Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of Selkirk

[Phil]

I watched a fascinating documentary last night about the Scots in Canada and how they were instrumental in colonising the country. What was particularly interesting was the involvement of Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of Selkirk who, unlike his highland aristocratic peers, spent his own money to help dispossessed highlanders start new lives in Canada. It was not very successful but at least he tried. A heartwarming story that shows not all Scots landowners at the time were motivated by greed.

[tricam]

My family immigrated from Scotland to Prince Edward Island via the Selkirk settlement.

Do you remember the name of the documentary?

-eric

[Phil]

It was a BBC documentary - "Scots Who Found the Modern World
2. Canada "
and is on iPlayer here - http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode..._World_Canada/ . Not sure if you can see it outwith the UK though.

Here is s summary -
"For over two centuries, Scots blazed a trail into unknown corners of the world, journeyed in the harshest of conditions and helped forge nations and map continents.

Few countries have been as influenced by Scottish explorers as Canada. Scots dominated the country's lucrative fur trade and often ventured deep into the Arctic unlocking long-standing geographical mysteries.

This film follows the exploits of Scottish explorers in Canada, including John Rae, Simon Fraser and James Clark Ross, as they battled some of the world's most forbidding and beautiful landscapes."

[macwilkin]

I've always felt sorry for John Rae, the HBC doctor and explorer who suggested that the Franklin Arctic expedition resulted to cannibalism, based on his dealings with the Inuit. A vicious smear campaign was started against him by Lady Franklin, widow of Sir John, and Charles Dickens. Thankfully, historians have vindicated Dr. Rae.

The Earl of Selkirk's Red River Colony was the source of contention with another Canadian-Scot, Alexander Mackenzie, who saw it as a threat to the fur trade.

T.

[Peter Crowe]

An interesting topic Phil, and one which I believe to be more subtly nuanced than is often presented in popular accounts.

The Highland Clearances was not a topic I studied within my Scottish History Honours courses at Glasgow University (I mainly concentrated on the period from the Scottish Reformation in 1560 to the end of the Enlightenment era c.1789, and Scotland's political developments from 1900-1999), but from the little I know, I believe the story of the Highland Clearances (largely an early 19th century phenomena) is more complex than the usual 'anglicised landowners throwing the indigenous population off the land to replace them with sheep' narrative prevalent in the popular consciousness (and often viewed with little appreciation for the historical context in which they occurred) . Although it is true that many of the Lairds were being educated at English Public Schools (private boarding schools) and larger scale pastoral farming was the major effect on land use. Similar developments in land use and rural depopulation had occurred in much of the rural Lowlands about two generations previously.

There were of course some (by no means all) landowners from among the traditional gentry indifferent to the plight of their tenants, but many of the estates had been acquired by Banking Houses due to the indebtedness of their erstwhile Lairds, and those banks being joint-stock companies were keen to maximise a return on their new assets. Some estates were sold to those with no previous connection to the land or it's people who had a similar desire to make a return on their investment. The unpalatable truth is also that with the preceding agricultural revolution in Lowland Scotland (and England), industrialisation and population growth, the traditional way of life in the Highlands was under threat, but more from the prevailing economic system and orthodoxy than from government policy (which at that time was Laisser Faire) to depopulate the Highlands and send the Highlanders to the New World.

Many of the displaced Highlanders migrated within Scotland, and I would suggest that if one looks at a telephone directory in the central belt of Scotland today about 30-40% of the names are Highland names. That is before you even consider daughters of highland named families marrying husbands with Lowland Scots/Irish/English names.

[Sheep In Wolf's Clothing]

There's a good book called Scots in Canada by Jenni Calder.It covers the migration of the diaspora from the eastern provinces to the prairies and beyond. I thought it was a good general history of the contribution that the Scots made to Canada.
Sara

[macwilkin]

There's a good book called Scots in Canada by Jenni Calder.It covers the migration of the diaspora from the eastern provinces to the prairies and beyond. I thought it was a good general history of the contribution that the Scots made to Canada.
Sara

I would also recommend Great Scots! How the Scots Created Canada by Matthew Shaw:

http://www.hrtlandbooks.com/books/greatscots.htm

T.

[creagdhubh]

I would also recommend Great Scots! How the Scots Created Canada by Matthew Shaw:

http://www.hrtlandbooks.com/books/greatscots.htm

T.

Fantastic book!

[ThistleDown]

I would also suggest "How the Scots Created Canada" by Paul Cowan and, for those who want a less populist version of the Highland clearences, "The People's Clearance 1770-1815" by Prof. J.M. Bumsted and "From Chiefs to Landlords" by Robert A Dodgshon.