O’Connell refused to trade silence on slavery for Irish political support.

Evidence

O’Connell may have been brought to antislavery by the English abolitionist, James Cropper, who argued that Irish textiles could be traded for East Indian sugar, thus dealing at once a blow to Irish poverty and West Indian slavery. In 1830, when O’Connell first entered Parliament, with one other Irish member to support him, a representative of the West India interest approached him, offering the support of their twenty-seven members on Irish issues in return for his silence on the slavery question. He replied, “Gentlemen, God knows I speak for the saddest people the sun sees; but may my right hand forget its cunning, and my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if to save Ireland, even Ireland, I forget the negro one single hour!” — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 42

Categorization

• QUESTION: Cropper’s linkage of Irish textiles and East Indian (non-slave) sugar to West Indian sugar is a striking economic substitution argument worth chasing - how did abolitionist boycott campaigns actually route around the West Indies?
• CANDY: The refusal quote is punchy and standalone enough for elevator conversation.
• XREF: Directly comparable to the moral-choice framing later in this same book - what the Irish in America chose versus what O’Connell urged. — connects to: Southern Irish repeal associations chose slavery over loyalty to O’Connell and abolition — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 108; O’Connell threatened to strip American Irishmen of Irish identity if they tolerated slavery — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 99; Boston Irish publicly repudiated O’Connell’s antislavery stand to embrace slavery’s defenders — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 120 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• O’Connell threatened to strip American Irishmen of Irish identity if they tolerated slavery #expands (0.85) — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 99
• Southern Irish repeal associations chose slavery over loyalty to O’Connell and abolition #exemplifies (0.82) — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 108
• Boston Irish publicly repudiated O’Connell’s antislavery stand to embrace slavery’s defenders #exemplifies (0.80) — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 120
• American and Irish repudiation of O’Connell coincided with abandoning antislavery #corroborates (0.80) — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 124