HIGHLAND CLEARANCES, HENRY DUNDAS, AND THE SCOTTISH SLAVE TRADE: Oh, and the Duke of Sutherland

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In HIGHLAND CLEARANCES, HENRY DUNDAS, AND THE SCOTTISH SLAVE TRADE: And the Duke of Sutherland Scottish history tour guides Bruce Fummey links three of the tales from Scotlands History that are too often obscured. At the time of filming we are in the middle of a discussion of Black Lives Matter #BLM. The debate about racial justice has often focused on controversial statues, Henry Dundas the most prominent. The Scottish slave trade is almost forgotten in our consciousness, but the Highland clearances remain.
Even Robert the Bruce has been bizarrely brought into the recent statue debate. I hope this video provides a broad context
Three ways to help Scotland History Tours video productions at www.scotlandhi...
Here's a video explaining the three ways to help me make more videos • Crowdfunding Options t...
If you enjoy the Scotland History Tours videos then you can help support on a one off or regular basis by making a donation at Buy Me a Coffee Just click the link
www.buymeacoff...
Drone pilots were Liam McNamara
and Alan Stewart / @scottish-m3
Thanks to Rob Gibson for the photograph of The Duke of Sutherland.
Scotland History Tours is here for people who want to learn about Scottish history and get ideas for Scottish history tours. I try to make videos which tell you tales from Scotland's past and give you information about key dates in Scottish history and historical places to visit in Scotland. Not all videos are tales from Scotland's history, some of them are about men from Scotland's past or women from Scotland's past. Basically the people who made Scotland. From April 2020 onward I've tried to give ideas for historic days out in Scotland. Essentially these are days out in Scotland for adults who are interested in historical places to visit in Scotland.
As one of Scotland history tour guides people ask: Help me plan a Scottish holiday, or help me plan a Scottish vacation of your from the US. So from April 2020 I've tried to give a bit of history, but some places of interest in Scotland as well.

Опубликовано:

30 сен 2024

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Комментарии : 733

@ScotlandHistoryTours 4 года назад

Here are three ways you can help me make more video productions. Just click the link www.scotlandhistorytours.co.uk/support

@julianshepherd2038 3 года назад

Isn't English a Germanic language not Latin ?

@julianshepherd2038 3 года назад

Also could you mention the enclosures acts that cleared the English off common land in England.? They might use race as an excuse but it's about power, money and class. Oh and the transition from feudalism to capitalism. I really liked the video but a 13 part series would suit me better. L we get on BBC Scotland is that failed archeology guy. Kneel Oliver.

@ScotlandHistoryTours 3 года назад

🥱🥱😴

@buccaneersfan7948 3 года назад

You're right. All Lives Matter. No one deserves to be a slave. God created us all equal. Keep exposing the truth bud 👍.

@mitchelljm1617 2 года назад

Mate you are brilliant!

@janecooper3142 4 года назад

It needs adding - the Highland crofters that were 'cleared' out had their own sheep. Little, primitive, short-tailed sheep that they'd been farming back in AD83 and for thousands of years since then. Those little sheep were also cleared out with their croft owners and replaced with larger, white, longtailed sheep that had been introduced into Britain by the Romans. Those little sheep had provided the essential wool for clothing, bedding & more (Viking sails were made of wool), plus milk for cheese that could be stored over the winter as well as meat from older animals. The crofters only had tiny flocks and they were brought into sheepfolds by the croft house at night for protection. Without their little dunface sheep the crofters would have struggled to survive in the Highlands. Next time you rightly talk about the 'English' sheep driving out the crofters, please don't forget that the little dunface sheep were also driven out. The Scottish Dunface or Tanface sheep were thought to have been driven to extinction, but a few survived on St Kilda, and when that population was 'evacuated' with most of their sheep being sold to finance the evacuation, a tiny feral flock was left behind on Boreray island.

@shesaknitter 3 года назад

Thanks so much for this additional information. Fascinating!

@earlofmar7987 3 года назад

That was interesting. Are you a historian or in animal husbandry?

@leighgreendog9543 3 года назад

And so an inner suburb exists at Melbourne Oz. Settled by those lucky to survive. Nay sheep sadly

@gustavmeyrink_2.0 3 года назад

Those perfidious Romans and their large livestock! I am Friesian and we too had a run in with the Romans due to livestock size. At some point the Romans made it to Friesia and we negotiated a kind of tax to avoid war. The tax was a certain number of cowhides because the Roman Empire ran on leather ie they used for everything from sandals via uniforms to straps which held their siege machines together. So when a year later they returned to collect their hides they said our cattle and therefore the hides were too small and demanded 3x as many. That was too much for my ancestors to bear so war it was. There were two battles. The Romans lost the first and we crucified 900 of them. The Romans also lost the 2nd but instead of risking crucifixion 2500 Roman soldiers committed suicide (not long before the Romans had crucified 6000 survivors from Spartacus' revolt, a story well known throughout Europe). As Julius Caesar once remarked 'you cannot subdue the Friesians because they have no kings' and indeed Archeology has shown that there was no difference in status or wealth in Friesian society until christianity came along. The last Friesians converted in the 11th century. The historical upshot of all this is (and in a large part thanks to the geography of Friesia) Feudalism never took hold there as it did in the rest of Europe except Scandinavia.

@earlofmar7987 3 года назад

@@gustavmeyrink_2.0 Thank you for that information. I didn't know any of this. I like learning these bits & pieces of history. I think it's so important to see how our world was shaped.

@alexandria8743 4 года назад

fucking yes i found a mad guy w dreads to explain my history

@MackofDuart Год назад

Very moving my Scottish Brother. I write from the West Coast of the USA. I am here because of the Clearances so long ago. I would like to think that the success of the Scots in this country is a bit of a middle finger to those oppressors of that time. We are still here, still upright and doing well.

@jamescoughlan8193 3 года назад

All school kids should be taken to these statues and be told the truth, serves a much better function than tearing them down to be forgotten

@dinkster1729 5 месяцев назад

Maybe, their descendants with a great deal of power and money would object to that.

@GottaBeThere2736 3 года назад

Wow. Sigh. Shaking my head. Just ... Wow. I watched this more than once. This video needs to be required viewing for students in middle and high school classrooms - everywhere.

