Set Adrift Upon the World: The Sutherland Clearances

518 Pages·2016·6.24 MB·English

by  James Hunter

Set Adrift Upon the World

First published in 2015 by Birlinn Limited
West Newington House
10 Newington Road
Edinburgh
EH9 1QS
www.birlinn.co.uk
Copyright © James Hunter 2015
The moral right of James Hunter to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in
accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form without the express written
permission of the publisher.
ISBN: 978 1 78027 268 9
eISBN: 978 0 85790 262 7
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Typeset by Hewer Text (UK) Ltd,
Edinburgh
Printed and bound by Gutenberg Press, Malta
For
Abi, Louisa, Alec and Jamie
‘It would be as well for them to be killed as set adrift upon the world’
Soon-to-be evicted residents of the Strath of Kildonan in conversation with one of
the sheep farmers who were to take their place
Tuesday 5 January 1813
Contents
List of Illustrations
Map 1: Northern Scotland
Map 2: Eastern Sutherland
Map 3: North America
Map 4: Manitoba
Some actors in the clearance drama
Introduction
1 ‘Inhuman treatment’
2 ‘Tribes that never saw Europeans before’
3 ‘There should be blood’
4 ‘Open and determined resistance’
5 ‘Damned savages from Scotland’
6 ‘When among wolves, howl!’
7 ‘A most destructive and murderous fire’
8 ‘He would be a very cruel man who would not mourn for the people’
9 ‘A combination among the better sort’
10 ‘To find out and punish the leaders of the people’
11 ‘Aborigines of Britain’
12 ‘The year of the burnings’
13 ‘Law is one thing and humanity may be another’
14 ‘To seek shelter in some more propitious quarter of the world’
15 ‘Indelible characters on the surface of the soil’
Appendix: Jessie and Gordon Ross
Acknowledgements
Notes
Bibliography
Index
List of Illustrations