You might be interested in this, from old-new-Orleans.com:
“In 1830, American businessmen in New Orleans decided to build a shipping channel from Lake Pontchartrain to the American sector of the city to compete with the established
Carondelet Canal in the French section. Construction of the New Basin Canal began in 1832 with a work force consisting almost entirely of Irish immigrants. (Newly arrived and desperate for jobs, these were the men who would work for the least amount of pay.)
The work was back-breaking, the hours long and, because of the canal’s path through the swamp, yellow fever, cholera, malaria and other diseases were rampant among the laborers. The pay was one dollar a day. By the time the canal was finished six years later, between 8,000 - 20,000 Irish immigrants had died in the effort. (The exact figure will never be known because no records were kept, but some have estimated the toll may have been as high as 30,000.)
The men worked when they were sick, fearing the loss of the job if they missed a day. For this reason, many of the deaths occurred at the work site. They fell where they worked and, usually, the bodies were left there - just pushed to the side and buried in the canal’s levee
or in the roadway fill next to it. No family member to whisper goodbyes, no priests to offer prayers and no marker to indicate that a life had ever been lived.
The canal was a success for the business interests who invested in it. It was used until the 1940’s, when shipping methods had changed and it was no longer needed. It was filled in and now serves as the neutral ground between Pontchartrain and West End Boulevards.
In 1990, a memorial in the form of a Celtic cross was dedicated to the memory of the workers. The Irish Ambassador to the U.S. attended the ceremony. The cross stands at the end of West End Boulevard, a memorial to the thousands of men who perished in the 1830’s.
It reads: ‘In memory of the Irish immigrants who dug the New Basin Canal, 1832-1838, this Celtic cross carved in Ireland has been erected by the Irish Cultural Society of New Orleans.’”
The reason Irish were used was because it was concluded that blacks were too valuable.
Anyway, just thought you’d be interested in this bit of history.
Starting with the invasion of Spain in 711 AD (even earlier, actually) through the Barbary Wars africans enslaved, colonized, raped and pillaged Europeans and their lands, eventually enslaving Americans.
In the leftist world view this doesn't count because the victims were White.