What They Don't Say About Slavery in Scotland
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- čas přidán 1. 09. 2023
- Surely Trans Atlantic slavery wasn't a thing in Scotland? Scottish history tour guide, Bruce Fummey visits Aberdeen University to uncover some unexpected truths
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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 a Scottish history tour guide people ask: Help me plan a Scottish holiday, or help me plan a Scottish vacation if your from the US. So I've tried to give a bit of history, but some places of interest in Scotland as well.
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I like your video's. I wondered if you were mixed, but I didn't want to ask that out of respect, but you answered that in the beginning of your video. You're a brother of truth, peace and blessing
“You are not responsible for what happened in the past, unless you try to justify in the present.” SPOT-EFFIN-ON !!!
History has winners and losers. Slavery is at its greatest numbers today and some are still stuck in the past.
It's sad to see people young and old denying that Scotland's economic progression, and the rest of the imperial core, were testament to the trans-atlantic slave trade. They'll happily denounce (if they were taught this far) that the government that allowed coal slavery (a lot of white working class slaves) was bad, but won't utter a word about the slavery a while ago. We're not asking people to accept responsibility, just to understand the progression from feudalism, to slavery, to late-stage capitalism.
You cannot be responsible for what happened in the past if you were not there - justifying it in the present may or may not be valid depending on what the actual facts are.
As a smart person once sang: "It's not your fault that the world is the way it is | It's only your fault if it stays that way"
@@descent-gq5my Now it is the other animals that are in chains. Whose side are you on?🌱
@@descent-gq5my The side of justice.☮
@@descent-gq5myYou do not even have a history. Your channel is devoid of content. A reflection of what is in your head maybe?
Just like we, the distant benefactors of slavery, are far removed from the reality of where our wealth and privilege as a country derives, in the future people may look back on the fossil fuel industry in a similar light: As consumers we’re far removed from the effects the industry has on people’s lives and entire countries, it’s just so normalised - like slavery was for millennia.
It’s wrong and impossible to directly compare oil extraction to the slave trade. but to end fossil fuels, to ‘just stop oil’, the perpetrators are likely going to be compensated in order to stop - much like slave traders were. It’s disgusting.
Naomi Klein details this comparison much better than I can in her book ‘this changes everything’. It’s about how the challenges of mitigating the climate crisis within a capitalist system…
@@hellohi2598 The only possible way to end the capitalist system is to have a revolution that can replace the capitalist system with a social structure that is better and more advanced in every way. Veganism is such a revolution.🤔
Thanks! The intro to this story touched me deeply. I cried when you said that you are not responsible unless you try to justify it today. You are a wise and gentle soul.
Wow, thanks!
YOU Benefit from the Slave Trade. YOU benefit from the fruits of Britain's Imperial past - so YES you ARE Responsible.
In 1919, About 1000 unarmed Indians in Amritsar were MURDERED in Cold Blood by British Troops, and the British REFUSE to apologise or ask for forgiveness.
In the 1950s over a Million Kenyans were imprisoned in Concentration Camps where Thousands were Tortured. And Every Single One of those Camps flew the Union Jack. And Every Single One of the facilities where the Tortures took place had a portrait of the Woman EVERY Briton adored, Elizabeth II. And Britain refuses to apologise for the Camps and the Tortures and Britain REFUSES to ask the survivors or their families for forgiveness.
And those aare only TWO of the many, many atrocities carried out in the twentieth century in the name of the British Empire and from which Britons, to this day benefit.....
YES. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE....
Ofcourse the fact is that EDO State's (Nigeria) main economic source was for more than a thousand years ...SLAVES. So its interesting that you seem to be being apologetic towards at least one person from a slave trading nation, one which both actively went on wars to attain slaves and smaller (!) slave raiding parties for the same reason and which Britain despite many attempts to peacefully get the King (I'm not sure he may have styled himself as a Sultan) to abstain from the trade finally they went to war with EDO, I think the war lasted less than 4 hours..result? end of the slave trade there.Pity you didnt point out that Britain paid the final loan for a world wide war on the slave trade in the first decade of the 21'st century ( close to three TRILLION US Dollars) , or the role that West Indian soldiers played fighting in AFRICA , having been recruited into West Indian regiments specifically to help fight against slavery, so it was possible to have been born in Africa worked for a sort while as a slave then join the army and return to Africa to eradicate slavery, also any slave who joined the Army was automatically made a free man, despite his owner probably standing in front of an officer swearing blue blind the slave was his and waving a bit of paper as proof, the officer saying in return that in principal the slave having taken the Kings Shilling he was now part of the Kings property ( the army or Navy). I have seen a genuine belgian slave whip and whilst even before that loathed vehemently slavery ( it was made of three iron ingots linked to together to a hardwood handle) I believe seeing it, that one blow if it caught you around the head, you were a dead man. the true fact is that you three are free men because of a LOT of white people who also loathed slavery, You should have made mention of the Baptist Pastor Knibb' the Nortorious' who did a humongous amount in the 1700's and very early1800's to destroy slave OWNERSHIP, he was a pastor in the West Indies to both black and white's and was hated and detested by Plantation owners.....And yes I did watch to the end :) Its also a pity the african slave trade has restarted its trade, I wonder who'll stand and be counted this time Britain has bled itself dry too may times this past 2 Centuries.. I wonder who'll bleed red blood on a hot alien land this time to free a people not his?
