ABSTRACT
In 1996, the New York State legislature passed legislation making study of the Great Irish Famine part of a Human Rights curriculum, including slavery in the Americas and the European Holocaust, required in the state’s public schools. Government assistance to starving populations during the famine help was minimal and often oppressive to discourage “unworthy” aid-seekers. Distant Irish and non-Irish communities sent money to Ireland, including a small but significant gift from the Choctaw Indians, people who had been displaced from their own homeland in the Southeastern United States by government edict. British colonies in Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Ireland operated under an economic system, mercantilism, that was a version of commercial capitalism. Under this system trade was regulated so that the economies of colonies served the needs of the imperial center. Colonies provided raw materials and served as markets.
