HIGHLAND CLEARANCES, HENRY DUNDAS, AND THE SCOTTISH SLAVE TRADE: Oh, and the Duke of Sutherland

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  • Опубліковано 15 чер 2020
  • In HIGHLAND CLEARANCES, HENRY DUNDAS, AND THE SCOTTISH SLAVE TRADE: And the Duke of Sutherland Scottish history tour guides Bruce Fummey links three of the tales from Scotlands History that are too often obscured. At the time of filming we are in the middle of a discussion of Black Lives Matter #BLM. The debate about racial justice has often focused on controversial statues, Henry Dundas the most prominent. The Scottish slave trade is almost forgotten in our consciousness, but the Highland clearances remain.
    Even Robert the Bruce has been bizarrely brought into the recent statue debate. I hope this video provides a broad context
    Three ways to help Scotland History Tours video productions at www.scotlandhistorytours.co.u...
    Here's a video explaining the three ways to help me make more videos • Crowdfunding Options t...
    If you enjoy the Scotland History Tours videos then you can help support on a one off or regular basis by making a donation at Buy Me a Coffee Just click the link
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    Drone pilots were Liam McNamara
    and Alan Stewart / @scottish-m3
    Thanks to Rob Gibson for the photograph of The Duke of Sutherland.
    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 one of Scotland history tour guides people ask: Help me plan a Scottish holiday, or help me plan a Scottish vacation of your from the US. So from April 2020 I've tried to give a bit of history, but some places of interest in Scotland as well.

КОМЕНТАРІ • 726

  • @ScotlandHistoryTours
    @ScotlandHistoryTours  4 роки тому +27

    Here are three ways you can help me make more video productions. Just click the link www.scotlandhistorytours.co.uk/support

    • @julianshepherd2038
      @julianshepherd2038 3 роки тому +5

      Isn't English a Germanic language not Latin ?

    • @julianshepherd2038
      @julianshepherd2038 3 роки тому +2

      Also could you mention the enclosures acts that cleared the English off common land in England.? They might use race as an excuse but it's about power, money and class. Oh and the transition from feudalism to capitalism.
      I really liked the video but a 13 part series would suit me better. L we get on BBC Scotland is that failed archeology guy. Kneel Oliver.

    • @ScotlandHistoryTours
      @ScotlandHistoryTours  3 роки тому +3

      🥱🥱😴

    • @buccaneersfan7948
      @buccaneersfan7948 3 роки тому +3

      You're right. All Lives Matter. No one deserves to be a slave. God created us all equal. Keep exposing the truth bud 👍.

    • @mitchelljm1617
      @mitchelljm1617 2 роки тому +1

      Mate you are brilliant!

  • @janecooper3142
    @janecooper3142 3 роки тому +174

    It needs adding - the Highland crofters that were 'cleared' out had their own sheep. Little, primitive, short-tailed sheep that they'd been farming back in AD83 and for thousands of years since then. Those little sheep were also cleared out with their croft owners and replaced with larger, white, longtailed sheep that had been introduced into Britain by the Romans. Those little sheep had provided the essential wool for clothing, bedding & more (Viking sails were made of wool), plus milk for cheese that could be stored over the winter as well as meat from older animals. The crofters only had tiny flocks and they were brought into sheepfolds by the croft house at night for protection. Without their little dunface sheep the crofters would have struggled to survive in the Highlands. Next time you rightly talk about the 'English' sheep driving out the crofters, please don't forget that the little dunface sheep were also driven out. The Scottish Dunface or Tanface sheep were thought to have been driven to extinction, but a few survived on St Kilda, and when that population was 'evacuated' with most of their sheep being sold to finance the evacuation, a tiny feral flock was left behind on Boreray island.

    • @shesaknitter
      @shesaknitter 3 роки тому +21

      Thanks so much for this additional information. Fascinating!

    • @earlofmar7987
      @earlofmar7987 3 роки тому +6

      That was interesting. Are you a historian or in animal husbandry?