@@homie3461 "If anyone has to pay reparations, it's them not we common folk."
Nobody should be even talking about reparations, unless it is a reciprocal and fair discussion, otherwise it is simply one sided vengeance, nothing to do with "justice".
A huge part of such a conversation would be the more than a million Europeans including huge numbers from the British Isles taken as slaves by the North African Barbary States. The treatment of those slaves easily compares to and was often far worse that Africans taken across the Atlantic.
In reality, no such nonsense should be discussed in any seriousness at all, otherwise we might just go back to imprisoning and punishing children for their ancestors crimes in general.
@@homie3461 "The captains of the Barbary Corsair ships including English, Scottish, Irish, Dutch, Greek..."
And your point is? Under whose control did those pirates operate?
You are also describing the positive experience of a tiny minority of Barbary slaves. Shall we talk about the Black African slave owners in the Carribean and mainland Americas, as if that was the norm - they also did pretty damn well for themselves after all - or would that ruin your pathetic straw grasping?
"Islam allowed for the free of slaves, if the individuals were willing to convert."
"Allowed for" is the point. Again, it was by no means the average so you are cherry picking yet again.
"Sorry but that line of argument is just right wing, racist nonsense whataboutery."
Oh is it now? Twisting history and being a muslim slavery apologist is good in your books though right? Fairness, or equal treatment of equal crimes are obviously alien concepts to you.
Anyone using silly overused terms these days like "right wing, racist" has lost any argument before they even started. Get lost you joker.
Thank you for not shying away from the uncomfortable. This is where we learn and grow.
😥😩💔😓
why do you feel uncomfortable
Not entirely true about the average day Scott benefiting from the trans-Atlantic slave trade because the average person had to repay the slave owners via the 'government' ie TAXES. The UK government only just paid off those slave bonds in 2015, and I bet your bottom pound that the taxes of the average Scott have not been reduced since 2015 so y'all technically are paying taxes for bonds already paid off 8 YEARS ago. The 'compensation' for the slave owners was just another sham of the government transferring wealth from the ordinary people to the elite wealthy..as is going on today.
Brilliant comment no hiding places, it's kinda funny how us Scots are the great oppressed but became the great oppressors, God help us to put in servile chains these amazing people. A national disgrace
Well said. some people need to just listen and absorb, and contemplate before speaking.
There is always more to learn than the time we have to learn it.
Which is why I've always been very jealous of Johnny 5's input and processing speeds! 🤖💜
@@LimeyRedneck Steph an nee
I’m going to quickly start off by saying that if Bruce is going to be performing anywhere near you on his Stories of Scotland tour, you will not be disappointed (even if he insists that you will be). I was fortunate enough to be at the Newcastle gig on Thursday and it was outstanding. My brother and I laughed the whole way through (even though he wouldn’t believe me that not all vegetarians crave bacon), a really great night was had and I hope Dunoon went well last night and that Greenock is great tonight.
I feel that for most Scots who are aware of at least some of the connections to slavery that Scotland has, it feels like a dark and shameful part of our history but there is that inner conflict because of the belief that these wealthy ‘benefactors’ had, that they could use their profits to help tip the scales a little in their favour for when they reached the pearly gates and had to explain themselves to St. Peter. The education, infrastructure, public spaces and arts etc that have benefited generations, though very much appreciated across the years, do feel that little bit tainted.
Where I grew up, a small coastal town called Gourock, there is a coat of arms and parks that were given to the people of Gourock by the Darroch family, who were the Barons of Gourock but had sadly made their fortune off the backs of slaves in Jamaica. The towns coat of arms shows a black man (presumably a slave) up to their waist in a tidal body of water (waves are represented) holding a dagger/knife, with a tall ship in the background that is flying a saltire. Though things like crests and who created the parks you play in aren’t things you really take much notice of as a child (the crests at least are normally way out of your line of sight). It does leave you feeling a little itchy in your own skin to think of how you were able to get the benefit but conflicted because the thought of it not being there is saddening because these are places and benefits that have given to and helped so many over the best part of two centuries and though I don’t feel guilt, I am struck with such a wave of grief for the price that was paid by others long before I was born.
Fellow Gourockian here. The Town Crest has been the centre of a lot of discussion over the years, & I think it's entirely right to reassess our public spaces.
This is part of what inspired me to do research into the crest's history & heraldry, & I was quite surprised by what I found. Nearly everything that is "known" about the man in the crest - him being a slave, the water, etc - is mostly derived from the last century, from a book written in 1908 that merely assumed that it was "emblematic of the slave trade" even though the crest was first issued in its original form in 1894 (the bicentennial of the town's recognition as a burgh). A sort of folk etymology, like Greenock's name being derived from "Green Oak." Yet unlike the coats of arms of John Hawkins, Burnaby of Kent, the Donellans, he doesn't have manacles, chains, or bindings, which would indicate his status as a slave. In fact, the Gourock man bears more resemblance to the "wild man" figure of clan Livingstone, Murray, Macfarlane, Schaw, & Wood, in every respect save his colour.