@junestewart5098 4 года назад

Well done and I would like to think most people feel the same. We Scots have a long and varied history which, as you so rightly say, must be exposed and accepted for the age in which it had happened. We should move on from learning these very lessons but often we end up repeating them. Brilliant video Bruce 💕.

@ScotlandHistoryTours 4 года назад

I doff my cap to you ma'am

@sapien82 3 года назад

I think our national anthem sums it up with the line "and in the past, they must remain" this applies to all of Scotland's brutal and disturbing past and our age of tyranny and oppression and warfare and fear. Lets us not forget it, but look to the past so we don't fail in the future.

@francessocha6143 3 года назад

As a young teacher in the mid sixties I was told I was not allowed to teach the Highland Clearances. We need to leave these statues where they are but make sure folk know why. As ever greed, self -aggrandisement and self interest rule. We need to learn. “Haud ga’en” Bruce.

@dinkster1729 5 месяцев назад

Where was this that you were not allowed to teach about the clearances? Some history in Canada is passed over, too. But since so many of our Scottish ancestors came because of the clearances, we know about it. Maybe, our parents teach us about it or our grandparents?

@francessocha6143 5 месяцев назад

@@dinkster1729 This was in the county of Angus, NE Scotland, in the Northlinks Primary School which no longer exists in Montrose. The directive came from above, I hasten to add, not the Head Teacher who was ex-army and all for telling things as they were. He was a very good “Headie”. I’m long retired so have no idea if things have changed but I do know none of my grandkids, 29 to 16, studied the Highland Clearances .

@dinkster1729 5 месяцев назад

@@francessocha6143 A lot of the bitter-sweet immigrant experience is reflected in this American German folk song from Pennsylvania: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-VhNKnoLMKYo.html People who did better in their New World than they would ever have done in their former home would have an up and at 'em attitude. The Oscar Brand version uses the illiterate English version, "I come" rather than the standard "I came" form that Pete Seeger uses.

@dinkster1729 5 месяцев назад

@@francessocha6143 Maybe, Scotland or U.K. authorities are ashamed to talk about it, right? The British probably don't talk about the Potato Famine in Ireland either and what they did about it. I did my practise teaching round in Essex, England. Most of my fellow students were of Irish descent and some of them were planning to go to Ireland after our month in England in 1973. I was shocked by how against the Irish the British were. "Oh, you don't want to go there! they said, "The Irish are so uncivilized." Lord knows what they think of the Scots.

@francessocha6143 5 месяцев назад

@@dinkster1729 Did you not know? The men all have ginger hair, beards, wear kilts and spend most of their time drunk going round hills shooting haggis. They just don’t mention the women 😂. That’s a bit harsh, the northerners are fine, they are looked on as much the same as the Scots, a slightly lower form of life than the southerners 🙄. I know how the Irish feel. My maiden name may be Donald but I have Irish catholic on one side and Irish Protestant on the other both a couple of generations back. There are problems both sides but it would be nice if we could all follow “ tell the truth and shame the devil”. Historical truth is important. Maybe if governments world wide followed that we wouldn’t be in the mess we’re in today.

@abj777 3 года назад

Thanks for sharing this history! As a Black American who finds the Dundas clan on my family tree , this is one cool lesson!

@ScotlandHistoryTours 3 года назад

I'm not entirely sure he was one of the good guys

@lolatyou 3 года назад

@@ScotlandHistoryTours can any of us say we are 100% good guys?

@charlesgreaves3293 3 года назад

@@lolatyou Amen, all we do is walk forward as best we know and do no harm.

@bravodelta6193 3 года назад

@@lolatyou Very true brother , good and bad in everyone at some point and time

@stevenwheeler5324 2 года назад

It's a half lesson.. Henry Dundas ended slavery in Scotland.also Canada.he fought for Irish soldiers pensions.he also fought for Catholic emancipation.he also got sailor's wife's money when their husbands had been pressed ganged. He completely changed and improved the royal navy to be the greatest navy ever. Was first ever War minister.he wrote pitts India policy for ending the tyranny of the East India company. Endlessly promoted scots to high positions.. his story is complex for sure and he has always been the villain of the empire.

@tbwpiper189 3 года назад

I'm a white man in his sixties, Irish by descent, and heard the stories of the Irish being starved off of their land. I am aware of such tragedy but allow it not to impede my forward momentum into the future. While history is important, the future is equally and critically so. They're the two halves of the human scale. But never must one outweigh the other, lest the imbalance turn over the entire structure. Slavery was, is, and always will be the scourge of mankind, no matter the colour or race of the perpetrators and their victims. As you said, ALL LIVES MATTER. Once that is understood the scales of humanity will again be leveled. This was an excellent video and touched home the lives of all who love the peoples of the world.

@harlandeke 3 года назад

Beautifully said

@muleepete8 3 года назад

As a 66 year old retired US Navy man, a member of the Clan MacMillan and a member if of the human race, it was finding these videos and the host who is so honest and eloquent in his presentations that I have found someone with whom I feel a deeper kinship than even my brothers at arms. Bruce, you are a refreshing and enlightened voice who tells great stories without prejudice. You are a wonder to listen to. Thank you for your lessons in Scots history and moral perspective. May I call you Friend?

@ScotlandHistoryTours 3 года назад

Ah you've brought a tear to a middle aged fat man's eye

@amandagraham4254 3 года назад

I know that my Graham family fled to Canada in the 1800"s. I know that my Irish side did as well. I think it was the clearings because they were scared to death. IMO, we just had to get out! Unfortunately we brought this crap to the Indigenous people of North America, and for that I am eternally sorry 😞

@mysteryhombre81 3 года назад

This is one of the most hauntingly poetic videos I've ever seen, your words and atmosphere took me back to that time.

@diarmuidmacgiollaruaidh8936 3 года назад

"Briseann an dúchas tri suile an cait" (nature breaks through the eyes of a cat - an old gaeilic proverb). The words you use to describe history are incredibly beautiful - "nobody wants to be separated from this land where mountain loch and Glen pervade your soul"!! Braught goosebumps on my neck. Just discovered your channel recently and love every video I've watched so far! Diarmuid - Gaeil ó Éireann.