    • @leighgreendog9543
      @leighgreendog9543 3 роки тому +3

      And so an inner suburb exists at Melbourne Oz. Settled by those lucky to survive. Nay sheep sadly

    • @gustavmeyrink_2.0
      @gustavmeyrink_2.0 3 роки тому +29

      Those perfidious Romans and their large livestock!
      I am Friesian and we too had a run in with the Romans due to livestock size. At some point the Romans made it to Friesia and we negotiated a kind of tax to avoid war. The tax was a certain number of cowhides because the Roman Empire ran on leather ie they used for everything from sandals via uniforms to straps which held their siege machines together.
      So when a year later they returned to collect their hides they said our cattle and therefore the hides were too small and demanded 3x as many. That was too much for my ancestors to bear so war it was. There were two battles. The Romans lost the first and we crucified 900 of them. The Romans also lost the 2nd but instead of risking crucifixion 2500 Roman soldiers committed suicide (not long before the Romans had crucified 6000 survivors from Spartacus' revolt, a story well known throughout Europe).
      As Julius Caesar once remarked 'you cannot subdue the Friesians because they have no kings' and indeed Archeology has shown that there was no difference in status or wealth in Friesian society until christianity came along. The last Friesians converted in the 11th century.
      The historical upshot of all this is (and in a large part thanks to the geography of Friesia) Feudalism never took hold there as it did in the rest of Europe except Scandinavia.

    • @earlofmar7987
      @earlofmar7987 3 роки тому +8

      @@gustavmeyrink_2.0 Thank you for that information. I didn't know any of this. I like learning these bits & pieces of history. I think it's so important to see how our world was shaped.

  • @jamescoughlan8193
    @jamescoughlan8193 3 роки тому +28

    All school kids should be taken to these statues and be told the truth, serves a much better function than tearing them down to be forgotten

    • @dinkster1729
      @dinkster1729 3 місяці тому

      Maybe, their descendants with a great deal of power and money would object to that.

  • @MackofDuart
    @MackofDuart 10 місяців тому +8

    Very moving my Scottish Brother. I write from the West Coast of the USA. I am here because of the Clearances so long ago. I would like to think that the success of the Scots in this country is a bit of a middle finger to those oppressors of that time. We are still here, still upright and doing well.

  • @tbwpiper189
    @tbwpiper189 3 роки тому +19

    I'm a white man in his sixties, Irish by descent, and heard the stories of the Irish being starved off of their land. I am aware of such tragedy but allow it not to impede my forward momentum into the future. While history is important, the future is equally and critically so. They're the two halves of the human scale. But never must one outweigh the other, lest the imbalance turn over the entire structure. Slavery was, is, and always will be the scourge of mankind, no matter the colour or race of the perpetrators and their victims. As you said, ALL LIVES MATTER. Once that is understood the scales of humanity will again be leveled. This was an excellent video and touched home the lives of all who love the peoples of the world.

  • @muleepete8
    @muleepete8 3 роки тому +13

    As a 66 year old retired US Navy man, a member of the Clan MacMillan and a member if of the human race, it was finding these videos and the host who is so honest and eloquent in his presentations that I have found someone with whom I feel a deeper kinship than even my brothers at arms. Bruce, you are a refreshing and enlightened voice who tells great stories without prejudice. You are a wonder to listen to. Thank you for your lessons in Scots history and moral perspective. May I call you Friend?

  • @francessocha6143
    @francessocha6143 2 роки тому +27

    As a young teacher in the mid sixties I was told I was not allowed to teach the Highland Clearances. We need to leave these statues where they are but make sure folk know why. As ever greed, self -aggrandisement and self interest rule. We need to learn. “Haud ga’en” Bruce.

    • @dinkster1729
      @dinkster1729 3 місяці тому +1

      Where was this that you were not allowed to teach about the clearances? Some history in Canada is passed over, too. But since so many of our Scottish ancestors came because of the clearances, we know about it. Maybe, our parents teach us about it or our grandparents?

    • @francessocha6143
      @francessocha6143 3 місяці тому

      @@dinkster1729 This was in the county of Angus, NE Scotland, in the Northlinks Primary School which no longer exists in Montrose. The directive came from above, I hasten to add, not the Head Teacher who was ex-army and all for telling things as they were. He was a very good “Headie”. I’m long retired so have no idea if things have changed but I do know none of my grandkids, 29 to 16, studied the Highland Clearances .