The more I looked into heraldry & history, the more convinced I am that whoever the Gourock man is, he was not a slave. But would I have even bothered to challenge the common belief if not for the current reappraisals of Scotland's history?
If it wasn't for the focus on slavery, I might never have learned about the Fisk Jubilee Singers, a troupe of freed slaves who started their European tour in Gourock; or of Dan Crawford, a missionary who was instrumental in saving lives from genocide in the Congo. So even though we must confront the past without fear or favour, sometimes you can be surprised.
@@alharron2145 I have heard, or more appropriately seen written down, a few different versions over the years of why that particular image is used on the coat of arms and to be honest, I never feel completely convinced one way or the other. Discussion and reassessment is always good and can do nothing but open minds to the different perspectives and their ramifications…maybe if the creators of the crest/coat of arms had discussed, reassessed and written down the thought process behind their decision making, we wouldn’t be left feeling confused and conflicted about the imagery chosen. Though I do believe that good and bad has its place, just not always as a representative but not necessarily locked away either. Openness, discussion and learning are the only way we grow as a caring and inclusive society.
My older brother lived in Gourock for years. I’ve frequented all it’s pubs, swam in its sea pool, had a lovely Indian curry house as well. Great place.
For answers look into negro family coat of arms Europe.
The crest you are talking about was not a slave, but the owner. More than likely a Jacobite, if you want to go really deep into this, then the Spanish inquisition is the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade, Pope Nicholas Dum Diverses 1485?
Yee! Gawd! Thanks for this offering. My understanding of history keeps growing. The insidiousness of slavery and who benefits unto the present makes me want to cry in grief. What a sneaky sin! How much do l still not know...and consequently am a bit complicent in my ignorance? $#@*!! Something else for me to improve. 😵💫
Recommend reading: Autobiography of Selim Aga, a Sudanese man who was abducted by Arab slave traders when he was eight years of age, was brought to Scotland in 1836, and raised and educated as a free man. Selim wrote an autobiography of his life as a slave, accompanied by his poetic Ode to Britain and printed in Aberdeen in 1846.
Interesting
I wish that someone on my side of the pond would make videos on this topic in the same manner that you have. I really enjoy how much research and care you’ve taken in your presentation.
Glad you enjoyed it!
I used to think, "My family were agricultural workers from the west country, how could they possibly have owned or benefited from slavery?". You've shown how the tendrils infected all areas of society, in so many ways we never thought of. Thanks Bruce, it may be an unsettling education, but necessary.
Thanks
This may be your best video yet…and that’s saying something. Thank you Bruce. People are so busy “whatabout-ing” they miss the point. We are all connected here now and from the past. How we are connected in the future depends on us. Much love to you and your lovely family.
much love ✌
Another excellent video- story of our " Scotlands" history.
I visited the recently revamped & rebuilt Plymouth Box museum. I was quite glad to see, that finally, they told the tale of two of the "heroes" of the Armada, Hawkins & Drake, participation in the early Atlantic slave trade. I feel that history must tell the full, warts & all tale of the lives such men as Hawkins & Drake lead, not just the "heroic" portions.
They weren't very socially minded back then and the people black or white didn't count for very much. As you mentioned the heroes of the Armada when they returned to port the queen did not have the money to pay their wages. legally she had to pay them when they were released so she hit on a compromise, they kept them on the ships until they starved or died of wounds.
Even by the stands of the time this was considered wrong and the commanders went to tell her what was happening. When they arrived she was too busy attending a celebration but her treasurer saw them and observed that if more of them died it would save the queen a lot of money.
Just how many died after saving her royal ---- doesn't seem to be recorded but I think eventually there was a public subscription to help them.
As an afterthought Francis Drake has been caught up in the current fashion for disowning unacceptable heroes. It was thought that it would be possible to recover his remains from the bottom of the Caribbean and bring them home with all due ceremony. The Royal Navy didn't want to know as with some justification he is now more regarded as a pirate than an admiral.
@@freebeerfordworkers Oh I know all about how tight fisted Liz was. She let them die rather than feed them or care for them. I'm an ex-matelot. I know what Liz did to my forbears.
@@freebeerfordworkers This is something I'd never heard before. Really shocking. Thank you for sharing.
I met a couple in the early 80's in Plymouth and I was convinced the wife had black heritage, I hope they found out more about it...
@@KC-gy5xw Regrettably, it's not that expansive. It, for want of a better phrase, merely touches on their participation. Though we know that for e.g. Drake shipped at least 1200 slaves across the Atlantic.
Without question, the most worthwhile offering you've ever made, and thank you. Bringing your sister and her husband to be a part of the video was a brilliant way to close a circle - right to the very end.
Wow, thank you!
