A bittersweet journey to the Caribbean researching Scotland's shameful role in the slave trade

[Judi Lynn]

A bittersweet journey to the Caribbean researching Scotland's shameful role in the slave trade
 September 14th, 2015 - 12:41 am  Stephen McLaren

LAST year I read Professor Tom Devine’s comprehensive and engaging history of the Scottish diaspora, To the Ends of the Earth, and was stunned to discover that Jamaica had a crucial and disturbing historic link with our shores.

During the 18th and 19th century, when slavery was the dominant economic force, many of the sugar plantations on the island were operated and owned by Scots.

None of this had been in the economic history syllabus I studied at university. The Scottish role in the eventual emancipation of slaves was the more resonant tale in the classroom.

According to Devine, not only had Scottish planters in Jamaica bought thousands of slaves straight off the boat and put them to back-breaking work in the sugar cane fields, but the huge profits they made in the process had boosted the Scottish economy in all sorts of ways.

More:
http://www.thenational.scot/culture/a-bittersweet-journey-to-the-caribbean-researching-scotlands-shameful-role-in-the-slave-trade.7522

[malthaussen]

1. Scotland also had an interesting internal slavery law.

I think this was mentioned in Lenman's book (it's been a few decades). Even after slavery was abolished in Great Britain, a tradition persisted in the mining regions that a person could be enslaved by a mine owner by a simple gift to his parents. Staightforward chattel slavery: the individual could be bought and sold, put to work and disciplined by the mine owner or his agent, etc. The slave's children were born free -- unless, of course, the mine owner gave him a gift in turn, thereby enslaving the next generation. I forget when exactly this practice petered out, but it is one of those interesting sidelights.

Speaking of interesting sidelights, the Society of Friends in America ultimately split on the issue of slavery. Jean Soderland wrote her dissertation (and later published a book) about it. When it comes to slavery, you will find that the history of the institution, and those who stood to make money by it, is very tangled indeed.

-- Mal