    • @dinkster1729
      @dinkster1729 3 місяці тому

      @@francessocha6143 A lot of the bitter-sweet immigrant experience is reflected in this American German folk song from Pennsylvania: ua-cam.com/video/VhNKnoLMKYo/v-deo.html People who did better in their New World than they would ever have done in their former home would have an up and at 'em attitude. The Oscar Brand version uses the illiterate English version, "I come" rather than the standard "I came" form that Pete Seeger uses.

    • @dinkster1729
      @dinkster1729 3 місяці тому +1

      @@francessocha6143 Maybe, Scotland or U.K. authorities are ashamed to talk about it, right? The British probably don't talk about the Potato Famine in Ireland either and what they did about it. I did my practise teaching round in Essex, England. Most of my fellow students were of Irish descent and some of them were planning to go to Ireland after our month in England in 1973. I was shocked by how against the Irish the British were. "Oh, you don't want to go there! they said, "The Irish are so uncivilized." Lord knows what they think of the Scots.

    • @francessocha6143
      @francessocha6143 3 місяці тому

      @@dinkster1729 Did you not know? The men all have ginger hair, beards, wear kilts and spend most of their time drunk going round hills shooting haggis. They just don’t mention the women 😂. That’s a bit harsh, the northerners are fine, they are looked on as much the same as the Scots, a slightly lower form of life than the southerners 🙄. I know how the Irish feel. My maiden name may be Donald but I have Irish catholic on one side and Irish Protestant on the other both a couple of generations back. There are problems both sides but it would be nice if we could all follow “ tell the truth and shame the devil”. Historical truth is important. Maybe if governments world wide followed that we wouldn’t be in the mess we’re in today.

  • @junestewart5098
    @junestewart5098 4 роки тому +74

    Well done and I would like to think most people feel the same. We Scots have a long and varied history which, as you so rightly say, must be exposed and accepted for the age in which it had happened. We should move on from learning these very lessons but often we end up repeating them. Brilliant video Bruce 💕.

    • @ScotlandHistoryTours
      @ScotlandHistoryTours  4 роки тому +5

      I doff my cap to you ma'am

    • @sapien82
      @sapien82 3 роки тому +5

      I think our national anthem sums it up with the line "and in the past, they must remain" this applies to all of Scotland's brutal and disturbing past and our age of tyranny and oppression and warfare and fear. Lets us not forget it, but look to the past so we don't fail in the future.

  • @okiejammer2736
    @okiejammer2736 3 роки тому +37

    Wow.
    Sigh. Shaking my head.
    Just ... Wow.
    I watched this more than once. This video needs to be required viewing for students in middle and high school classrooms - everywhere.

  • @abj777
    @abj777 3 роки тому +47

    Thanks for sharing this history! As a Black American who finds the Dundas clan on my family tree , this is one cool lesson!

    • @ScotlandHistoryTours
      @ScotlandHistoryTours  3 роки тому +8

      I'm not entirely sure he was one of the good guys

    • @lolatyou
      @lolatyou 3 роки тому +8

      @@ScotlandHistoryTours can any of us say we are 100% good guys?

    • @charlesgreaves3293
      @charlesgreaves3293 3 роки тому +8

      @@lolatyou Amen, all we do is walk forward as best we know and do no harm.

    • @bravodelta6193
      @bravodelta6193 3 роки тому +1

      @@lolatyou Very true brother , good and bad in everyone at some point and time

    • @stevenwheeler5324
      @stevenwheeler5324 2 роки тому +1

      It's a half lesson.. Henry Dundas ended slavery in Scotland.also Canada.he fought for Irish soldiers pensions.he also fought for Catholic emancipation.he also got sailor's wife's money when their husbands had been pressed ganged. He completely changed and improved the royal navy to be the greatest navy ever. Was first ever War minister.he wrote pitts India policy for ending the tyranny of the East India company. Endlessly promoted scots to high positions.. his story is complex for sure and he has always been the villain of the empire.

