"Traed Mewn Cyffion": Cymru a Chaethwasiaeth
Mae'r rhan fwyaf o gymdeithasau wedi elwa ar lafur caethweision ar ryw adeg yn eu hanes. Mae hyn yn wir am Gymru hefyd.
Roedd y fasnach ryngwladol mewn caethweision yn fynnu o ddechrau'r 16fed ganrif (tua 500 mlynedd yn ôl) hyd at 200 mlynedd yn ôl. Ym 1807, pasiodd senedd Prydain Ddeddf i ddiddymu masnachu caethweision o fewn yr Ymerodraeth Brydeinig.
Roedd pobl dduon a phobl wynion wedi bod yn ymgyrchu i atal caethwasiaeth am dros 30 o flynyddoedd cyn i'r Ddeddf ddod i rym. Hyd yn oed ar ôl 1807, ni chafodd y caethweision a oedd eisoes yn byw mewn trefedigaethau Prydeinig eu rhyddhau tan 1838.
Roedd caethwasiaeth yn parhau i fod yn gyfreithlon mewn rhai gwledydd eraill am fwy na 50 mlynedd arall.
Heddiw, mae caethwasiaeth anghyfreithlon yn dal i fodoli mewn llawer rhan o'r byd — hyd yn oed yng Nghymru.
sylw - (7)
I've been in touch with many of our newfound cousins, to exchange information, and I'm delighted to say that firm friendships have been formed. Though, the search for our common ancestor continues.
Did the actual John Brown (of the battle hymn "John Brown's body lies a rotting in the grave but we go marching on..") lecture there ?
A figure legend of my book in long preparation "Love and War in Cuba" which discussed the Roman invasion of Anglesey reads:
Figure XXX The sacred lake of Llyn Cerrig Bach, “… Perhaps one of the most important iron age sites in the country. A Sacred Lake, into which many votive goods were offered from the late Iron Age (2nd century BC), until just before the Conquest of Anglesey by the Romans. Eleven swords, eight spearheads, wheels of up to 22 different chariots, parts of a shield, and slave chains were found during peat extraction in the Second World War.” Image is from a google site photograph by Tim Prevett. The first discovery, that of the slave chains, was made first by the hard laboring Irish navvies working for Lord McAlpine in the years Dad was stationed there. Strangely similar slave chains were captured by putative maternal ancestor Sancho el Fuerte, from the slave-warriors of the Arab Chief Miramamolins, defeated in the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212.
The old shield of (now Spanish) Navarra can be found at Navarra (accessed 1-20-2016) in: Heráldica Española - Spanish Civic Heraldry http://www.ngw.nl/int/spa/prov/navarra.htm. Some of these chains are found in the little chapel of Sancho El Fuerte in Roncevalle, Spain. Somewhere in my reading, if memory serves, there is a note on the friendship between Richard the Lionheart and Sancho El Fuerte,