DOCSLIB.ORG

Scottish Tradition Issn 0703-1580

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Scottish Tradition Issn 0703-1580 SCOTTISH TRADITION ISSN 0703-1580 GENERAL EDITORS Paul D. Dickson, University of Guelph Scott A. McLean, Queen’s International Study Centre, Herstmonceux Castle REVIEW EDITORS J.R.D. Falconer, University of Guelph Janay Nugent, University of Guelph EDITORIAL BOARD E.L. Ewan, University of Guelph K. J. James, University of Guelph L.L. Mahood, University of Guelph R.M. Sunter, University of Guelph CORRESPONDING MEMBERS I. Campbell, University of Edinburgh E. J. Cowan, University of Glasgow W. Ferguson, University of Edinburgh D. Withrington, University of Aberdeen ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT Barbara Merritt, University of Guelph The Editors assume no responsibility for statements of fact or opinion made by contributors. All contents are © copyrighted by Scottish Tradition and/or their author, 2001. Book production by Stewart Publishing & Printing Markham, Ontario • 905 294-4389 www.stewartbooks.com Scottish Tradition Vol. 26 2001 SUBMISSION OF ARTICLES FOR PUBLICATION All manuscripts, including endnotes and captions are to be typed, double-spaced, on consecutively numbered 8½ x 11 inch sheets. Two copies of the manuscript should be submitted along with a copy on disk in Word Perfect or Microsoft Word. Submissions should utilize endnotes, in general referring to the Chicago Manual of Style, 13th edition. Manuscripts should be approximately 25 to 30 double-spaced pages in length, although shorter papers will also be considered. Contributors are requested to provide their title and current appointment. Manuscripts and disks should be submitted to: The Editor, Scottish Tradition Canadian Association for Scottish Studies Dept. of History, University of Guelph Guelph, Ontario, Canada N1G 2W1 MEMBERSHIP INFORMATION Individuals interested in the history and culture of Scotland and the decisive influence of the Scots in North America are invited to join the Canadian Association for Scottish Studies/ Scottish Studies Foundation. Membership in the Association is $20.00 per annum and includes the journal subscription. Please make cheques or money orders payable in Canadian funds to Scottish Studies Foundation and send to: Membership Secretary Scottish Studies Foundation, P.O. Box 45069, 2482 Yonge Street Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 3E3 www.scottishstudies.ca www.uoguelph.ca/history/scotstudy Contents ARTICLES Introduction: Some Thoughts on the Nature of Scottish Regiments ......3 by Paul D. Dickson For Something More Than King and Country: The Persistence of the ..19 Mercenary Tradition in Seventeenth Century Scottish Military History by Andrew Nicholls Continuity, Coercion and Myth: The Recruitment of Highland ............30 Regiments in the Later Eighteenth Century by Andrew McKillop The Problems of Recruitment for Scottish Line Regiments ................56 during the Napoleonic Wars by R.M. Sunter An Officer and a Gentleman?: Military Reform and the .................... 69 93rd Highlanders in Canada, 1838-1848 by Scott A. McLean REVIEWS Medieval A.D.M. Barrell, Medieval Scotland: ......................................84 Cambridge Medieval Textbooks by R. Andrew McDonald J. Marsden, Somerled and the Emergence of ........................87 Gaelic Scotland by R. Andrew McDonald B. Smith, Colonisation and Conquest in Medieval Ireland: ......91 The English in Louth, 1170-1330 by Chris O’Shea A.J. Macdonald, Border Bloodshed: Scotland, England ..........95 and France at War, 1369-1403 by Cynthia J. Neville J. Cameron, James V: The Personal Rule, 1528-1542 ........100 by Elizabeth Ewan Early Modern I.D. Whyte, Scotland’s Society and Economy in Transition, ....104 c.1500 - c.1760 by Elizabeth Ewan R. Mitchison, The Old Scottish Poor Law in Scotland: ..........107 The Experience of Poverty, 1574-1845 by Gordon DeBrisay R.K. Marshall, The Days of Duchess Anne: Life in the ..........111 Household of the Duchess of Hamilton, 1656-1716 by Barbara C. Murison Late Modern R. Eagles, Francophilia in English Society, 1748-1815 ........114 by Jeffrey D. Burson M.M. Mitchell, The Irish in the West of Scotland, ................118 1797-1848: Trade Unions, Strikes and Political Movements by Michael E. Vance C. Macdonald, The Radical Thread: Political Change in ........121 Scotland: Paisley Politics, 1885 - 1924 by Susan Banks P. McVeigh ‘Look after the Bairns’: a Childhood in ................125 East Lothian by Meghan Cameron