  • @seanryan5005
    @seanryan5005 3 роки тому +17

    Profoundly touched by your voice. Thank you!

  • @mysteryhombre81
    @mysteryhombre81 3 роки тому +14

    This is one of the most hauntingly poetic videos I've ever seen, your words and atmosphere took me back to that time.

  • @monicalynnjames
    @monicalynnjames 3 роки тому +18

    A truly beautiful tribute to the complex history of the highlands, thank you so much for your work to tell the whole story!

    • @ScotlandHistoryTours
      @ScotlandHistoryTours  3 роки тому +1

      You are so kind. Thank you. You may also enjoy these
      ua-cam.com/video/FQ92_d3u3QA/v-deo.html

  • @stuartmcallister1965
    @stuartmcallister1965 2 роки тому +7

    I grew up hearing the rhetoric of “what the English done to us” we weren’t just victims of the Empire. We were the Empire. Puppets and puppet masters. Complicit in its greed and injustice. Great work Bruce.!

  • @alexandria8743
    @alexandria8743 3 роки тому +40

    fucking yes i found a mad guy w dreads to explain my history

  • @dreichoutdoors5274
    @dreichoutdoors5274 3 роки тому +8

    I clicked on your video and wondered how you would be able to do that story justice in just 10 minutes. I'm very pleased to say that you did it incredibly well. I just wish that story was better known and taught within our education system. I remember taking my 11yo daughter to see the remains of one of the cleared township here in Argyll, she struggled to comprehend the inhumanity of what had happened there. It was gutting to have to tell her how the highlands are littered with such villages. My own ancestors were amongst those cleared from their land and relocated to Brora as part of the Sutherlands' clearances, only for my great grandmother to find herself employed as a lady in waiting at Dunrobin Castle in the very early 1900's.

  • @sallycosten4539
    @sallycosten4539 4 роки тому +17

    My God, that rocked me to my socks! Thank you once again Bruce.

  • @jameshalfpenny4726
    @jameshalfpenny4726 4 роки тому +21

    Brilliant, a perfect counter for the the aggression shown in George Square at the weekend........if only more people followed their country’s history.

    • @ScotlandHistoryTours
      @ScotlandHistoryTours  4 роки тому +9

      I'll be honest I've found it an upsetting time. Some attitudes that had been locked in the closet have come out recently and reminded me of the bad old days.

    • @jameshalfpenny4726
      @jameshalfpenny4726 4 роки тому +1

      Scotland History Tours yes I can well imagine, it’s amazing how history repeats itself....

    • @rsfaeges5298
      @rsfaeges5298 3 роки тому +1

      @@ScotlandHistoryTours 😿💜

    • @sandrafraser6028
      @sandrafraser6028 3 роки тому +1

      @@ScotlandHistoryTours Thank you for your work, you are making a difference.💕

  • @diarmuidmacgiollaruaidh8936
    @diarmuidmacgiollaruaidh8936 3 роки тому +9

    "Briseann an dúchas tri suile an cait" (nature breaks through the eyes of a cat - an old gaeilic proverb). The words you use to describe history are incredibly beautiful - "nobody wants to be separated from this land where mountain loch and Glen pervade your soul"!! Braught goosebumps on my neck. Just discovered your channel recently and love every video I've watched so far! Diarmuid - Gaeil ó Éireann.

  • @amandagraham4254
    @amandagraham4254 2 роки тому +10

    I know that my Graham family fled to Canada in the 1800"s. I know that my Irish side did as well. I think it was the clearings because they were scared to death. IMO, we just had to get out! Unfortunately we brought this crap to the Indigenous people of North America, and for that I am eternally sorry 😞

  • @rfitzy612
    @rfitzy612 3 роки тому +9

    The best comment I heard was from my auld man - don’t topple the statues - explain what they did and give the name and address of his family who inherited their bloody handed wealth.

