John Mitchel, the Irish Patriot: Paradoxes of Worldview

Abstract

Activities of John Mitchel, the Irish patriot, are traced in the article. Special attention is paid to his attitude toward slavery, his understanding of the role and significance of the “peculiar institution” in the U. S. political system. Author comes to the conclusion that the Irish patriot was in fact highly consistent in his outlook with regard to this problem. He supported slavery, denounced abolitionists, advocated the re-opening of the African slave trade, was explicitly racist in his reasoning. He championed the South in the American Civil War. Mitchel himself seems not to have seen any contradiction in defending freedom for the Irish nation and standing for slavery in America. Nowadays supporters of the “Black Lives Matter” movement view Mitchel, first of all, as a human rights violator.