Shameful past of Highlanders' involvement in the slave trade
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WHEN David Alston started researching a hidden and ignominious chapter in Highland history more than 10 years ago, he was virtually a lone voice in believing it was a significant part of Scotland’s past.
The involvement of Highlanders in the slave trade and in running slave plantations throughout the Caribbean was a largely ignored subject by many Scottish historians.
"It also jarred with many ordinary Highlanders’ views of themselves and their history," reflected Mr Alston of Cromarty.
"The prevailing story was of Highlanders as victims, driven from the land, emigrating and carrying the traditional and enduring values of their society to new lands across the globe."
But what the part-time historian, who is better known as Highland Council’s budget leader, has uncovered in the intervening years has changed his view of the Highlands and its history.
It has sometimes made for an uncomfortable rethkining of the idealistic image of Highland emigrants going forth, seeking freedom, hope and justice in the face of great adversity.
"I was uncovering quite different testimony — of brutal exploitation, sadistic punishments and endemic sexual abuse perpetrated by Highlanders who also ‘went forth’ to other continents," Mr Alston said.
"Just for the record, my own ancestors were cleared from a north Sutherland township in the early 1800s and there is no denying the enduring impact of these events on the Highlands and its people.
"But it was becoming clear to me that many individual Highlander emigrants, some even opposed to slavery, found themselves caught up in the exploitation of black Africans."
Mr Alston made his findings public through a small exhibition at the Cromarty Courthouse Museum and also gives talks in various settings from village halls to the lecture room of UHI.
"It is never a comfortable message and I have even been heckled by some members of the public uncomfortable with these truths about our history," he acknowledged.
"But generally the feeling is of shock. I think people who resort to heckling are those who are not able to face up to the truth."
Mr Alston, meanwhile, is continuing to develop his project as he shares his research on-line with others interested in the topic and he has established his own website, Slaves and Highlanders.
He maintains it is a model of co-operative research. "I’ve received more information from others than I could ever hoped to have gathered on my own and I have been able to make contact with people throughout the world, some investigating their own family history and others with a wider interest in the history of slavery," he said. "I have contributed to their research and they have advanced mine."
Given it is a part-time project, his own research concentrates on an apparently fairly narrow topic — the role of Highland Scots in the slave plantations of Guyana, on the north coast of South America.
But in this area alone he has already indexed information on 170 individuals linked to the Highlands and the slave plantations while he has been made aware of five new names in recent days.
The list ranges from slaves brought back to Highlands as house servants to individuals who built grand buildings from the profits of slavery, or with the massive Government compensation they received when slaves were freed in 1834.
"Ten years on from the beginning of this research, my view of the Highlands and its history has been changed," he reflected.
"Again and again I am confronted with the evidence that the portrayal of Highlanders solely as the victims of history is a falsehood."
He maintains, however, that today’s descendants of those who profited from the slave trade should not feel guilty. "It is about acknowledging where the money came from," he said.
He cited Nigerian author Ben Okri who stated that nations and peoples are largely the stories they feed themselves. "If they tell themselves stories that are lies, they will suffer the future consequences of these lies," the author said. "If they tell themselves stories that face their own truths, they will free their histories for future flowerings."
Mr Alston concurs. "I believe we, in the Highlands, also need to face up to the truths of our history — to free ourselves for future flowerings," he said.
Mr Alston’s website can be found on www.spanglefish.com/slavesandhighlanders/