    • @jocksjewelerygemstones8782
      @jocksjewelerygemstones8782 2 роки тому +3

      Let's hope no-one gives your address out for the crimes of your ancestors I mean why would I feel guilty for what people I never new did

  • @macleoddj
    @macleoddj 3 роки тому +7

    None can change the society and time we're born into. What matters is what we do. As a Carolina Scot, a product of the Clearances and a history of slavery in the region, this particularly hit home and made me sad a bit. Thanks for your thoughtful insight.

  • @darrylpatterson1091
    @darrylpatterson1091 Рік тому +1

    Thanks again Bruce, wholeheartedly agree with your sentiments. History must not be buried or erased. We learn from the good and the bad to hopefully do better.

  • @ukbuddhist
    @ukbuddhist 3 роки тому +3

    Thank you for this. An amazing video, you really are the best voice for Scottish history right now!

  • @vickiepower6201
    @vickiepower6201 3 роки тому +6

    Beautifully told and yet so sad, truly touched my heart

  • @saidahamelin3118
    @saidahamelin3118 3 роки тому +8

    Such incredible atmosphere to this story. Wow.

  • @tattil.c.6290
    @tattil.c.6290 3 роки тому +7

    It really makes me sad to know that people treated other people so horribly due to whatever reason they felt justified for them to do so. I remember segregation in the south, I was young when that was ending. The attitudes of most are better today than when I was a child but in some areas that hasn’t been much change. I was taught better, thankfully and have taught my children better as well.

  • @raydriver7300
    @raydriver7300 Рік тому

    So moving. I’ve said it before but it bears repeating: you have the words 🌞

  • @paulrosenberger2485
    @paulrosenberger2485 3 роки тому +3

    This is a very powerful presentation. Thank you so much!

  • @tzefirayah_700travelmore.
    @tzefirayah_700travelmore. Рік тому +1

    Fascinating topic! Thank you for sharing this historic story. You're a wonderful storyteller! Peace.

  • @laragwen102
    @laragwen102 3 роки тому +2

    Very powerful and timely presentation. Thank you. Now stop making me cry!

  • @OublietteTight
    @OublietteTight 5 місяців тому +1

    Excellent
    Poetic
    Intense
    Hits home

  • @davidgillis25
    @davidgillis25 Рік тому +1

    Beautiful video, I'm currently in Canada after a couple centuries removed from the clearances.

    • @ScotlandHistoryTours
      @ScotlandHistoryTours  8 місяців тому

      Come to one of my live shows in Canada in 2024. Shows in Halifax, Annapolis, New Glasgow, Moncton, Montreal, Perth , Ottawa, Toronto, Fergus, Seaforth, Calgary, Vancouver and Victoria. Most of the details are here. www.brucefummey.co.uk/shows.aspx

  • @gordonchristie246
    @gordonchristie246 4 роки тому +6

    Another great video Bruce. I am glad of your knowledge and your wisdom. Have a great week my brother.
    Very best regards Gordon.

  • @andymcd6689
    @andymcd6689 4 роки тому +3

    I have been thinking on this subject over the past number of days and after watching your excellent and thought provoking article, I think that now more than ever that Dundas should be removed from his place of honour, that is St. Andrews Square, and instead moved to the hall of shame. A statue in the centre of our capital should be for someone that we admire and gives us pride. Instead, we have someone who prolonged the misery of others and provides a sense of regret. I am not denying that we should remember the mistakes of the past, not at all, but we must learn these important truths in the class room, not the monuments where we would honour our heroes.

  • @leonaandrickscott164
    @leonaandrickscott164 4 роки тому +3

    Fantastic video Bruce very well done. It was an honour to do a private tour with you in Scotland as well you were amazing.

  • @EKcyclist
    @EKcyclist 3 роки тому +4

    One of your most evocative videos, Bruce.
    My own family are supposed to have come to Glasgow, from around Oban, Taynuilt and Loch Awe. They “dropped the ‘Mac’ for bread”, as the saying goes. I wonder if there’s a story in that episode for you as a wrap to the Clearances section?
    I’ve been to see the Earl of Sutherland’s statue, by the way. I spat on it.