L. Bennie, J. Brand & J. Mitchell, How Scotland Votes: ........129 Scottish Parties and Elections; C. Harvie, Scotland and Nationalism: Scottish Society and Politics, 1707 to the Present by Tim Mau N. Davidson, The Origins of Scottish Nationhood; ................133 A. Wright (ed.), Scotland: The Challenge of Devolution by Kevin James Miscellaneous D. Petrie, Screening Scotland by James Davies....................137 C. Craig, The Modern Scottish Novel: Narrative and the ........141 National Imagination by Sharon Alker A. Fenton, The Northern Isles: Orkney and Shetland ............144 by George M. Brunsden G.W. Lockhart, The Scots and Their Oats;............................148 G.W. Lockhart, The Scots and Their Fish by Barbara C. Murison G.W. Mason, The Castles of Glasgow and the Clyde..............151 H.G. Slade, Glamis Castle by Mairi Cowan P. Galloway, The Cathedrals of Scotland by Mairi Cowan........154 WORKS RECEIVED ................................................................157 FRANK WATSON PRIZE..............................................................158 Scottish Tradition Vol. 26 2001 INTRODUCTION: SOME THOUGHTS ON THE NATURE OF SCOTTISH REGIMENTS ighland regiments or regiments of the line of Highland origin have long excited the imagination of writers, H historical and literary, and readers alike, a romantic relationship that dates from the Napoleonic wars. The poetry, literature and painting that in the wake of the Allied victory over Napoleon at Waterloo enshrined it as an historic moment - it is one of Sir Edward Creasy’s fifteen decisive battles and com- memorative medals were issued to all troops involved for the “first time in the history of the British army” - also elevated the Highland regiments to new heights in the British popular imagination. The image of the Highlanders’ square bristling with cold steel, the Scots steadfast as the French cavalry bears down on them, the piper playing “Cogadh na sith” within the square, captured the hearts of the English and quelled any lingering doubts about the loyalty of the Scots to the political entity that was the United Kingdom. With the entry of Ireland into the union in 1801, the pacification of one segment of the “Celtic fringe” was of no small import.1 Since Waterloo, the image of the Highland regiments has changed little; regimental fortunes have waxed and waned but they have maintained for themselves an image as an elite force, embodying the martial and tribal aspects that many would describe as central to the Scottish experience and perhaps, more importantly, have come to represent the maintenance of Scottish identity in the face of numerous pressures for acculturation. The articles in this special issue suggest that the Highland regiment experience is much more complex. Regiments repre- sent a variety of military experiences, both collectively and for the individual. The importance of understanding the regiment in 3 Scottish Tradition Vol. 26 2001 the context of the mercenary tradition rather than that of the clan or the prism of nation building is highlighted by Andrew Nicholl’s “For More than King and Country.” That the regiment is a useful unit for measuring social change as much as tradition and continuity is evident from Scott McLean’s “An Officer and a Gentleman”. The Scottish and British political experience is also a fruitful area to explore through the prism of recruitment. Was the recruitment of Highlander manpower a grand experi- ment in nation building or an extension of an intrusive state? These are some of the issues addressed by Ron Sunter and Andrew McKillop respectively. The topic of state building suggests the utility of examining regiments. The growth of the state, and nations, was an impor- tant development during the modern period. One could argue that the experience that the Highland regiments most clearly embody is the reduction of the Highland and Scottish culture during the 18th and 19th centuries by the British state and then that culture’s reconstruction within a new British Empire framework. Some suggest that the Highland regiments indeed represent a tremendous success story in the building of a national identity: a British identity. The paradox of the Highland regiments is that they can represent both the maintenance of the older culture while being both a key agent and a prime example of acculturation. Perhaps if there is one central theme that runs through the establishment of the Highland regiments it is that of the evolution of the British state and the gradual development of identifiable symbols of that state, shared symbols that would provide the framework for a national identity. In some ways Highland regiments represent what C.A. Bayly defines as “tribu- tary patriotisms,” national identities based on a rediscovery of indigenous languages, literatures or customs, all encouraged by the state and compatible with the new identity. Fostering a subordinate form of nationalism within the United Kingdom by the rediscovery, or construction, of indigenous customs was assimilation by patriotism: if the empire and the monarchy became the symbols of the new British national identity in the 19th century, the army and empire were the