I just knew by the title of this video that id end up in tears 😢 absolutely incredible story bruce but so very sad...i especially loved your statement at the beginning about it " not being our fault for the past, unless you're trying to "justify" it" ...thank you ❤️
Commented a little earlier just wanted to say how you didn't let anyone off the hook,even your family. Honorable.
...or myself for that matter
I found you a few days ago and am now addicted to watching you! I adore all your channel! As a descendant of the Scots (Clan Buchanan through to Robert the Bruce) and Māori of New Zealand “You are not responsible for what happened in the past, unless you try to justify in the present.” Is an accurate statement the world over!
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Great video. Very thought provoking. Have you done videos of the role of Scots in Empire?
I had a great great uncle, likely a tobacco farm manager in modern day Malawi. Commanded native troops of the Kings African Rifles in WWI. I have photos he had of the war there. I showed them to a bloke who’d studied the campaign. He said the pictures were unusual as my relative had named some of the men in the pictures. He owned some of those men’s medals, but didn’t know what they looked like until he saw our pictures!
Given some of the things my grandma told us, my relative would not be described as an enlightened man… apparently he later owned a shop. He made sufficient from his time in East Africa to allegedly kit out the Glamis Pipe Band. My grandmother’s mother’s side had connections to service with the Bowes Lyon’s at Glamis.
Over 40 years ago I did the British in East Africa as part of my O Grade history. From what I remember, it told us what ‘we’ were doing there, but not why ‘we’ were there…
Appreciate the connection seems tenuous but slavery and empire are intertwined, both in its rise and its abolition. It could be said that all that changed was the method of exploitation.
Fascinating as always Bruce and the Aberdeen Nigerian connection so very close to home for your family.
Sadly though the slave trade is still alive, though we refer to it as trafficking now, and so many eluding capture despite the efforts of immigration and police authorities.
That was kind of my point with regard to the phone
What a well balanced view on a throny subject. Well done Bruce, that was amazing
Bruce - I have finally watched all your CZcams videos in order from oldest to newest! You are entertaining and simultaneously thought provoking which really helps me remember all of the rich history and cautionary tales (I guess history is one long cautionary tale?) you share. Thank you and your team for all your hard work producing these videos!
Ah thanks, and thanks so much for the coffee
Powerful. Left me speechless. Great piece of historical work and better that we know about it. I am stunned that the compensation was still being paid until 2015. There is a natural tendency to relate all this comfortably to the past but it is still walking with us.
Was big on BBC news in 2015 when the date passed, shocks me personally that people are only learning this now 8 years later.
Fascinating historical insight to what can only be described as such a sad situation. Brutal it was indeed for the enslaved people. Its good to receive this knowledge from you Bruce. But we should not feel guilty for our ancestors actions. Thank you for sharing your knowledge 😊
Indeed!
"guilt for your ancestors" is exactly the kind of vicarious liability that never ends well...
Absolutely and it ends up being used by many to justify their own bad actions as well.
I was very lucky back in Inverness during highschool when our history teacher specifically went over how our school was built directly off of money gained by the slave trade and how so many institutions, local projects, buildings and even tiny highland towns were funded by the trade.
Great to meet your sister and her husband. I want to thank you so much for your history lessons, it makes me so mad though because I never learned anything like this as a kid even though I'm a YANK.
My folks across the pond feel the same! 💜
Great vid. Keep up the outstanding work.
The ghosts of the transatlantic slave trade will forever be there. It’s a case of making peace with them rather than trying to hide the whole thing under the carpet as previous generations have done.
For instance, how many people of primarily African-American heritage carry European DNA, because of the rape carried out bye, slavers, sailors et cetera.
It’s part of us.
"Your not responsible in the past until you justify it in the present"
Bruce Fummey I salute you sir for saying that statement.
Excellent. I was brought up in Inverclyde and we dealt with slavery in school. If I remember right we talked about Bristol merchants, Carribbean slave owners and plantation owners in the south of the US
It was only in later years I realized Port Glasgow was built by the Glasgow tobacco barons to receive tobacco from the US
Then it dawned on me that Greenock, home of Tate & Lyle and once known as Sugaropalos due to its many sugar refineries got it's sugar from the Caribbean.
I may not been responsible for the slave trade but being born and brought up in Inverclyde definitely means I benefited from it.
I'm Port Glasgow born and bred and it wasn't until the last few years where we've become more educated about Inverclyde's role in the slave trade where it's become more apparent.
My Irish family wouldn't have found work and refuge here in the Port and Greenock if it wasn't for the wealth created by slaves and exploited by slave owners
Do you actually think the people from Greenock benefited from it I was back there in July, what a dump. and I also think that the working class had little to do with it, the elites are to blame or as we called them the upper class, normal people just struggled to survive, the amazing thing is that the elites now call us racist, don't be fooled by the elites, they will always want to put the worker down, like they are doing right now, welcome to the great reset ENJOY
Bruce, you've obviously put a lot of thought into a subject that many people have complex feelings about and come away with what I think are important observations about the world today. This video just makes me look that much more forward to seeing you at The Stand in Glasgow later this month.
