Slaves and Highlanders: Silenced Histories of Scotland and the Caribbean

by David Alston, Juanita Cox-Westmaas (Foreword), Rod Westmaas (Foreword)

Scots were involved in every stage of the slave from captaining slaving ships to auctioning captured Africans in the colonies and hunting down those who escaped from bondage. This book focuses on the Scottish Highlanders who engaged in or benefitted from these crimes against humanity in the Caribbean Islands and Guyana, some reluctantly but many with enthusiasm and without remorse. Their voices are clearly heard in the archives, while in the same sources their victims’ stories are silenced – reduced to numbers and listed as property. David Alston gives voice not only to these Scots but to enslaved Africans and their descendants – to those who reclaimed their freedom, to free women of colour, to the Black Caribs of St Vincent, to house servants, and to children of mixed race who found themselves in the increasingly racist society of Britain in the mid-1800s. As Scots recover and grapple with their past, this vital history lays bare the enormous wealth generated in the Highlands by slavery and emancipation compensation schemes. This legacy, entwined with so many of our contemporary institutions, must be reckoned with.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Scotland, Historical

381 pages, Hardcover

First published October 31, 2021

About the author

David Alston (b. 1952) is a historian and independent researcher. He is the author of Ross & Cromarty: A Historical Guide (1997) and My Little Town of Cromarty: The History of a Northern Scottish Town (2006). He was a Highland Councillor and from 1991–2003 was curator/manager of Cromarty Courthouse Museum. He has published articles on the Highlands and Slavery including 'Very Rapid and Splendid Fortunes: Highland Scots in Berbice (Guyana) in the early nineteenth century', in Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, (2007) and wrote a chapter in the T.M. Devine edited collection Recovering Scotland's Slavery Past (EUP, 2015).

Reviews

[Farah Mendlesohn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not sure I will read a better book this year. (I have no idea how the Wolfson award works, but why isn't this on the shortlist?)

Alston has set out to write a very intense local *and* transatlantic history exploring the activities of the Scots in the Caribbean. It took me a long time to read this book because every chapter is so dense but it's well worth it. He explores investments, purchases, repatriation of money, who was active where and how. No punches are pulled as he describes how upright men of good character treat human beings as commodities and indulge in torture in the name of discipline and profit. Alston draws attention to the ways in which the British plantation system was far more akin to an extermination camp than it was to a forced labour camp: until the transatlantic trade was suppressed, the enslaved were disposable machines, not even animals to be nurtured.

The book begins with a consideration of Scottish denialism, explores how the Scots became involved in the trade, and the degree to which aspects of it were peculiarly Scottish.

The chapter on children of plantation owners educated in Scotland was fascinating.

But two things are also worth mentioning:
Alston is careful to cite the work of the best modern scholars.
Alston is very careful to deploy the voices of the enslaved wherever he can.
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NB I read this alongside David Abulafia's The Boundless Sea, and the interaction of a local and globa history worked very well.

[Suzanne Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very important new addition to the ongoing historical debate surrounding Scotland’s complicity in the Atlantic slave trade. It addresses the part that the Highland regions played in the horrors of slavery and imperial history, and urges for individuals, historians, politicians, and those in power, to reckon with the moral responsibility of Scotland’s role with the legacies of slavery.

(Allocated reading for highland book prize.)

[Meg Briers · Rating 4 out of 5]

a necessary book while still being disappointingly late, with the lack of recognition from scots of our place in the "bad" parts of british history more generally raised and dealt with throughout.
did lose track of the MANY generations of men with exactly the same name in the middle, needed a bit more of a tighter narrative perhaps. cracking last chapter, wish it had had that pace for a little more of the book.

[Susanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was interesting but more academic than I anticipated. A really informative book, just too in depth for the overview I wanted.

[Leigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

David Alston’s Slaves and Highlanders is an interesting introduction to the topic of Scottish involvement, specifically that of native Highlanders, in the British slave trading empire that as a Scottish person I was aware of our history and participation but never truly understood nor appreciated. The content is meticulously presented with what is clearly an abundance of research and referencing throughout, which allows readers to step into a time capsule to catch but a small glimpse of what life for a Scot in the Caribbean during spanning the end of the 17th century through to the 19th century. 

The form of the content is sometimes so focused on presenting the research in a historical record fashion that perhaps it is not best served as an introductory text to the topic - but instead one to keep on hand as a reference for other studies involving the period. The most interesting questions asked throughout are when the author reflects on the burden of responsibility, and what that should look like in a modern world that has been built upon the violence of slavery. He doesn’t present a definitive answer to what should be done - instead he gently critiques the common individualistic western philosophical approach that one should not be beholden to the sins of their ancestry by pointing it out as a necessity formed by imperialism and capitalism in order to allow people to distance themselves from a very real and palpable history of guilt in order to allow the systems that be to carry on. 

I would say that the book has allowed me the opportunity to expand my understanding to the level of depth in which Britain was participating in the slave trade, and also a better appreciation of the acceptance and normality of slavery at the time. Movies and fiction literature tend to portray the more violence and brutal aspects of slavery (which it most certainly was), whereas this book helps represent it as a more commonplace occurrence - people owned slaves because they needed labour in order to run their farms and slaves are cheap labour, of course you need slaves! A good reflection that shows the depths of depravity to which human beings (especially under the regimes of capitalism and imperialism) will stoop too.

[Janet H Swinney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent, thoroughly researched, and highly informative account of Highland Scots' involvement in slavery and the slave trade. Deals not just with the triangular trade, but with (Highland) Scottish ownership and management of plantations in various colonies, the kinship networks that supported this, the wealth accrued to Highland communities and families as a result of slavery, the presence in Scottish society of people who were the product of white men's relationships with women of colour, the myth that Scottish indentured labour was the equivalent of slavery and the much-vaunted claim that Scots were innocent of all evil-doing and that this was the sole responsibility of the English.
As one reviewer has already said, the detailed research means that it's difficult to keep track of who was doing what when, but you have to stick with this to gain an understanding of the overall picture.
Points that particularly caught my attention were the following: Until now, my own research had led me to conclude that the Scots were not involved in the triangular trade, although they were slave owners and, in the West Indies, owned a greater number of slaves per head than the English. It hadn't occurred to me that Scottish sea captains might simply move to Liverpool to conduct their business. The writer made me wonder for the first time what happened to the indigenous people of colour in the lands that were colonised. He sheds some light on this. He also provides information about the various slaves uprisings and about the tremendous amount of earth that slaves had to dig out to create the conditions for cultivation in the colonies on the shores of South America.
This book knocks on the head once and for all the myth that Scots (in this case Highland Scots) were not complicit in the worst aspects of Empire. It's long overdue and is a 'must read'. Big respect to the author for his efforts.

[SP · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great and necessary introduction to how slavery shaped the social and economic delevelopment not just in the Caribbean but also in Scotland. Was particularly fascinated by the connection between the abolition of slavery and how the money that slave owners received drove the clearances in the Highlands. The authors uses individual and their families to illustrate the points he is making be it the connections with Scotland, the building of wealth, education of children or slave ownership by former slaves. Definitely recommended reading!

[Lucille · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very nearly a three star book for me. The last chapter of Part Three and the entirety of Part Four saved it however and I’ve given it four stars. Such important lessons to be learned from this book and so necessary for our moment. It was difficult to read in some parts though, but either way it was interesting and informative throughout.

[Moy · Rating 5 out of 5]

important!

though this specific topic tok him 20 years or so worth of research not enough about spceific highlanders seemed at times to be too generic but still so excellent.

defintely a crucial read for all

[Donald Leitch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slaves and Highlanders was very enlightening. Commencing this read, I knew very little of Scotland’s connection to the slave trade. I now understand much more the darkness associated with Scotland and this economic activity.

[Ruth MacLure · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely worth reading. The importance of the content outweighs the idiosyncratic structure.