Load more

Recommended publications
  • "For the Advancement of So Good a Cause": Hugh Mackay, the Highland War and the Glorious Revolution in Scotland
    W&M ScholarWorks Undergraduate Honors Theses Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects 4-2012 "For the Advancement of So Good a Cause": Hugh MacKay, the Highland War and the Glorious Revolution in Scotland Andrew Phillip Frantz College of William and Mary Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Frantz, Andrew Phillip, ""For the Advancement of So Good a Cause": Hugh MacKay, the Highland War and the Glorious Revolution in Scotland" (2012). Undergraduate Honors Theses. Paper 480. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses/480 This Honors Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects at W&M ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Undergraduate Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of W&M ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. “FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SO GOOD A CAUSE”: HUGH MACKAY, THE HIGHLAND WAR AND THE GLORIOUS REVOLUTION IN SCOTLAND A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts with Honors is History from the College of William and Mary in Virginia, by Andrew Phillip Frantz Accepted for ___________________________________ (Honors, High Honors, Highest Honors) _________________________________________ Nicholas Popper, Director _________________________________________ Paul Mapp _________________________________________ Simon Stow Williamsburg, Virginia April 30, 2012 Contents Figures iii Acknowledgements iv Introduction 1 Chapter I The Origins of the Conflict 13 Chapter II Hugh MacKay and the Glorious Revolution 33 Conclusion 101 Bibliography 105 iii Figures 1. General Hugh MacKay, from The Life of Lieutenant-General Hugh MacKay (1836) 41 2. The Kingdom of Scotland 65 iv Acknowledgements William of Orange would not have been able to succeed in his efforts to claim the British crowns if it were not for thousands of people across all three kingdoms, and beyond, who rallied to his cause.
    [Show full text]
  • A Bibliography of Works Relating to Scotland, 1916-1950. Edited by Philip D
    BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SCOTLAND A Bibliography of Works Relating to Scotland, 1916-1950. Edited by Philip D. Hanock, 2 vols., (1919-1960). George E. Cokayne. The Cmr.nlete Peera?,e of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kin~dorn, Extant, Extinct or Dormant. Revised edition. Edited by Vicary Gibbs, et al. 13 vols., (1910-1940). Scots Peerage, Founded on Wood's Edition of Sir Robert Douglas's Peerage of Scotland, Containin~ An Historical and GenealoP,ical Account of the Nobility of that Kinr,dom. Edited by Jarn~s B. Paul, 9 vols., (1904-1914). Thomas Fuller, The History of Worthies of England (1662). The Dictionary of National Biography from the Earliest Times to 1900. Edited by Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee. 22 vols., 2nd edition. (1949-1950). Patrick F. Tytler, History of Scotland, 9 vols. · (1828-1843). Rev. _Thomas Thor.1pson, A History of the Scottish People, 6 vols., (1895). John Prebble, The Lion In The Korth: One Thousand Years of Scotland's History, (1971)* John Prebble, Glencoe (1966) * John Prebble, Culloden (1967) * John Prebble, The Highland Clearances (1963) * John Duncan Mackie, A History of SCotland (1962) * Robert Laird Backie, A Short History of SCotland (1963) William Croft Dickinson, Scotland From the Earliest Times to 1603 (1961). George S. Pryde, Scotland from 1603 to the Present, (1962). George S. Pryde, Central anq Local Govern~ent in Scotland Since 1707, (1960). T.C. Smout, A History of the Scottish People (1969) * Janet R. Glover, The Story of Scotland, (1060). * John H. Burton, The History of Scotland from Agricola's Invasion to the Extinction of the Last Jacobite Insurrection, 8 vols.