"You're not responsible for the past...unless you try to justify it in the present" oh Bruce, that was so well said, i shan't forget it. In fact, i'm a use it, so please forgive my plagiarism in the future ❤❤❤
you know mate this video hits hard as ive lived in the shire/ aberdeen my whole life n ive never once been told any of this by teachers, historians or wise folk alike its a forgotten history that needs to be uncovered to the public so its acknowledged, may the lives lost of these people never be forgotten and may they lay in peace.
Absolutely fascinating video Bruce. It's frightening how much the despicable slave trade has impacted all of our lives right up to the present day, for good or ill. Particularly liked your quote near the beginning - "you're not responsible for what happened in the past, as long as you don't try and justify it in the present". 100% spot on 👍
Cheers
To think that Scotland never had a part in the slave trade is a serious failing in our school history cirricumlum. I learned about the Tobbacco Lords and the sugar trade in Glasgow at school, but even my education could be furthered. Thank you Bruce for what you do.
But in Ireland we go one better we claim that we were the first slaves before the Africans because we were cheaper and millions of people believe it. Even though Irish historians have denounced it. Google "the Irish slave myth" . The Irish were indentured not enslaved as where many early immigrants to America including Benjamin Franklin's forebears.
Of course the much reviled penal laws against Catholics prevented most Irish from indulging in the slave trade. But only in Ireland - they relocated to Liverpool where they're able to carry on as everybody else and Irish exiles in France dominated the supply of slaves to the French colonies.
Google "Irish in the Atlantic slave trade" for an article in history Ireland setting the whole thing out. History is never simple
There's no nation on earth that hasn't been involved in slavery. It was the natural way of things till we on this island decided to stop it, for the largest part across the globe.
If not for this tiny island, slavery would still be common practice
and then there's the "heathens" that refused to acculturate to British/ join the Christian religion that were Rounded up and shipped off as slaves @homie3461
To say there was no nation in the world not involved is no excuse. We still played our part..and this went back to pre 1707. After 1707 it may have increased certainly but to say it wasn't there before is also untrue. While it is an uncomfortable part of scottish history it is a part and should be acknowledged and accepted.
@homie3461 these self flagulation types have to feel the guilt.
It's about them, not about what actually happened
I sometimes feel responsible for things Im not, and that can create a downward spiral. But videos like this help so much Bruce!! I learn so much but more importantly I feel like I can fly away afterwards and live my own life. It's a gift! thank you for the gift!! double edit: thank you for teaching more about the slave trade as it affected your home now and many homes, like the Caribbean, Jamaica and Africa. thank you
Hi again Bruce. You certainly delivered on your promise and it was nice to ‘meet’ your sister and brother in law. I hope his back feels more comfortable soon. You have pointed out that we are all still benefiting from the acts of these pious Christians and we should be mindful of that as we lead our lives. As alway, thank you for taking the trouble to share 🌞
When he tells them where Ramsay was stationed and they just laugh - they already know where it's going, and you either laugh or cry. When you live with that system knowledge every day, you can't go around weeping the whole time. I hope they hold their heads high walking past this stuff every day.
Very powerful my friend, I was born in England but my parents and grandparents were born in Jamaica, one of my great grandparents was born in Barbados.
When I took two ancestry tests they were both very similar results both with Scotland in my Dna,To make things even more interesting my highest country was Nigeria specifically Ibo tribe this video was very touching for me.with a lot of interesting information thanks for the video.
Thank you for this video. I have never heard so clearly how the international slave trade affected (and still affects) us all today.
Humans (therefore History) are complicated. Thank you for not simplifying or dumbing it down or pushing an agenda. We both benefit from and pay for the action of those before us.
What an incredibly balanced and well articulated explanation of how we all benefit from the legacy of slavery in Scotland, keep up the good work love your videos ❤
Thank you
I never saw much benefit when I was back in Greenock from Aussie in July,
New York lassie applauding the intelligent thought provoking and sensitive comments here.....a realm of folks I feel drawn to time and again hosted by a wise and witty gentleman
Great educational piece. Sad and provoking.
The highest compliment I can give any video, it was very thought provoking. You made me honestly and humbly think about the slave trade triangle. It would be great to see this line of thought carried over to the USA and the various ways we still benefit today from the forced labor of enslaved peoples. Not suggesting you do it, but perhaps you will inspire others here in USA to make similar content.
I think the word "messy" perfectly describes it. I am not educated enough to have a debate on the subject but I try to learn so I can understand others perspectives. I thank you for making these videos so I can.
A very touching video Bruce. This particular video of yours was mentioned on another channel covering Scotland's part in the Slave trade and Darien.
A lot of my ancestors moved to my birth town of Bradford to work in the Cotton Mills. A boom town supplied off the backs of American cotton. Puts a different perspective on things for sure.....😕
Loving ur videos gently and relentlessly informing love it
Thanks so much!
Thank you for revealing the Jamaican/Scottish connection in slavery. It was a subject not covered in school in my schooldays in Britain. My parents never spoke of learning about slavery during their schooldays in Jamaica either. US history seems to be alot more open on this subject, warts and all. I plan on sharing this video with my family, who have mixed Afro-American-Jamaican heritage.