@monicalynnjames 4 года назад

A truly beautiful tribute to the complex history of the highlands, thank you so much for your work to tell the whole story!

@ScotlandHistoryTours 4 года назад

You are so kind. Thank you. You may also enjoy these ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-FQ92_d3u3QA.html

@jaimiehardy5652 3 года назад

I'd say that English wasn't a Latin language in any way, it's a mix (mainly) of Scandi/Germanic languages. I would say that you have a valuable perspective and it's one I find myself sympathetic too.

@ScotlandHistoryTours 3 года назад

English is essentially French (Latin language) and German, yes some other bits and bobs too.

@jaimiehardy5652 3 года назад

@@ScotlandHistoryTours www.britannica.com/topic/English-language Thats not the case, although there are many French words incorporated into English, it is not the basis of English. Love your videos by the way.

@seanryan5005 4 года назад

Profoundly touched by your voice. Thank you!

@ScotlandHistoryTours 4 года назад

You're very kind. Thank you

@stuartmcallister1965 3 года назад

I grew up hearing the rhetoric of “what the English done to us” we weren’t just victims of the Empire. We were the Empire. Puppets and puppet masters. Complicit in its greed and injustice. Great work Bruce.!

@rfitzy612 3 года назад

The best comment I heard was from my auld man - don’t topple the statues - explain what they did and give the name and address of his family who inherited their bloody handed wealth.

@jocksjewelerygemstones8782 2 года назад

Let's hope no-one gives your address out for the crimes of your ancestors I mean why would I feel guilty for what people I never new did

@tattil.c.6290 3 года назад

It really makes me sad to know that people treated other people so horribly due to whatever reason they felt justified for them to do so. I remember segregation in the south, I was young when that was ending. The attitudes of most are better today than when I was a child but in some areas that hasn’t been much change. I was taught better, thankfully and have taught my children better as well.

@ScotlandHistoryTours 3 года назад

Good on you

@jameshalfpenny4726 4 года назад

Brilliant, a perfect counter for the the aggression shown in George Square at the weekend........if only more people followed their country’s history.

@ScotlandHistoryTours 4 года назад

I'll be honest I've found it an upsetting time. Some attitudes that had been locked in the closet have come out recently and reminded me of the bad old days.

@jameshalfpenny4726 4 года назад

Scotland History Tours yes I can well imagine, it’s amazing how history repeats itself....

@rsfaeges5298 3 года назад

@@ScotlandHistoryTours 😿💜

@sandrafraser6028 3 года назад

@@ScotlandHistoryTours Thank you for your work, you are making a difference.💕

@EKcyclist 3 года назад

One of your most evocative videos, Bruce. My own family are supposed to have come to Glasgow, from around Oban, Taynuilt and Loch Awe. They “dropped the ‘Mac’ for bread”, as the saying goes. I wonder if there’s a story in that episode for you as a wrap to the Clearances section? I’ve been to see the Earl of Sutherland’s statue, by the way. I spat on it.

@sallycosten4539 4 года назад

My God, that rocked me to my socks! Thank you once again Bruce.

@ScotlandHistoryTours 4 года назад

Funny, I've never heard my wife say that

@marianfrances4959 2 года назад

@@ScotlandHistoryTours LOL! It was great! 👍😎🇨🇦🌲

@macleoddj 4 года назад

None can change the society and time we're born into. What matters is what we do. As a Carolina Scot, a product of the Clearances and a history of slavery in the region, this particularly hit home and made me sad a bit. Thanks for your thoughtful insight.

@ScotlandHistoryTours 4 года назад

The world is certainly messy

@atarrant81 4 года назад

So good! Thank you! The Gaelic word for kinship, how do you spell it? And could you write it out phonetically too? Peace & Thanks

@ScotlandHistoryTours 4 года назад

Here's a link to SMO dictionary www2.smo.uhi.ac.uk/gaidhlig/faclair/sbg/lorg.php?faclair=sbg&seorsa=Gaidhlig&facal=duthchas&eis_saor=on&tairg=Lorg

@sparky2086 4 года назад

These costume pictures are hilarious. Love these videos on our history. They should be in the effing schools.

@ScotlandHistoryTours 4 года назад

Thanks to my son for the thumbnail pictures

@Scottbutcher7 4 года назад

The english don't want to teach the scottish about this stuff because it will make more people want independence 😂

@dreichoutdoors5274 4 года назад

I clicked on your video and wondered how you would be able to do that story justice in just 10 minutes. I'm very pleased to say that you did it incredibly well. I just wish that story was better known and taught within our education system. I remember taking my 11yo daughter to see the remains of one of the cleared township here in Argyll, she struggled to comprehend the inhumanity of what had happened there. It was gutting to have to tell her how the highlands are littered with such villages. My own ancestors were amongst those cleared from their land and relocated to Brora as part of the Sutherlands' clearances, only for my great grandmother to find herself employed as a lady in waiting at Dunrobin Castle in the very early 1900's.

@ScotlandHistoryTours 4 года назад

Man's inhumanity eh? Takes many forms

@Wilbafarce 3 года назад

We could do with a good deal less improvement and progress in this world and a damn sight more compassion

@ScotlandHistoryTours 3 года назад

true

@1981Marcus Год назад

It's a thorny question... There's now a sign by Dundas' statue telling the truth about him, which is probably a good compromise, though there's still a good case that the plinth it occupies could be better used to commemorate someone more deserving. The Sutherland statue isn't occupying prime statue real estate, though, so that doesn't apply. Personally I'd topple but not remove it; leave it there broken, on its side, Ozymandias-style. That would be a fitting memorial.

@sher3571 3 года назад

PUT Him in Museum WE Are The Last of The FREE Here On My Land in The Americas THEY Came and Burn Their Paths Through Like Wild Fires Ravishing THAT Is What They Receive TODAY

@saidahamelin3118 3 года назад

Such incredible atmosphere to this story. Wow.