    [Show full text]
  • Jacobitism and the Creation of a Scottish National Identity
    “Here’s Tae Us! Wha’s Like Us?” Jacobitism and the Creation of a Scottish National Identity by Nicole A. Robinson Wittenberg University April 15, 2003 CONTENTS I. Introduction . 1-4 II. Historiography . 5-23 III. Historical Jacobitism . 24-39 IV. The End of Highland Life . 40-52 V. Highland Culture Revived . 53-73 VI. Conclusion . 74-76 Appendix 1 - Important Events and Legislation . 77-78 Appendix 2 – Stuart and Hanoverian Dynasties . 79 Appendix 3 – The Skye Boat Song . 80 Appendix 4 – Charles Edward in Tartan . 81 Works Cited . 82-84 1 I. Introduction Winston Churchill once claimed that “of all the small nations of this earth, perhaps only the ancient Greeks surpass the Scots in their contribution to mankind.”1 Scotland has produced a plethora of important writers, philosophers, historians, and scientists. During the Enlightenment, Scotland’s capital, Edinburgh, was called the “Athens of the north,”2 a tribute to the number of influential figures who lived or were educated there during the eighteenth century. Such famous and significant figures as David Hume, Andrew Carnegie, Alexander Graham Bell, Dr. David Livingstone, Sir Walter Scott, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle were Scottish. Despite influence of Scotland’s famous progeny, the country is not known for its contributions to the sciences and the arts. Instead, the mention of Scotland brings to most minds such things as kilts, tartan, bagpipes, clanship, and other tourist images that were primarily Highland customs before the eighteenth century. This vision of a timeless Celtic Scotland is in opposition to the reality that existed before the eighteenth century.
    [Show full text]
  • Scottish Highland Soldiers in the French and Indian War
    W&M ScholarWorks Undergraduate Honors Theses Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects 4-2017 “No Great Mischief if They Should Fall”: Scottish Highland Soldiers in the French and Indian War Douglas Breton College of William and Mary Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses Part of the Canadian History Commons, Military History Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Breton, Douglas, "“No Great Mischief if They Should Fall”: Scottish Highland Soldiers in the French and Indian War" (2017). Undergraduate Honors Theses. Paper 1071. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses/1071 This Honors Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects at W&M ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Undergraduate Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of W&M ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. “No Great Mischief if They Should Fall”: Scottish Highland Soldiers in the French and Indian War A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in History from The College of William and Mary By Douglas Breton Accepted for ___________________________________ (Honors, High Honors, Highest Honors) ________________________________________ Julie Richter, Director ________________________________________ Paul Mapp ________________________________________ Giulia Pacini Williamsburg, VA April 27, 2017 Contents Acknowledgements 1 Introduction 2 Chapter I 7 Chapter II 31 Epilogue 81 Bibliography 99 1 Acknowledgements At times, writing this honors thesis felt every bit as difficult as forming the Highland regiments themselves. Unlike William Pitt the Elder, I will not attempt to take all the credit for the success of this project.