My parents gave gave me a lot of information that is just coming out, my surname is Campbell. They came to UK in mid 50's and never seemed to have had any racial attacks on them, they just worked, smiled and said hello. My dad was a BIG man, and he would make people talk to him! Hah!
The British puritanical narcissism engrained within its culture wont let it process the real role it’s played in world history. Slavery was kept one step away from the British public and profit is considered the highest moral good.
@@bartalbone4348 "puritanical narcissism..." need you say more?
@@Ye_Olde_Duke_of_Edinburgh depends how it was received?
What and amazingly educational video, I will definitely share this here in America.
Great video Bruce!
How I’ve missed your wonderful informative stories. They are spellbinding as we get transported to times long ago. All with clarity and no judgement on anyone or anything. A big thank you
Missed them? I didn’t go anywhere
@@ScotlandHistoryTours no I did have been unwell.
I love the reseach and passion you put into this
A very well produced video presented in a balance way. As with all subjects, we should study and understand the mistakes made in the past in order to avoid repeating them in the future. Thanks for the video.
Absolutely!
Great as always and love listening to you.
Your videos are always so interesting. Thank you!
My pleasure!
I would just like to say how much pleasure your channel has brought me. Your presentation and style is so lovely and really brings a smile to my day. Thank you can continue the great work!
Thank you so much 😊
The most level headed presentation on the subject.
Great video, Bruce. Balanced and not hyperbolic.
I try
Hi I have started watching your you tube channel and think it's fantastic os please keep more of them coming that makes fun to watch and learn about Scottish history some of the history that I never know about james
With a surname like Campbell, and parents from Jamaica, I;m happy my dad told me a lot about slavery that is just being acknowledged today, I never realised how far ahead he was and how much he and his family knew about their origins. My Jamaican parents never justified anything in their past, but when they came to UK in 1954, they never seemed to experience so many racial prejudices as others seemed to. My dad always told me, he had no issues (mind he was a BIG man and would hit first, ask later!!) When a woman my mum worked with cleaning the trains kept picking at her, he came up on his bike and blasted that woman to pieces - mum is very fair and this woman kept calling her halfcaste. She left mum alone after that bollicking!!
I have no qualms about any of my forbears having slaves. It happened. I and countless others are alive because of it. And that's what my father taught me. Doesn't make it wrong or right. It happened. we need to move on, acknowledge and move on. Cos it was happening before greedy European countries got involved to earn gazillions of pounds/dollars/gildas etc etc. It just changed with the advent of greedy people wanting to make money from sugar/cotton/spices.
Good comment!
Thank you for your knowledge and heart, Bruce. Thank you to your family for participating and being vulnerable with you in a deeply personal way. Thank you for being honest about what a mess a "post" colonial world is (if you can call it that).
I LOVE this video. I thought you did a great job saying slavery was a bad thing but also showing, you can't get rid of the results of that time in history.
I think this is the most thought out and balanced take I've ever heard on this subject. It should definitely be taught in schools. We understand the darker side of our history so little.
As always Bruce, you ask us to think in ways we're not accustomed to and sometimes may not even like! Thank you for reminding us that we always need to think about where what we look at or do actually comes from! Maybe if we do this, we can all put aside our petty differences that truly mean very little and work together on what really matters! We can't change the past and apologies, which are only words, are paper thin or float away into the air, never to be heard again. If, however, we all work to make sure that all people and their children are safe, happy and free forever more, then we have done more than just say words, we have insured that these atrocities will never happen again! I will always admire the buildings and other crafts that enslaved people either built or created the money for, but only if these things are now used for the advantage of all, regardless of color, religion or creed. Aberdeen University is a prime example of this! Thank you and your relatives for putting it out there. May the world learn from this example!
A beautifully told story as always Bruce. The history and benefits of Scotland's involvement in slavery are all around us if we care enough to look. A complicated legacy we all continue to live with.
Great video, really enjoyed it
Places, thoughts and connections - you delivered well on your promise. Thank you.
Thank you kindly!
7:19 History is never clear cut, you have to come to it with almost the emotional detachment of a psychopath and it's hard to do. I think we all get wrapped up in trying to remove ourselves from the bad stuff as much as possible, it's natural in a way but that's because there's probably someone in our lives that we care about that represents that element and I know it's not easy to accept. But that's what makes history an interesting subject, it's the story of how the worlds we live in came to be, now the reason I say Worlds is because you've got the wider history that affects us all but also the personal history of each person in the world and the worlds that interlock as a result. I say if you look into history and remove yourself emotionally from it, you'll be able to learn important lessons from it and you won't need to resort to what aboutism because the lesson we can take from the transatlantic slave trade should be similar to other horrible crimes humans have committed against each other and that is to look out for the danger signs of it repeating itself and putting a stop it before it can repeat otherwise we humans will keep making the same mistakes over and over again and what's the point of that?
'Twas easy and fun
What are you talking about to enslave. groom. cuckoo and traffic is disgusting. What I want to know about is how come some people like the Frazers are still rich yet others are travellers?