  • @julianolan2860
    @julianolan2860 Рік тому

    Thank you from Australia where so many of us must carry the duty of reparation to the colonised indigenous people who were once free here. When the poor cleared Highlanders taken to Australia by force arrived here to work as indentured labour - paying back the cost of their forced journey (yes you heard it) over years in the colony, every door in the harbour town was shut against the 'dirty immigrants'
    passing through with their new overlords. We are a terrible species more so because we can do better. We know how to do better and we know everyone thrives when equality is widespread.
    Warm regards Julia Margaret Nolan- great granddaughter of Irish Famine refugees.

  • @msheldon10
    @msheldon10 4 роки тому +6

    Fantastic video Bruce! Shines a light on aspects of Scottish history that we're often backward about coming forward with.

    • @ScotlandHistoryTours
      @ScotlandHistoryTours  4 роки тому +3

      Thanks man. I really appreciate that coming from a proper arty/techy like yourself

    • @msheldon10
      @msheldon10 4 роки тому +3

      @@ScotlandHistoryTours Cheers. That should be former arty/techy who is back at Uni trying to become a brainy type :P

  • @Mybassgruvin
    @Mybassgruvin Рік тому +1

    Great video like always Bruce and very timely. I agree with you 100%, it should not be ignored. When we ignore the past we are doomed to repeat it. I commented on your other video about Slavery and I was telling you how my Scottish ancestors were pushed out of the Highlands during the clearances. They immigrated to North Carolina and I believe they became slave owners themselves. As I stated in the other video, I don't know how they treated their slaves but I can only hope they didn't mistreat them based on their own inhumane treatment from the English, and their fellow Scots.

  • @eleanorkidd5840
    @eleanorkidd5840 4 роки тому +6

    Brilliant video. If only history lessons in school were this good. Thanks Bruce

  • @1776patric
    @1776patric 2 роки тому

    Thank you! Bruce

  • @TedLindenIsHere
    @TedLindenIsHere 2 роки тому +2

    Here in Ontario, Canada, we have a TONNE of streets named after Dundas. Many here, particularly in Toronto, have been claiming his name should be removed because he 'helped enable slavery' here.

  • @jamesmacdonald4637
    @jamesmacdonald4637 3 роки тому +7

    Thank you for making this great video. I stumbled upon it - and your channel - accidentally, as I was looking into the Highland Clearances. Really insightful, and you're a terrific orator!

    • @ScotlandHistoryTours
      @ScotlandHistoryTours  3 роки тому +2

      Thanks James, I really appreciate you taking the time to say hello. Please feel free to subscribe to the channel. There's loads more videos on things historically Scottish: scientists, inventors, monarchs, battles, heart warming stories, and beautiful views along the way I hope.

    • @jamesmacdonald4637
      @jamesmacdonald4637 3 роки тому

      @@ScotlandHistoryTours Thanks so much, Bruce! Have subbed and I'm looking forward to checking out more of your videos and great Scottish stories.

    • @ScotlandHistoryTours
      @ScotlandHistoryTours  3 роки тому +1

      Thanks, and enjoy

  • @Tigrezebra
    @Tigrezebra 3 роки тому +3

    The way you put this video together was very heartfelt, and I feel tears in my eyes and a lump in my throat.
    Thanks for this, I truly cherish the truths you exposed.

  • @vonBottorff
    @vonBottorff Рік тому +1

    Lots of clearance was at the hands of absentee landlords. One Highland island owned by an English aristocrat was cleared for sheep -- and she lived in London and had never seen the place.

  • @Murderbot2000
    @Murderbot2000 2 роки тому

    Bruce, I’ve enjoyed all of your videos. I have no idea how, nor why they showed up in my recommendations. But I’m glad that I got connected to them.

  • @stevenrussell9034
    @stevenrussell9034 2 роки тому +1

    Man you tell a compelling story. Thanks!

  • @bobmcclure8069
    @bobmcclure8069 2 роки тому +2

    There are no words... Wow... I managed to hold the tears back, but just barely. It is easy to justify brutality, just declare the other side non-people. As you said, it is an old game.