@AndrewTheCelt 3 года назад

You could have replaced Gael with Native American at any point as the same thing happened to that culture and peoples, the land was not a wealthy individuals but shared amongst the tribe or clan, not that there wasn’t push back from encroachment but it was not the same as was ownership in the English understanding, thank you Bruce for another great history lesson

@ScotlandHistoryTours 3 года назад

Aye that's the point. Greed and inhumanity seems to be a thread that winds through the centuries

@julianolan2860 Год назад

Thank you from Australia where so many of us must carry the duty of reparation to the colonised indigenous people who were once free here. When the poor cleared Highlanders taken to Australia by force arrived here to work as indentured labour - paying back the cost of their forced journey (yes you heard it) over years in the colony, every door in the harbour town was shut against the 'dirty immigrants' passing through with their new overlords. We are a terrible species more so because we can do better. We know how to do better and we know everyone thrives when equality is widespread. Warm regards Julia Margaret Nolan- great granddaughter of Irish Famine refugees.

@davidgillis25 2 года назад

Beautiful video, I'm currently in Canada after a couple centuries removed from the clearances.

@ScotlandHistoryTours 10 месяцев назад

Come to one of my live shows in Canada in 2024. Shows in Halifax, Annapolis, New Glasgow, Moncton, Montreal, Perth , Ottawa, Toronto, Fergus, Seaforth, Calgary, Vancouver and Victoria. Most of the details are here. www.brucefummey.co.uk/shows.aspx

@OsculumTormentum Год назад

Cool! The only heritage lessons I got were my old mans pride in eating marmalade jam & & our tartan & hand with the dagger dirk coat of arms Manu forti ! Keep the content coming awesome!

@darransykes5703 3 года назад

All sides of history, the good as well as the bad should be known. South of the boarder, statues are being toppled because of what they represent. I disagree with that kind of thinking. For me, all of history matters but if you only be taught one side of it then that's where the trouble begins. I adore history of my country and the isles where I grew up. For me, all of history matters, the good as well as the bad... So we can learn from past mistakes and improve our lives for the better.

@jacquelinemerrick4257 2 года назад

wow "nobody wants to be separated from this land where mountain loch and Glen pervade your soul"!! goosebumps

@20FreeWill 2 года назад

What's worse ? People acting a certain way in the past or people in the present trying to rewrite history ? I'm living in the present I don't give 2 fucks about slavery . If you really care for the souls of slaves why don't you fight for the ones which are slaves right now ?

@jamesmacdonald4637 4 года назад

Thank you for making this great video. I stumbled upon it - and your channel - accidentally, as I was looking into the Highland Clearances. Really insightful, and you're a terrific orator!

@ScotlandHistoryTours 4 года назад

Thanks James, I really appreciate you taking the time to say hello. Please feel free to subscribe to the channel. There's loads more videos on things historically Scottish: scientists, inventors, monarchs, battles, heart warming stories, and beautiful views along the way I hope.

@jamesmacdonald4637 4 года назад

@@ScotlandHistoryTours Thanks so much, Bruce! Have subbed and I'm looking forward to checking out more of your videos and great Scottish stories.

@ScotlandHistoryTours 4 года назад

Thanks, and enjoy

@chrissaltmarsh6777 3 года назад

Dundas stands on a huge stick, being shat on by the more high-flying pigeons. So that's OK. Just have a wee bit history written below where people can see. And, for instance, be told that that is not St Andrew, who is off under the pigeon shield next to Sainsburys

@markmacdonald3260 3 года назад

We have to remember the bad things in our history a well as the good. Lest we forget.

@gordonchristie246 4 года назад

Another great video Bruce. I am glad of your knowledge and your wisdom. Have a great week my brother. Very best regards Gordon.

@ravenrockstudios 2 года назад

I can see you will help be the bridge back aye??? Scots Irish Americans are looking to return next year. We're building a schooner for the journey. We plan to be at The Gathering 2023. We will fly the clan gillean colors.

@eleanorkidd5840 4 года назад

Brilliant video. If only history lessons in school were this good. Thanks Bruce

@ScotlandHistoryTours 4 года назад

You are too kind

@vonBottorff Год назад

Lots of clearance was at the hands of absentee landlords. One Highland island owned by an English aristocrat was cleared for sheep -- and she lived in London and had never seen the place.

@fionadrummond9538 3 года назад

In Toronto, Canada, there is a movement afoot to change Dundas St./Dundas Square because of Henry Dundas’ links to slavery. I don’t know what to think....but so true that those who forget history are doomed to repeat it....

@haatpraat2993 3 года назад

Do you honestly think in the 21st century with all our access to social media, media and communications people will simply forget about monsters like Dundas if we remove his statues? If anything the internet is bringing to light the massive participation of Scotland in the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade and the role played by Dundas's and many other Scots. The statue in Edinburgh never even came also to that in almost 200 years. The argument to preserve statues dedicated to people who committed or facilitated crimes against humanity in order to stop these crimes reoccurring is ludicrous. There is not one statue in the whole of Germany dedicated to Adolf Hitler, but yet Germany arguably is the most anti Nazi nation in the whole of Europe.

@octavialewis6817 Год назад

I'm African American and truly enjoy your channel. 😘

@bobmcclure8069 2 года назад

There are no words... Wow... I managed to hold the tears back, but just barely. It is easy to justify brutality, just declare the other side non-people. As you said, it is an old game.

@gavinmcinally8442 3 года назад

Back in the 80s me and the lads were going to take that statutes head of. Bad weather stopped that in its tracks. Think they put a statue at the bottom of the hill dedicated to our lost people

@ScotlandHistoryTours 3 года назад

Is that the one in Helmsdale you're on about?

@gavinmcinally8442 3 года назад

@@ScotlandHistoryTours think the dudes name was Sutherland . Contrary to school teachings it wasn't just the English that kicked our ancestors of there lands and we found out. That made us unhappy. They put a statue at the bottom of the hill commemorating the victims of the clearances. That made us happy again. The dude stands for the worst of humanity, proper scumbag

@elizabethrusson7495 3 года назад

For individual Scots that say "that wasna me", I did some research on a friend's family tree to find out her gggrandfather owned a slave in Grenada and he was born in the Highlands. Just the son of a farmer, nothing more. Another carpenter on Grenada had nineteen slaves. So it wasn't just the Dundases and the Sutherlands, but ordinary Highlanders were encouraged to both invest and work in the Caribbean trade.

