The Clearances

[macwilkin]

Steve,

Do you think it is only Scottish History that people are woefully ignorant of?

I find that sadly, a great number of people I bump into have little grasp of the history of the United States (let alone the rest of the world).

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

Our modern concepts of human rights are going to be challenged by the cruel misdeeds done in the past.

The best we can do is our best to fully understand our history and realize that things are often not black and white.

Cheers

Jamie

Spot on, Jamie. I dealt with this on a daily basis working at a Civil War battlefield. It was amazing (and very sad) how little Americans knew of their country's history, while tourists from other nations (especially the UK and Canada) were so well-versed in in it.

As for the "sins of the fathers", what Jamie says is also spot on.

T.

[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.

[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

[vipermcgee]

Steve,

Do you think it is only Scottish History that people are woefully ignorant of?

I find that sadly, a great number of people I bump into have little grasp of the history of the United States (let alone the rest of the world).

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

Cheers

Jamie

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

[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

[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

[beloitpiper]

Potato blight was of course the fault of no one.

I won't argue because of forum rules and getting off topic, but I somewhat disagree.

[Jock Scot]

I won't argue because of forum rules and getting off topic, but I somewhat disagree.

I do realise that we are on thin ice here and I know that neither of us want to come to verbal blows.However potato blight is an act of nature and I do not see that humans can be blamed for that.Goodness knows I spend many tens of thousands of pounds a year trying to keep potato blight at bay and often it still beats me!

For those terrible potato famine years they had no chemicals or knowhow to help them.I am genuinely very interested to hear why you think as you do,perhaps I have missed something.

[Farlander]

...
For those terrible potato famine years they had no chemicals or knowhow to help them.I am genuinely very interested to hear why you think as you do,perhaps I have missed something.

One could argue that planting only potatoes as a personal food source did not help matters.