    [Show full text]
  • Hamish Henderson
    THE WOMEN OF THE GLEN: SOME THOUGHTS ON HIGHLAND HISTORY HAMISH HENDERSON Historians who write about the Highland Clearances — the infamous mass evictions in which (as Karl Marx stated in Kapital) areas as big as German principalities were systematically and brutally cleared of their inhabitants — invariably refer to the extraordinary lack of resistance on the part of the victims during this cataclysmic period of capitalist "social engineering"; yet none (as far as I know) has ever ventured anything like a convincing answer to the really baffling question which must surely occur to anyone reading the history on record: why was it the women, rather than the men, who offered such resistance as there was? In his book on The Highland Clearances, John Prebble describes one such scene: Four miles down the glen, as they came through a wood by the march of Greenyard, their road was blocked by sixty or seventy women, with a dozen or less men standing behind them. The women had drawn their red shawls over their heads, and were waiting silently. Taylor, the Fiscal, and Stewart got down from the carriage and walked to the head of the police. Taylor shouted to the women in Gaelic and told them that they must clear the way for the Law, and when they did not move he took out the Riot Act and began to read it... The constables went forward with their truncheons lifted, and, according to the Inverness Courier (which got the information from Taylor), the Strathcarron men immediately ran for the hills, leaving their women alone.
    [Show full text]
  • The Battle That Made Britain?
    The battle that made Britain? A study of the historiographical debate on the significance of the Battle of Culloden in 1746 for Scotland, Britain and the world Sunniva Christina Ruthven Hatlestad-Hall Master’s thesis in History at the Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History UNIVERSITY OF OSLO Autumn 2019 II The battle that made Britain? A study of the historiographical debate on the significance of the Battle of Culloden in 1746 for Scotland, Britain and the world III Ó Sunniva Christina Ruthven Hatlestad-Hall 2019 The battle that made Britain? A study of the historiographical debate on the significance of the Battle of Culloden in 1746 for Scotland, Britain and the world Sunniva Christina Ruthven Hatlestad-Hall http://www.duo.uio.no Print: Webergs Printshop, Oslo Illustration: Traditional depiction of the Battle of Culloden in 1746 called An Incident in the Rebellion of 1745 by David Morier (source: Wikimedia Commons) IV Abstract On the morning of 16th April 1746, the Jacobites fought a British army supported by the Government on Culloden Moor in northern Scotland. The battle was short, but brutal. Still, many historians claim that the battle was of major importance for consecutive Scottish, British and international politics, as well as the subsequent social and cultural development in Scotland. This thesis attempts to answer to what extent historians perceive the Battle of Culloden as significant, by exploring the political, social and cultural implications of the battle. It also tries to establish whether or not Culloden was ‘the battle that made Britain’. This is done by identifying three distinct scholarly views in the historiographical debate, categorising relevant historians within these traditions, and accordingly, using this as a basis for the discussion on the various claimed consequences of Jacobitism and Culloden.
    [Show full text]
  • Sir Walter Scott in the Western District, 1836-1851
    Sir Walter Scott in the Western District, 1836-1851 by Robert Bruce Thomson B. Ec., B.A. (Hons). Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Deakin University January, 2013 1 Acknowledgements Supervisors: Principal Supervisor – Professor David McCooey Assistant Supervisor – Doctor Geoffrey Boucher Associate Supervisor – Adjunct-Professor Stephen Alomes Awards: The A.G.L. Shaw Summer Research Fellowship – State Library of Victoria The Philip Brown History Award – Deakin University Grants: Higher Degree by Research Candidates General Assistance – Faculty of Arts and Education, Deakin University International Conference Travel Allowance (NeMLA, USA, 2012) – Faculty of Arts and Education, Deakin University 2 Abstract This thesis, Sir Walter Scott in the Western District, 1836-1851, does not progress smoothly from an initial hypothesis to a neat resolution of predicted results. New explanations were required as the investigation moved from the presumptions of New Historicism and Discourse Analysis to the emerging fields of Reader-History and Affective Reading. The thesis proposal places a series of popular fictional texts, Scott’s Waverley Novels, within a contemporary social discourse, the Doctrine of (economic) Improvement, as a way of extending conventional historicism to include actual reader-response. The research question asks if a discursive link can be established between (1) the first phase of the Highland Clearances from 1790 to 1820, (2) the publication of Waverley, Rob Roy, and Redgauntlet from 1814 to 1824, and (3) Aboriginal Dispossession in the Western District of Victoria from 1836 to 1851. An author- based discursive link is readily established. The research method for ascertaining responses to Scott’s fiction involved the reading of diaries, letters, and memoirs from a sample of 30 ‘Squatters’ who occupied licensed ‘runs’ in the early years of colonial settlement.