@harlandeke 3 года назад

So what is that person supposed to feel? Like a monster because an ancestor partook of something that had been accepted for all of human existence? I don't understand what the point of that is. I am an American of mostly a Scot, Irish, Manx, English and Norwegian decent, and I don't know if any of my ancestors owned slaves, but me and my father and brothers recently did DNA testing and found that we were about 1% African...so who knows what it means? I hate slavery and true racism, but racism is a human problem...no particular ethnic group is free from that evil. There is hatred of the "other" in every ethnic group on earth..I refuse to be buffaloed into self loathing or embarrassment of my dominant race for things that I myself utterly abhor. In every race there are subsets that have committed the same gross atrocities against each other. We have to move past the finger pointing and move forward to a better future...the future that Martin Luther King dreamed of. May God help us find it...the current finger pointing is only dividing people, not bringing them together. Ok...let the hate and name calling spew forth..I don't care.

@ukbuddhist 3 года назад

Thank you for this. An amazing video, you really are the best voice for Scottish history right now!

@jmartin0805 3 года назад

All peoples slaved and were slaves, all peoples were treated unjustly by someone else, take it from this Gael, it’s time to get right with God, yes make some micro-adjustments, but move on without trying topple, what is mostly good stuff, that we have today.

@ScotlandHistoryTours 3 года назад

I look forward to your campaign for 'micro-adjustments' with interest🧐

@jmartin0805 3 года назад

@@ScotlandHistoryTours welI I am in the states and there has been reforms for decades, major overhauls in certain areas initially. Adjustments have been ever since, even to the point of over-corrections, some could argue, affirmative action policies, canceling out legitimate history etc. Personally, I don’t have a problem with them going after people and symbols who were nothing but confederate but I also know they won’t stop there, telling me it’s about a lot more than they are letting on. They just recently removed Abraham Lincoln in Boston lol

@sher3571 3 года назад

My Belief Is That Those Monuments Should Be Kept in Museum As a Testament To What They DONE But Never in The Public Square Where They Would Be Seen as Heroic

@StudeSteve62 3 года назад

Yes. The distinction between celebration and commemoration is huge...

@thedarkone999 3 года назад

Hi, I have watched a few of your videos and I have enjoyed them all. I am from Beith originally and I recently found out that a slave by the name of Shankar was brought to the town to be taught a trade. His history is documented in the press at the time. To this day he has never received his freedom and I think as a nation we should do something about it.

@ScotlandHistoryTours 3 года назад

That's interesting. You sound like just the man to do it

@stevenrussell9034 2 года назад

Man you tell a compelling story. Thanks!

@billmclaurin6959 3 года назад

All statues of rogues should have a plaque built into them detailing their nefarious activies. Thus naming and shaming them.

@StudeSteve62 3 года назад

Sadly one wonders if any statue anywhere would be exempt from that. I suspect few, if any, would...

@minskybrown8634 Год назад

That was very informative. Thank you. I am trying to find out more about Scottish plantation owners in Jamaica and this sets the scene. So many Scot surnames there: MacKenzie, McLean, McIntosh, Graham & Stewart.

@ScotlandHistoryTours Год назад

Yes they were rife

@wanabepetegreen1132 9 месяцев назад

There's more black Campbell's in the west indies than white Campbell's in Scotland 😮

@bolton987 12 дней назад

Rabbie burns was involved with plantations

@par576 3 года назад

Another great video! I am with you, and the people of Golspie, who don't think statues should be removed. We can't change the past but we can tell the truth. I think the removal of Confederate heroes in America is the wrong way to go about it.

@nikkolettguyer4913 3 года назад

The confederate statues are participation trophies for losers and the people who complain about their children getting a participation trophy when the children play sports are the ones who want those statues to stay. They should have never been erected as they were erected to intimidate black people.

@cplmpcocptcl6306 3 года назад

I agree. Let them have their statues. No one is intimidated by them.

@OublietteTight 7 месяцев назад

Excellent Poetic Intense Hits home

@anthonybrownhovelt Год назад

In fairness to the English, The House of Lords, horrified at what was happening in Scotland brought in the Crofting Act to protect people from absentee Scottish landlords! The eviction of tenants went against "duthchas" and the principle that clan members had an inalienable right to rent land from their Lairds. Unfortunately, duthchas was never recognised in Scottish law. The statues of Iona in the early 1600s required leading Highland Scottish families to be educated in Protestant Lowland schools and this was later seen to be the start of the disconnect between the Scottish ruling classes and their people. The English are often wrongly accused of all sorts of misdoings in Scotland but this is a lack of understanding, in so much that the Gael referred to their southern neighbours as English because of the language they spoke! Sassanach is of course the Gaelic for Saxon! So the enmity goes back to your favourite period of dark age history You covered the Saxons in a previous video. The Countess of Sutherland was notorious for the clearing of her domains.

@ScotlandHistoryTours Год назад

A lot mixed up here. Main point is that Crofting Act was not brought in by benevolant English lords but later because of political organisation in the Highlands after British gunboats were sent to occupy Skye

@uilleachan 3 года назад

Best one yet. Although I think the Duke of Sutherland deserves a closer look as a good argument can be made that the Sutherland clearances, whilst carried out in his name, were both the brain child and work of his dear lady wife, the Duchess. She had the title, vast lands and estates, but on money and certainly no dowery, which may have been the motivation underpinning her programme of "improvement". Anyway, worth a thought.

@anndavidson287 6 дней назад

Thanks Bruce for your videos. Black lives Matter. My ancestors came from Scotland and Ireland and came to Canada. My Grandmother did family tree and history. I traveled to Scotland 40 ? yrs ago to the seat of my ancestors. So much unsaid. In TORONTO ON there is much debate about changing Dundas Square name and Dundas Street. Now I know from your Videos more of the truths.

@jamesharrison6201 3 года назад

Your opinion/views are sorely missing here in the US. I do believe that all lives matter no matter the hue of skin color. As a white American, never owning any slaves, I do not owe any person recompense for past injustice. And just an FYI, some of the harshest bigotry occurred in the northern states. Of course that is kept hidden as they only want to castigate the southern states. Also, an overlooked fact of lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation only concerned the slaves in the South, slaves being held by northerners weren't subject to his words.

