The Clearances

[Detroitpete]

I think it was in the first two chapters of Meyer's work that lead me to a footnote and further reading. I'll suggest Seton and Arnot (I think) Prisoners of the '45, 1928.

See what happens when you jump into this pool with both feet! Is there ANYTHING on this site that doesn't lead to some sort of obsession?

[Ozark Ridge Rider]

Hey guys, im new to the forum, but I've been researching my genealogy and have reached the time period of the clearances and you guys are pretty knowledgable about the subject.

This illustrates again the valuable things about this forum. Somebody digs up a thread a year and a half old and furnishes interesting reading (and education) to a lot of us. Now I have an expanded reading list - again. Todd, may have to consult with you this weekend about which to start on.

Dan

[Stratherrick]

JS Sanders

Thanks for bringing up The Clearances. I have to measure my words about it as I've, in the past, stepped over the line into political musings, but I'll give it my best to stay on the right side now. You say:

It is worth remembering, that while the rest of Scotland was permitting the expulsion of Highlanders, it was also forming the highly romanticized notion of kilts & tartan.

Aye, Scott and the painter, Landseer, drew up a view of the Highlands far removed from the true picture of what was going on on the ground. Many an Edinburgh, or London, wall is festooned with a tranquil view, deaf to the cries of those being burnt out of their homes and sent packing into winter wastelands.

Following on from the works of John Prebble, though there are a number of more modern expositions on the subject, another excellent book, a short novel by Iain Crichton-Smith, called "Consider the lilies" has recently been reprinted. It really looks at the human cost of the events.

Finally, in agreement with some previous posts, having read Scottish history for most of my 50 years on the planet, I'd say it's nigh on impossible to understand The Clearances without reference to Culloden and IT'S aftermath of literal rape and pillage.

Thankfully, my family glen/strath, Stratherrick, was spared the worst of The Clearances as Lord Lovat was appreciative of how many fighting men he could call upon from that long, wide valley. The same could not be said of 'Butcher' Cumberland's men who raped my ancestors, burned their crofts and took away their cattle and, hence, their livelihoods.

What a good thread!

Slainte

Bruce

[The Kilted Reverend]

A great truth is that those who delve into history thinking that their ancestors were always "The Good Guys" are bound for disappointment.


Jamie

Jamie and Rabble,

This is very true and hit home like a ton of bricks with me. I had started to trace my Harris line back and found that pre-Civil War day my line were very wealthy....and slave owners.

This comes in the line of a kid whose was loved into the ministry by a black pastor.

It's our history good, bad, or ugly.

Slainte,
Rev.

[Jaggy thistle]

To a certain extent forcing people to emigrate to USA and Canada was the best thing that could have happend to them ,If you have wandered in the hills and glens where they lived it is easy to see that they could never have had more than a bare existance there . A much better life could be had abroad after the very great hardship of the long voyage and getting estabished , some chiefs even subsidised the fares so it was not all bad

[BoldHighlander]

Jamie and Rabble,

This is very true and hit home like a ton of bricks with me. I had started to trace my Harris line back and found that pre-Civil War day my line were very wealthy....and slave owners.

This comes in the line of a kid whose was loved into the ministry by a black pastor.

It's our history good, bad, or ugly.

Slainte,
Rev.

Amen!

And the thing we must also remember in looking at our ancestors is that we have the benefit of hind sight. They lived as they only knew was right or correct for their circumstance.

Their blood flows in our veins, and helps to make us what we are today.
All we can do is love them for who they were, warts & all

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

I think that if one is going to frame the causes of the Highland clearances solely in terms of some sort of "post Culloden" Highland experience, then I'd have to reluctantly agree with Henry Ford's oft quoted line that "history is bunk". For some land owners the clearances were due, in great measure, to an economic shift in government policy occasioned in part by the staggering costs of the Napoleonic Wars. In other words, taxes. Agrarian blight on a scale comparable to that in Ireland also played its role in the depopulation of the Highlands and also in other parts of rural Scotland.

While it is popular to blame the clearances on "greedy land owners", to the point that this anti-land owing mantra has achieved an almost theological status, the real causes go far beyond the actions of a few factors acting on the instructions of those in control of encumbered estates.

I'm sorry, but "pop histories" and novels about the plight of "the poor Highlander" -- as emotionally stirring as they may be -- are as poor a substitute for real, in depth, history as "Uncle Tom's Cabin" would be if one wanted to actually know the root causes of the American war between the States.

[macwilkin]

I think that if one is going to frame the causes of the Highland clearances solely in terms of some sort of "post Culloden" Highland experience, then I'd have to reluctantly agree with Henry Ford's oft quoted line that "history is bunk". For some land owners the clearances were due, in great measure, to an economic shift in government policy occasioned in part by the staggering costs of the Napoleonic Wars. In other words, taxes. Agrarian blight on a scale comparable to that in Ireland also played its role in the depopulation of the Highlands and also in other parts of rural Scotland.

While it is popular to blame the clearances on "greedy land owners", to the point that this anti-land owing mantra has achieved an almost theological status, the real causes go far beyond the actions of a few factors acting on the instructions of those in control of encumbered estates.

I'm sorry, but "pop histories" and novels about the plight of "the poor Highlander" -- as emotionally stirring as they may be -- are as poor a substitute for real, in depth, history as "Uncle Tom's Cabin" would be if one wanted to actually know the root causes of the American war between the States.

If anything, Scott, you've actually proved Mr. Ford wrong with this post -- real history is never bunk, regardless of what some may think.

As an aside, did you know that Harriett Beecher Stowe was a good friend of the Duke and Duchess of Sutherland, and wrote a very glowing account of them in a book entitled Sunny Memories?

T.

[Phil]

I think there were a variety of landowners when it came to evicting people from their lands and to tar them all with the same brush is perhaps an injustice. While there were, undoubtedly, dreadful injustices such as the poor souls cleared out of the Sutherland Estates in the north, where women and children were burnt out of their homes in Strathnaver, there were other people elsewhere who were encouraged to uproot and emigrate to other lands where they might, and probably did, flourish much more than their impoverished country would have allowed them. Where would America, Canada and Australia be nowadays without these hardy immigrants who had nothing to lose and everything to gain?

[macwilkin]

I think there were a variety of landowners when it came to evicting people from their lands and to tar them all with the same brush is perhaps an injustice. While there were, undoubtedly, dreadful injustices such as the poor souls cleared out of the Sutherland Estates in the north, where women and children were burnt out of their homes in Strathnaver, there were other people elsewhere who were encouraged to uproot and emigrate to other lands where they might, and probably did, flourish much more than their impoverished country would have allowed them. Where would America, Canada and Australia be nowadays without these hardy immigrants who had nothing to lose and everything to gain?

An excellent point, Phil -- that is why so many of us "colonials" are proud of the contributions of our Scottish ancestors to our own nations.

T.