indiana.edu