@ScotlandHistoryTours 3 года назад

Humans are inhumane. We should teach our children not to be

@julianshepherd2038 4 года назад

Isn't English a Germanic language not a Latin one?

@ScotlandHistoryTours 4 года назад

I'd have said English is a combination of German from the Saxons and French from the Normans with some Latin surviving from the Romans, but given that French makes up most of the language and that's a Latin language, add to that the Latin that comes direct. I think my wording was something like 'one way or another' I can't remember exactly, but I do remember choosing my words carefully

@vickiepower6201 3 года назад

Beautifully told and yet so sad, truly touched my heart

@ScotlandHistoryTours 3 года назад

Ah, I'm goin tae greet😢

@john-hl5tq 4 года назад

I'm not sure that you gave Henry Dundas a fair crack of the whip. I have heard it said that his actions in "delaying" the abolition of the slave trade, were in fact to prevent the bill from being rejected out of hand. i.e. a better late than never gradualist approach. I wonder if any thorough research has, or even could be done to establish the truth. His previous role in the case of Knight v Wedderburn would seem to suggest that he was not a big fan of slavery. Besides anyone who smoked a pipe, wore a cotton shirt or put sugar in his tea benefited to some extent from the slave trade so why single out a handful 18th century pariahs when their are millions of other bastards who lived and are still living off the fat of the land by exploiting men women and children of every race in every corner of the globe since time began.

@ScotlandHistoryTours 4 года назад

We can always be wrong in our judgements. For example the crass insensitivity of your opening sentence might have been intended, or maybe just caused me to misjudge you. We'll never know. My understanding wat that in the Knight v Wedderburn all he was doing was stating the bleeding obvious as the principle had already been established in the UK by the Somerset case. It's true that folks through the ages have used the gradualist argument for things they hope never to have to implement. From politicians to my kids when they say they'll do an undesirable job later. Procrastination is not only the thief of time. It's also the protector of the status quo. I'm sure the kids had carefully considered the options, but felt that it would be better for everyone concerned if their rooms were tidied up later. Too frivolous? Possibly. Then again I'm just a story teller.

@ridbaird7913 3 года назад

I recently found your Scottish history videos and quite enjoy them. This particular one I know is personal for you and understand the need to reveal Scotland’s true history. Unfortunately Henry Dundas involvement in the abolition of the slave trade has been misconstrued by many. A more in depth discussion of Henry Dundas on this topic can be found here hdcommittee.medium.com/henry-dundas-and-abolition-the-missing-pieces-1-f01520ca79c4

@ScotlandHistoryTours 3 года назад

Whilst this video was actually about statues in general and wider issues, anyone clicking the link in this comment should be aware it's a one sided website who's stated intention is to present a positive gloss on an historical character with a bad representation. Alternative viewpoints suggest he was a bad yin

@leighgreendog9543 3 года назад

Not many are 100% bad aye .... hard to calculate!

@elizabethghent194 3 года назад

Another fantastic video. You truly have earned all the great comments. You just keep them coming thank you very much. By the way my 3x Gr. Grandfather was named Gabriel Hamilton Dundas Wallace. I would have no idea why, he was born about 1820 in Edinburgh.

@SueTaylorToronto 2 года назад

Good on you for bringing some perspective. Before the turbulent and morally questionable BLM movement, folks weren't railing against Dundas. Now, they want to tear down his statures. That's the power of the MSM over common sense. smh..... In going over the writings of Pitt and Wilberforce, I can find no great railing accusations against Dundas. He wasn't called a racist in his time, not even by these great men who fought so hard for the cause. And they knew him better than we can now. So.... Good on you for bringing perspective. Once someone digs their heals in on any position, cognitive dissonance takes over the rational mind and it's very difficult to get them to accept facts that go against what they 'went' to believe, despite the evidence.

@msheldon10 4 года назад

Fantastic video Bruce! Shines a light on aspects of Scottish history that we're often backward about coming forward with.

@ScotlandHistoryTours 4 года назад

Thanks man. I really appreciate that coming from a proper arty/techy like yourself

@msheldon10 4 года назад

@@ScotlandHistoryTours Cheers. That should be former arty/techy who is back at Uni trying to become a brainy type :P

@ciaranstaunton 3 года назад

How does one "become British". Sure they can participate in Empire, but does the main beneficiary group accept them into the hegemony?

@gerryphilly53 3 года назад

You’ve produced a meaningful and thoughtful video that raises vital questions for all of us. Sadly, color is an easy, readily identifiable way to make a human “other”, though as you perceptively pointed out, geography or language (or belief) is also a convenient excuse. Thank you.

@paulrosenberger2485 3 года назад

This is a very powerful presentation. Thank you so much!

@tzefirayah_700travelmore. Год назад

Fascinating topic! Thank you for sharing this historic story. You're a wonderful storyteller! Peace.

@darrylpatterson1091 Год назад

Thanks again Bruce, wholeheartedly agree with your sentiments. History must not be buried or erased. We learn from the good and the bad to hopefully do better.

@pamczech5984 3 года назад

Here here try to tell others that we need to remember my great grandparents came to America during the civil war thank God they found freedom

@TheHighlander008 3 года назад

Och Aye! Exposed, nor hidden.

@picotconaboy 3 года назад

I came across your channel this weekend and it’s safe to say I spent a sizeable portion of it watching your videos, and this was fantastic as always. While I think we should pull down the statue of Dundas in St. Andrew’s square, the statue over looking Comrie may as well be left alone, except for a new plaque explaining who he was. I am from Crieff, I was last at the Comrie statue last autumn. You are fantastically well spoken and a real pleasure to listen to. Thanks again

@laragwen102 3 года назад

Very powerful and timely presentation. Thank you. Now stop making me cry!

@dorasmith7875 3 года назад

I thought I was going to learn about Henry Dundas, the highland clearances, and the Scottish slave trades and it's pretty much a poetic durge for the clans.