    [Show full text]
  • 127179818.23.Pdf
    National Library of Scotland niiimiiHiii *6000425470* 0C3.5H55. Sfe'HflO'b SCOTTISH HISTORY SOCIETY FIFTH SERIES VOLUME 13 Scodand and the Americas, c. 1650 - c. 1939: A Documentary Source Book Scotland and the Americas, c. 1650 - c. 1939: A Documentary Source Book edited by Allan I. Macinnes, Marjory-Ann D. Harper & Linda G. Fryer EDINBURGH printed for the Scottish History Society by LOTHIAN PRINT LTD, EDINBURGH 2002 Scottish History Society 2002 The date of 2000 on the spine refers to the nominal in the Society’s annual series of publications. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data: A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 0-906245-22-2 Printed in Great Britain CONTENTS Acknowledgements vi Abbreviations viii List of Contributors x INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER ONE: PERSUADERS, PROCESSES AND PERILS 32 CHAPTER TWO:THE ENREPRENEURIAL EMIGRANT 70 CHAPTERTHREE:THE MILITARY EMIGRANT 97 CHAPTER FOUR: SCOTTISH SOJOURNERS 132 CHAPTER FIVE: THE GAEL IN AMERICA 169 CHAPTER SIX: SETTLEMENT AND RESETTLEMENT 207 CHAPTER SEVEN: ANCHORS AND ASSIMILATION 252 SCOTLAND 292 THE ATLANTIC SEABOARD 293 THE CANADIAN PROVINCES 294 THE UNITED STATES 295 SOUTH AMERICA 296 INDEX 297 vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Permission to reproduce documents was granted by the following individuals and institutions, citations being given in parentheses in cases where identification would otherwise be unclear. Aberdeen County Archives; the Earl of Airlie (NAS, GD16/34/359/11); the Aldrich Public Library, Barre, Vermont; the Archives of Ontario, Toronto (Adam Hope fonds, F 484. NAS, RH 1/2/612/8); the British Library (Egerton MS 2395 f.632v); the John Carter Brown Library, Rhode Island; Roderick D.H.
    [Show full text]
  • A Trans-Atlantic Comparison of the Cherokee Removal and the Highland Clearances Lisa Brown
    University of New Mexico UNM Digital Repository History ETDs Electronic Theses and Dissertations 7-3-2012 Legacy of Betrayal: A Trans-Atlantic Comparison of the Cherokee Removal and the Highland Clearances Lisa Brown Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/hist_etds Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Brown, Lisa. "Legacy of Betrayal: A Trans-Atlantic Comparison of the Cherokee Removal and the Highland Clearances." (2012). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/hist_etds/11 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Electronic Theses and Dissertations at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in History ETDs by an authorized administrator of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Lisa Joan Brown Candidate History Department This dissertation is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication: Approved by the Dissertation Committee: Margaret Connell-Szasz Chairperson Kimberly Gauderman Charlie Steen Colin Calloway i LEGACY OF BETRAYAL: A TRANS-ATLANTIC COMPARISON OF THE CHEROKE REMOVAL AND THE HIGHLAND CLEARANCES by LISA J. BROWN B.A., History-University of Texas at Austin, 1997 M.A., History-Central Michigan University, 2000 DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy History The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico May 2012 ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost I need to thank my parents, Dwight and Karen Brown, without whose constant love, support and encouragement I would never have accomplished this goal. As a professor and a teacher, they instilled in me a love of learning that defines who I am and still continues to drive me.