@@chloebradley-almond5911 Yes it is disgusting but the when you look into history it’s a subject that requires emotional detachment to avoid making excuses for the crimes within history. I don’t know why the Frasers are still rich and others are travellers because I don’t know much about them.
Legend
Back in the early 1980's I lived in Aberdeen and my dad was a professor of anthropology at Aberdeen University Dr. Nicolas Bradford, until Margaret Thatcher shut down the anthropology department - 2 of my dad's best friends who also worked there committed suicide after she did that, so my dad said f*ck it and decided to take my little sister, my mum and me to the south of France where he and my mum bought 15 acres of vineyards and started to make their own wine "Domaine des Pensées Sauvages" (which means wild pansies or wild thoughts it's a "jeux de mots") we left in 1988 I was 14 at the time... Anyway, I am so glad I clicked on this video and I wish I had teachers like you when I was in school - I would have definitely paid more attention!! Although it has been over 36 years that we up and left, I am always proud to say I am Scottish and I truly miss Bonnie Scotland 💙Thank-you Sir, for making these videos because they truly are fascinating!!
Many of our clan children were sold into slavery by Cromwell, we have family in Montserrat and Jamaica something I'm quite proud of. No slave ship ever docked in Ireland lest it was to steal us away.
Absolutely gut wrenching to think of the horrors these people endured. Thank you Bruce for shining a light on this topic. It’s a very difficult truth, but one our children need to be taught about in schools.
What about slavery in Africa?
The very people who sold there own people into.
What about it?
This is a piece about Scotland and it’s connection with the triangular trade.
If you want to learn about the slave trade in Africa then watch an article about it.
@@tedwarden1608 I mean the obvious purpose of the video is to push this white guilt agenda.
@@claytonbrown4760excellent point conveniently overlooked as no reparations coming from t Africans to Africans in any form.
Its always about $
Excellent episode, sir!
I laughed when your own comment on that gate was exactly the same as mine. It's good to see so many of the "benefits" of slavery still in existence (maybe except the gate!). Not only are they a solid reminder of these links from the past, but they are a fitting memorial to those whose toil and suffering led to their creation. It's particularly gratifying to think that descendents of slaves may be receiving education, or benefitting from travel etc all these years later in some long-overdue karma.
Excellent video Bruce.
The fact the “UK” taxpayer only stop paying the reparations to ex slavers back in 2015 shows just how criminal these people were. People who covered their character as philanthropy.
And yet there is a certain group of these taxpayers who rant and rave against the idea that reparations should be paid to those who were descended from the enslaved yet not giving a shit about their tax money being used to compensate the wealthy descendants of slave owners.
Epicly thoughtful as always.
Thought-provoking insight! Bravo!
For a thousand reasons, these videos are the most important presentations on the world wide web today. Sir, you have earned a traditional, Catholic, monarchist, American subscriber!
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More excellent content, thank you Bruce!
Much appreciated!
A'reyt Bruce. A tale I could not have imagined from the location.
I generally console myself by saying this was down to posh folk, but then I had wealthy ancestors who turned their back on their daughter for marrying a workman. My grandma used to be taken to visit through the servants entrance. Then there were the folk who asked her how she could let her daughter marry a black man (I may have Indian ancestry from the army there).
Your words about not being responsible for the past seem very wise, but then some of it is there with us in the present, as what made us and where we live and work.
😢
Wow ....I almost swallowed my gum. How powerful are your words , 'you're not responsible for what happened in the past UNLESS you try to justify it in the present'.....wow sir, you have my utmost attention. I'm biracial and american so you can understand that this isn't what was taught to us americans. Thank you many times !
Very interesting. I never realized the interconnectivity between the plantations in the Caribbean and Scotland. My major was History and the concentration was Antebellum South, Slavery, and Texas. I'm also a genealogist with family from both Scotland and Ireland. I had 4 third-great-grandfathers who fought in the American Civil War, two on the Union side and two on the Confederate side. At the Battle of Vicksburg, one was on the Union side of that battle and one was on the Confederate side and taken prisoner. Maybe they met, one holding the other prisoner. Who knows?
I had slave holders in the family. I didn't own them, I am not responsible, like you said, for the actions of those who came before me. I am trying to find out who those people were and where they came from, to aid their decedents in being able to trace their family. It's a hard thing to do but there are records that can be found, it's just whether they have names and not just gender, age, color, and location where they were picked up and dropped off.
People trying to find names might look into church records, especially Catholic records. The Popes had a law that said that Catholic owners had to baptize their slaves. There are records of those baptisms with the name of the owner, the sponsors, the priest, and in many cases, a name of a slave and possibly a birth date. It's been very helpful for me in doing the research I do. I imagine there may be records like them in the Caribbean islands as well.
Upvote for me,as even better content from you,again,Bruce; as a descendant of Caithness-born and Orkney-born 18th century Jamaican plantation owners,incl. one who became Receiver-General of the island,this vid was very relevant for me ! 👌👍
Excellent, as always. Thanks!
Thank you too!