@TedLindenIsHere 2 года назад

Here in Ontario, Canada, we have a TONNE of streets named after Dundas. Many here, particularly in Toronto, have been claiming his name should be removed because he 'helped enable slavery' here.

@macleod1602 3 года назад

This is an uncomfortable reality and brought a tear to my eye. I wished everyone would watch this video.

@ScotlandHistoryTours 3 года назад

Why.not share it with friends and little by little everyone will see it.

@macleod1602 3 года назад

@@ScotlandHistoryTours I will, for sure.

@clockworkkirlia7475 3 года назад

Our opinions differ as to the statues in particular, but your perspective is undeniable and I thank you for this video. It's actually brilliant, with a really solid, excellent message. I'd say I'm a year late, but I'd share this video a hundred years late.

@christopherlyon4946 3 года назад

Thank you so much for this. I love your "insider/outsider" wisdom and insight and the way you bring the present into focus through the past, and vice versa. In particular I'm impressed by the way that, in the space of just over 10 minutes, you combine remote history, contemporary relevance, geography, issues of personal identity, economic and social justice, hard information and deep humanity. You manage to do this in a way that is both radically engaged, very accessible and open for the viewer to develop their own reflections. Best wishes from a new subscriber!

@ScotlandHistoryTours 3 года назад

When you say it like that it sounds exhausting 😜 i hope you enjoy future bids. Sometimes I throw in bad.jokes as well

@christopherlyon4946 3 года назад

@@ScotlandHistoryTours It was brilliant, not exhausting at all, just rivetting. And although I have laughed out loud at the humour in the other videos I've watched, there were no jokes in this one: it was totally engaging on its own terms. Thanks again.

@andymcd6689 4 года назад

I have been thinking on this subject over the past number of days and after watching your excellent and thought provoking article, I think that now more than ever that Dundas should be removed from his place of honour, that is St. Andrews Square, and instead moved to the hall of shame. A statue in the centre of our capital should be for someone that we admire and gives us pride. Instead, we have someone who prolonged the misery of others and provides a sense of regret. I am not denying that we should remember the mistakes of the past, not at all, but we must learn these important truths in the class room, not the monuments where we would honour our heroes.

@ScotlandHistoryTours 4 года назад

Thanks for being engaged. It helps

@rovertbooya415 3 года назад

100% Scottish roots , unbelievable to me that the slave turns slaver , I'm glad I grew up where I did in Canada in poor area with people from everywhere , the parents wouldn't talk to one another but for the kids we could give a shit , they were the weird one's to us , we would even take most of there goofy sayings meant to dehumanize and use them while playing sports together just to show that its just words from the un educated .

@ScotlandHistoryTours 3 года назад

People are people

@leighgreendog9543 3 года назад

Excellenté matey!

@michaelegan5835 6 месяцев назад

Who Put The Clan In The Ku Klux Klan.. a great film about the history of Scots in the American South, and their involvement in the US slave trade. A heartbreaking story for me, a distant relative of the Montgomery Clan.

@junesmith852 Год назад

Oh bruce this video is so heartbreaking 💔 to hear, human's can be so cruel 😢 the scenery is beautiful though and you told the story with sympathy and empathy, thank you kindly. God bless 🙏🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🥃

@here_we_go_again2571 Год назад

Hmmm ... Although I am opposed to destroying statues, such as BLM and other "woke" groups have recently done. I think that some statues should be removed from prominent locations and installed in a dedicated history park (in chronological, historical order) off to the side somewhere. An example: In Estonia, the people removed a Soviet soldier's statue from the center of the capital and placed it in the nearby Soviet military cemetery.[1] I think the same sort of thing should be done in places with a "complicated" history. The people whose statues and memorials are placed in prominent places should be people whom the local, native residents respect and who did good for his/her society. Scotland has an abundance of creative men and women who were forced (for whatever reason) to leave their native areas. They and their descendants around the world deserve to be recognized. Look at the number of Scots (or children of Scots) who invented new manufacturing processes, electronics or who were humanitarians (many after they made a shed-load of money with those inventions -- I'm thinking of Andrew Carnegie who endowed public libraries in USA, UK and other places as well as the Carnegie Foundation for Peace.) __________________________________________ 1.) Naturally ... Putin and RT channel threw a fit about the Soviet statue's removal; ...... but the Soviets no longer rule Estonia! (I have no idea what the people of ...... Estonia placed on the site. But they stated that they wanted one of their ...... own heroes to be commemorated at the site)

@wmrustycox Год назад

Thank you for this great video... it's sad this information isn't better known ! Btw my ancestors, the Black family, were cleared from their lands on Jura in the 1700s ending up in North America. Though it wasn't right that they were displaced... I wouldn't be here if they hadn't moved.

@lilzapper7904 2 года назад

I completely agree that tearing down the monuments will do nothing to expose the hypocrisy and cruelty of those once exalted in stone. Yes, all lives matter. Celt, Pict, Scot, Slave, Irish (immigrant), child, Native American, Indian/Pakistani, poor, Hispanic...ALL lives. Thank you for having the courage to state your views.

@landsea7332 2 года назад

. Henry Dundas was an Abolitionist and member of the Scottish Enlightenment . - He was born in Edinburgh , went to law school in Edinburgh , practiced law in Scotland and considered himself a proud Scotsman - In 1776 he lead Knight's legal team , and won a court case that ended slavery in Scotland - Henry Dundas advised Lord Simcoe , bring in " The Upper Canada Act of 1783 Against Slavery, " making it illegal to import slaves into Upper Canada . - Dundas supported abolitionist William Wilberforce , but when the anti slavery law was defeated in 1791 , Dundas said " My opinion has always been against the slave trade " He argued that an abrupt end of slavery would drive it underground , and that it would be best to phase out slavery otherwise merchants from other countries would continue it. . .

@nancywysemen7196 Год назад

should a plaque be near these statues updating review and regard of these "heroes". perhaps a bronze suggestion to look into this laudatory affair.......even plastic........