    [Show full text]
  • Stowe's Sunny Memories of Highland Slavery
    2 Stowe’s sunny memories of Highland slavery Judie Newman [They], counting the natives as their slaves and their prey, disposed without scruple of them and all that they had, just as it suited their own interest or convenience, reckless of the wrongs and misery they inflicted on these simple,unresisting people ...removed from their comfortable houses and farms in the interior.1 An almost sublime instance of the benevolent employment of superior wealth and power in shortening the struggles of advancing civilisation.2 Two descriptions of the same system: one from Harriet Beecher Stowe, staunch abolitionist and unwavering champion of the oppressed African American, the other from one of her most relentless opponents. But which is which? In this case the system is not slavery but the Highland Clearances, and it is the second quotation which comes from Stowe, whereas the first is taken from Donald MacLeod’s furious riposte to her. MacLeod’s account of the forced eviction of the tenants of the Duchess of Sutherland, their homes burnt over their heads, their surviving families removed to the barren coastal lands, the ‘fortunate’ ones becoming unwilling emigrants to Canada, spares no punches in its descriptions, which draw upon eye-witness acounts, and his own bitter experience during the clearance of the entire Naver valley. It stands in strong contrast to Stowe’s glowing depiction of the happy condition of the Sutherland tenantry in their model cottages under the benevolent control of the Duchess. The latter had sponsored an address against slavery, ‘An Affectionate and Christian Address of Many Thousands of Women of Great Britain and Ireland to Their Sisters the Women of the United States of America’ signed by some 576,000 British women in 1852, and pre- sented to Stowe at the Duchess’s palatial residence, Stafford House, on 7 May 1853.
    [Show full text]
  • Battle of Culloden Designation Record and Full Report Contents
    The Inventory of Historic Battlefields – Battle of Culloden The Inventory of Historic Battlefields is a list of nationally important battlefields in Scotland. A battlefield is of national importance if it makes a contribution to the understanding of the archaeology and history of the nation as a whole, or has the potential to do so, or holds a particularly significant place in the national consciousness. For a battlefield to be included in the Inventory, it must be considered to be of national importance either for its association with key historical events or figures; or for the physical remains and/or archaeological potential it contains; or for its landscape context. In addition, it must be possible to define the site on a modern map with a reasonable degree of accuracy. The aim of the Inventory is to raise awareness of the significance of these nationally important battlefield sites and to assist in their protection and management for the future. Inventory battlefields are a material consideration in the planning process. The Inventory is also a major resource for enhancing the understanding, appreciation and enjoyment of historic battlefields, for promoting education and stimulating further research, and for developing their potential as attractions for visitors. Designation Record and Full Report Contents Name - Context Alternative Name(s) Battlefield Landscape Date of Battle - Location Local Authority - Terrain NGR Centred - Condition Date of Addition to Inventory Archaeological and Physical Date of Last Update Remains and Potential
    [Show full text]
  • The Highland Clearances Brief Account of Events
    The Scottish History Society Learning Resource C O T LL N IG EA IT ER E F E P RAGMENTA N The Highland Clearances Brief account of events From their very inception, the Highland Clearances have been among the most controversial subjects in modern Scottish history. There is no historical or contemporary consensus on the clearances – their causes, methods and results, both in the short and long term – and picking a path through this controversial area can be problematic. Much recent historical work has been done on the subject, however, so there is no shortage of material for the interested reader. We start here with a very brief account of the key events, from c.1750 to the twentieth century: 1750-1780: Agricultural change and ‘Improvement’ in a British context Although often associated with resistance to change or ‘progress’, the Scottish Highlands had experienced revolutionary change in the eighteenth century. After the convulsions of the Jacobite rising and Culloden (1745-6), a new ethos of agricultural, economic and social ‘Improvement’ spread across the region, led by a handful of prominent improving landowners (Sir John Sinclair of Ulster, for example), professional surveyors and writers. Examples of estate improvement were set by the Forfeited Estates, the 11 estates forfeited and administered by the government as punishment for prominent landowners who had taken up the Jacobite cause. Drainage, enclosure, consolidation of larger farms, the introduction of new stock (sheep over black cattle, principally) and crop rotation became widespread. Essentially, Highland estates were being re-drawn along commercial lines, with increasing rents the target for owners and managers.
    [Show full text]