This video owns. My dad's a Scot who occasionally makes the "what about the north-African slavers" argument and I just sent it to him. Keep up the good work, Bruce, next time you're in Bristol I'll be sure to come and see you!
Thanks so much
Wow! I never realized how much was connected to slavery! You are right, it IS very messy! While listening to you talk about the things from Aberdeen College, I thought that something that should be taught there (if it isn't already) is how slavery is connected to Scotland and to Aberdeen College especially. Instead of trying to hide it, in shame, it should be shown so that people know the price that was paid! There doesn't need to be excessive shame in benefitting from the price that enslaved people paid, but it should be acknowledge! There should be understanding, so that, hopefully, people will work to better themselves and better society.
What an amazing video… that part of history is seriously messed up… we wasn’t really taught much about the slave trade in school… but watching videos that are as informative as this is definitely shedding light on it.. thank you for your research and time putting it together.. you should literally have your own tv show.. oh and I hope your brothe in laws back is in the mend 🙌🏻🫶🏻
I live in Florida. This balanced, rational, and complex presentation provides a great challenge to the ideas of our current state government, which is trying to ban teaching about the role of racism in American history. I really liked the way this discussion grew and expanded as it went along.
Thanks
Judy, I also live in Florida. I doubt very much that anything would change the current governor's mind. What Bruce has covered here is unfortunately part of my heritage. It will be up to me that my high school aged charge knows the unvarnished truth of slavery.
There has been slavery on every continent, white people enslaving black people, black people enslaved white people and every race in between. Non of it was good ,it was a brutal different time and thank God we have moved away from that. But now a blame game has now started and it's divifing us once again . Look forwards not backwards, look for how we are alike and not different. We are all God's children and we should love our fellow man.
So, in 1740 my ancestors were brought to NY as indentured servants with the promise their children would be born free. We were highland people (by legend) so we were sent to the Adirondacks in NY for about 50 years. We were loggers and helped settle the north of NY. In about 1800 weeks moved far north to the St. Lawrence river. We established there so well by 1840 when the town they lived in incorporated they named a road after my family with 17 family members listed. I live just about 15miles from that road today and consider myself entirely Scottish American.
Excellent and timely video. Well done. When I was a kid in Cumbernauld in the '70s, our history textbook started with the importance of the slave trade to the development of Glasgow. I wonder when that book stopped being used; it seems to me a lot of folk have no idea about Scotland and slavery. I live in Lancaster now - another slave town - and the kids in one of the primary schools I used to work at created a guide to the sites in town associated with the slave trade here. It's a story that needs to be told, but few tell a story better than you. Once again, well done and all the best to you.
Excellent video Bruce! I may have to use this in one of my classes! If you know of any good sources about slavery’s connection to the Gàidhealtachd in particular I’d be interested to learn more about that. Mòran taing.
Now there was a lecture on just that in one of History Scotland's online lecture series a little while back. I don't know if you can contact them
As an American in Perth, all I can say is the first few minutes were amazing. I loved the rest, too. But the beginning was ❤
I'm really enjoying your stories. They're very well structured, informative and tend to illuminate the shady parts of local history (sometimes with international influence).
This particular installment took a different direction than I was expecting. For some reason I thought you were heading to Dundee on the train to look at the marmalade industry with its sugar connections.
I'd be interested in learning more about the royal connections with the slave trade, with the kings selling licences for it.
Thank you for the incredible effort amd research that clearly goes into your productions.
shocked to hear that compensation for slavery was being out until 2015, well done again Bruce
For sure the Europeans had the last empire, but far from the first empire. The Arabs took more slaves than the Europeans & sadly, there were many collaborators in Africa involved in the disgusting transatlantic slave trade. Read or watch the work of Thomas Sowell as one source if any out there beg to differ.
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The Arabs doing something wrong does not suddenly make the British doing it correct
The Africans doing something wrong does not make the British doing it correct.
Money is king, green is the only colour that truly matters,1 colour to rule them all.
It's only the US that has green as the colour of its banknotes, or bills as you call them. Other countries don't.
Humans desire green more than they fear red.
Love your videos Bruce.
Nicely balanced piece.
Facinating information. thank you.
Our pleasure!
Excellent work, your ability as a practical historian and teacher is worthy of a PhD. My Scots-Irish family includes planters who came to Virgina, Kentucky and Tennessee because they were not the oldest sons. I have been working on the geneology for a couple of decades, and have recovered the (alas only first) names of some of their slaves from wills and deeds. During our Civil war three of my great-grandfathers fought in major battles to end slavery and one of my great-grandmothers became a Union widow when her first husband died near what became my home outside Atlanta, Georgia. As you noted, it isa very complicated and messy tale. Thanks for deepening my understanding and knowledge.
Yep. This video was tv episode long and should be part of a series 👏 TV execs please be aware.Anybody know any?
Has anyone texted you yet? Very wise soul, I love all your videos. Its going to take a few days for me to absorb all my notes ;)
It's so lovely to see your family and share the story. It's so important to share these stories and understand how slavery impacted Scotland even in small rural locations. It's such a sad story but so important to learn from the horror of the past so not to repeat it.