@garytherrien1675 3 года назад

"shouldn't be obscured, but revealed".... I think that's the proper approach

@michaelhenningsen531 2 года назад

My thoughts go to Elmina Castle and the Ashanti treatment of all the other kindred people groups they captured, tortured, sold, exterminated, or barely tolerated from 1701-1901. Human history is replete with man's inhumanity to man and I think you make this apparent in your videos. We ALL have ancestors who were murderous, traitorous, self-aggrandizing conquerors -- that was how they survived!! We NEED the statues, the street names, the parks and such to keep the bitter truth before us, to learn from it. Not to justify their behavior, but to show there were no clean hands in history. The truth of history is so much more complex than what contemporary society likes to distill and drink! Nine of the original 'slave states' voted NOT to secede - to stay with the Union - UNTIL the Union sent forces and killed private citizens. Four of those slave states STILL remained with the Union. It seems to me preservation of the Union for the political class was more important than thousands of individual American lives - both Black AND White!!

@guychase8611 Год назад

I saw that monument to that I humane piece of entitled vermin in 1994 at Golspie for each of four days playing the Golspie Classic (£15 entry fee) . My local companions explained the clearance of the Highlands . Your presentation is very eloquent and fitting. Both monuments should have plaques attached ,explaining the tyranny of those “improvers”.

@lowdownRS76 3 года назад

Thank you, thank you, thank you! All lives matter! Elitism is the only ism!

@blewjonny 2 года назад

Excellent video, highlighting the fact that oppression and abuse of ordinary folk at the hands of the elite spans cultures, nations and eras. However, I must take excpetion to the notion that English is a language largely descended "from Roman Latin" - English is a West Germanic language (structurally, systemically, phonologically and lexcially) whose nearest relative is Frisian (English and Frisian are part of the Ingvaeonic sub-branch of West Germanic). Of course, the vocabulary of English was added to by Old Norse (North Germanic) in the late Old English period and later transformed after the Norman conquest, with large numbers of words being borrowed from French and Latin (overwhelmingly via the written medium) and, later still, by further additions of words of Latin and Greek origin during the Enlightenment.

@YimYimYimYimYim 3 года назад

[Pasted from an etymology website] Chattel is a word denoting a slave, or in legal terms, a piece of property. Both words come from the Latin word caput, meaning head (sound familiar? It's where we get capitulate and decapitate from ), which later turned into capitalis, "of the head"(sound familiar? It's where we get capital from). Capitalis then evolved even more to capitale in Medieval Latin. At this point, it began to mean "property", because your head is your property, isn't it? At least that was the Catholic Church's logic. After Latin officially kicked the bucket, the French picked chatel, mostly because of a bunch of pronunciation slip-ups (in this, the h was silent). Sadly, this perfectly nice word was used for a horrendous thing, and in the early 1200s the English began using it as chattel to describe slaves, or their "property".

@haatpraat2993 3 года назад

0:50 I'm UK born, of black Jamaican immigrants. DNA I'm over 97% west/central African. Unlike the narrator on this video I look like an African, in fact I'm indistinguishable from an African. I also lived in Glasgow a number of years and had to walk through the Merchant City and its adjacent roads - almost all of which are dedicated to slaver traders, people who gorged themselves with material wealth on the suffering of my direct line of people and many others. For me it was like walking through a concentration camp. I do not believe people such as Dundas nor the other monsters that took part in the crime against humanity known as the Slave Trade should be revered with statues. I believe their statues should be taken down and put into a museum. If people really want to see them, then they will know where to find them. Seeing statues in honour of people like Dundas is not only an affront to me, it is an affront to all decent minded people. If you believe Dundas and his ilk should have a statue, why don't you petition for statues of Adolf Hitler and other perpetrators of the Holocaust ?

@ScotlandHistoryTours 3 года назад

It's disappointing that you missed the point

@haatpraat2993 3 года назад

@@ScotlandHistoryTours I'm not concerned with the Clearances. In fact until I went to live in Glasgow I had never heard of them. In fact the clearances led many Scots to volunteer their services to the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade and slavery in the Americas. The point in this video that I was extremely disappointed in was when you mentioned statues of slave traders should be left alone and kept in public display. As a direct descendant of people who suffered from the evils of Scottish slavery that statement alone to me is utterly disgusting and an affront to human decency. I do not need to remind you the major part Scots played in slavery in the island of my parents birth, Jamaica and elsewhere. Slavery was abolished in 1838. The British government actually intended to abolish it later in the 1840s. However when report after report of the inhuman acts committed by Scots in Jamaica against the captive blacks - my ancestors they actually brought it forward. And here you are supporting the claim that statues erected for these monsters and the monsters that facilitated them should remain on public display. You should be disappointed in yourself. Then again, such a view from someone like you would is not surprising. Even during my time in Glasgow, I met very few black people. In total in 4.5 years I met another 9 others of black Caribbean heritage. When I state 'black', I do not mean people like you who to me looks white, I mean Usain Bolt type 'black' like me. I would not be surprised at all if both your white Scottish side and you African side engaged in the The Atlantic Slave Trade. You have obviously NEVER spent a significant amount of your life living with the black diaspora. If you had, you would never ever come up with such a pitiful statement. I applaud people who tear down statues erected to honour slave traders.

@StudeSteve62 3 года назад

@@ScotlandHistoryTours The further reply tells me he's missed it on purpose; viciously slagging you off like that proves it...as does the extraordinary implication that horrors that happen to people lacking a certain level of melanin aren't really all that horrible. By that, uh, logic, the Holocaust was no big deal...

@gordonmurray3153 9 месяцев назад

My white protestant Scottish grandfather was sold into bondage, farm labouring in West Lothian, as an indentured servant, in the era before WW1. No vote, no rights &c. We're not permitted to call that slavery, but a rose by any other name and all that. Is there going to be a similar video about all of the Scots who dedicated, sacrificed even, their lives to ending the international slave trade out of Africa, attempting to shut down the millenias old African establishment of the slaving industry? Or dare we even go there, lest we get an '-ist'. Just curious about how much that is worth, when we're jotting up the tally for who owes what and where in these historic reparations.

@nicholahenry539 Месяц назад

Thank you my granny was born in Glasgow very interesting we are meant to learn from our passed and sometimes I wonder if we do. Humanity is what matters if someone has done something bad it wasn’t because of the colour of their skin it’s because they wanted to do bad