The Clearances

[JSFMACLJR]

Not to detract from this thread, but I have to pleasure of being a decendant of a gang of post-civil war outlaws that settled in the area known as Crowley's Ridge in northeastern Arkansas. I know that my family wasn't the good guys, at least once. Still, it is my heritage, and since I wans't there or a participant, I am not ashamed of it.

Now, back to the clearances... Where can I find more RELIABLE information. I have no Idea what this thread is actually aboout. I expected a rant about a clearance sale or something... now I really feel ignorant... LOL
Robert

Some good sources have been suggested in this thread. I'd suggest you begin by checking them out. And of course there is always http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highland_Clearances

[vipermcgee]

Some good sources have been suggested in this thread. I'd suggest you begin by checking them out. And of course there is always http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highland_Clearances

Thank you. I began reading and skipped ahead to post after reading Jamie's comment.

Robert

[dfmacliam]

I found my family history interesting.. on leaving Scotland.. James Claghorn fought in the Battle of Dunbar.. captured and survived the march.. was one of 240 sent to the Colonies.. his descendents are listed in the Who's Who of Martha's Vineyard.. and a grandson was George Claghorn, the builder of the USS Constitution... When I first learned of this history, I was kind of disappointed there was not a Highland connection.... but not anymore....

It was not the blight, or clearences.. or whatever.. that sent James to the Colonies.. .. just fighting for what he believed in...Scotland

[Ozark Ridge Rider]

One thing I do know for certain is that no one living now has any right to judge historical people and their actions. The fact is the world is a very different place every 50 years changes thing immensely.

What our grand parents held as the norm (racism was institutionalised as was sexism, homosexuals were locked up and or chemically castrated etc) we would find terrible. What we hold as the norm now, one day will be judged by others.

Its easy to sit here in our ivory towers and judge the clearances, but they were different times with different values and different people.

Right. As one who had ancestors on both sides in America's civil war, and who likely had ancestors on both sides at Culloden, and all of whom suffered for what they believed in, I am just profoundly grateful for the heritage they left to me.

I owe them much respect. As much as anything for the fact that, whether they were on the "right" side, or the "wrong" side, they were survivors. They did what they had to for what they believed in and just to get by.

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

But on a side note, obviously MAc' Rath' was upset by my comment, and deleted his post, if you would like to continue this discusiion in private please feel free to PM me, and I assure you it will be an open and honest converstaion between us.Phil C

I actually deleted my post because I felt dragging the Darien catastrophe (1698) into the argument as possibly the economic trigger that fired off the clearances of the 18th and 19th centuries was really prolonging the agony of what I considered to be a rather well-worn, if not worn out, topic.

I did find your posting interesting, but flawed in its one-sided presentation of the conflict between the Maori and the European settlers. As any first year student of the lead up to the Maori wars knows, the Maori were in the vanguard of asking the British to step in to what was a lawless outpost prior to New Zealand being annexed by London.

However, as this forum is about kilts and kilt wearing-- and thus, by extension, tied to things Scottish (hence "X Marks the Scot")-- I really didn't think an on-going discussion about the 19th century British colonial expansion in the Southern hemisphere was really germane to the core topics at hand.

[Stratherrick]

The Clearances are more than just a collection of ephemera to be found captured in a dusty document or rusted artefact. Their causes, as has been discussed, are many with various tipping points that made them more possible, if not inevitable. Their effect carries across the centuries quite rightly, not just for adding to the Scottish diaspora, but for their shuddering breaking from traditional ways that served the clan, the family, so well.

The minutiae of the detail, the kilted clansman and his family, the standing at the dockside waiting for the boat to a new world, can never cover over the harshness with which some were evicted. As I mentioned before, my family strath, Stratherrick, suffered less during The Clearances than after Culloden for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was that the great battle was fought on our home patch. Retribution was always going to wrought on a grand scale. Raping and burning and taking away livelihood was seen then as just punishment for impudent "savages".

The raping might have stopped by the time torches were being lit to destroy crofts in the glens, but it is the harshness with which The Clearances were carried out in many quarters that stuns the senses. Sure, let's not get caught up in the whys and wherefores as to how it all came to be, but let us not forget that the psyche of a people was ripped apart and flogged as bare as the hills they left behind.

Us Scots are made of tough stuff. Like for many peoples, our homeland is a harsh place in which to survive. We took our ability to thrive even under the most severe testing and have put it to good use wherever we have landed. But, being strong in character should not make us soft in the head.

Quite rightly, this forum is about kilts and everything that goes along with them. That includes history as everything has a history. The fact that those affected by The Clearances were kilt-wearing cousins of ours is just one of the explanations as to why this board has contributions from around the globe.

What we should never do, however, is do as the Victorians did and, for example, buy into the English artist Landseer's false picture of life in the Highlands at the time. We should not be so foolish. To me, it's not being either sentimental or provocative to discuss The Clearances as part of a historical debate on the way kilts have spread out across our planet. The world is a richer place because of it, in my humble opinion.

Slainte

Bruce

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[Urchurdan]

The Clearances - or at least their residual effect, lasted long after Culloden, my father and his brothers all left school at eleven years of age to work on the croft. As there was not a living to be made for a large family, the brothers left home whenever they came of age, one ended up in Canada, two to New Zealand, one to England with my father being the least far travelled - he came south as many young Highlanders did and joined the Glasgow Police.
All this took place not in the 18th Century, but in the twentieth. I never met my paternal Granparents, hard work and poor living conditions lead them both to premature deaths.
Other people have spoken about the Clan Chiefs, and how they remained in their big houses while their kinsmen were forced to leave the Country, I would point out, that this was not true of all Chiefs, especially the ones who took part in the'45, most of them were forced into exile as well. my own Clan Chief is an American.
Another point I picked up on, was the lack of knowledge about Scottish History, I was born shortly after the Second World War, and back then, we were only taught 'British' ie usually English History. I could have told you as a youngster when the Battle of Hastings took place, but nothing about Culloden.
Since the advent of the new Scottish Parliament, that has changed, and there is a new emergence of Scottish pride and sense of Nationhood, and children are now being taught Scottish History.
This has been a very good post, which I have enjoyed thoroughly, thank you all.