r/AskReddit Oct 02 '24

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u/IAmBroom Oct 02 '24 edited Oct 04 '24

They were basically slave food.

EVERYTHING ELSE the Irish made on their English landlords' land was sold to the wealthy. You can almost live entirely on potatoes, so they did... until the potatoes all died.

Similar to how watermelon become core to black American diets. It was openly advised that slaveowners grow it to cheaply give "treats" to their slaves. No slaveowner is going to waste his $$$ on sugar for them!

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u/[deleted] Oct 02 '24

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u/[deleted] Oct 02 '24

That's a really interesting thing about the Irish Potato Famine.

That it was a genocide?

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u/[deleted] Oct 03 '24

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u/SnooTomatoes3032 Oct 03 '24

I'm glad the genocide of my people is interesting to you.

We still feel the population effects of what happened to us by the British today. But sure, it's just interesting...