  • @par576
    @par576 3 роки тому +2

    Another great video! I am with you, and the people of Golspie, who don't think statues should be removed. We can't change the past but we can tell the truth. I think the removal of Confederate heroes in America is the wrong way to go about it.

    • @nikkolettguyer4913
      @nikkolettguyer4913 3 роки тому

      The confederate statues are participation trophies for losers and the people who complain about their children getting a participation trophy when the children play sports are the ones who want those statues to stay. They should have never been erected as they were erected to intimidate black people.

    • @cplmpcocptcl6306
      @cplmpcocptcl6306 3 роки тому

      I agree. Let them have their statues. No one is intimidated by them.

  • @audreycortesi4652
    @audreycortesi4652 Рік тому

    This by far has been one of the best streams I’ve seen so far a very important message thank you so very much for this😢

  • @lilzapper7904
    @lilzapper7904 2 роки тому

    I completely agree that tearing down the monuments will do nothing to expose the hypocrisy and cruelty of those once exalted in stone. Yes, all lives matter. Celt, Pict, Scot, Slave, Irish (immigrant), child, Native American, Indian/Pakistani, poor, Hispanic...ALL lives. Thank you for having the courage to state your views.

  • @macleod1602
    @macleod1602 3 роки тому +4

    This is an uncomfortable reality and brought a tear to my eye. I wished everyone would watch this video.

    • @ScotlandHistoryTours
      @ScotlandHistoryTours  3 роки тому +2

      Why.not share it with friends and little by little everyone will see it.

    • @macleod1602
      @macleod1602 3 роки тому +1

      @@ScotlandHistoryTours I will, for sure.

  • @patmiller9236
    @patmiller9236 2 роки тому

    Thank you. A poetic and powerful statement- and it never does end as we currently watch Putin's genocidal efforts in Ukraine.
    I love your channel having just found it and find your much needed wise balanced perspective inspiring.
    Our last trip before the COVID closure was Scotland in January 2020. We look forward to returning again to your beloved country.
    Blessings from Colorado, USA.

  • @sher3571
    @sher3571 3 роки тому +3

    My Belief Is That
    Those Monuments
    Should Be Kept in Museum
    As a Testament To What They DONE
    But Never in The Public Square
    Where They Would Be Seen as Heroic

    • @StudeSteve62
      @StudeSteve62 3 роки тому

      Yes. The distinction between celebration and commemoration is huge...

  • @bryanditmer_borubrin5802
    @bryanditmer_borubrin5802 2 роки тому

    Thank you Bruce.

  • @elizabethrusson7495
    @elizabethrusson7495 3 роки тому +2

    For individual Scots that say "that wasna me", I did some research on a friend's family tree to find out her gggrandfather owned a slave in Grenada and he was born in the Highlands. Just the son of a farmer, nothing more. Another carpenter on Grenada had nineteen slaves. So it wasn't just the Dundases and the Sutherlands, but ordinary Highlanders were encouraged to both invest and work in the Caribbean trade.

    • @harlandeke
      @harlandeke 3 роки тому

      So what is that person supposed to feel? Like a monster because an ancestor partook of something that had been accepted for all of human existence? I don't understand what the point of that is.
      I am an American of mostly a Scot, Irish, Manx, English and Norwegian decent, and I don't know if any of my ancestors owned slaves, but me and my father and brothers recently did DNA testing and found that we were about 1% African...so who knows what it means?
      I hate slavery and true racism, but racism is a human problem...no particular ethnic group is free from that evil.
      There is hatred of the "other" in every ethnic group on earth..I refuse to be buffaloed into self loathing or embarrassment of my dominant race for things that I myself utterly abhor.
      In every race there are subsets that have committed the same gross atrocities against each other.
      We have to move past the finger pointing and move forward to a better future...the future that Martin Luther King dreamed of.
      May God help us find it...the current finger pointing is only dividing people, not bringing them together.
      Ok...let the hate and name calling spew forth..I don't care.

  • @OsculumTormentum
    @OsculumTormentum Рік тому +1

    Cool! The only heritage lessons I got were my old mans pride in eating marmalade jam & & our tartan & hand with the dagger dirk coat of arms Manu forti ! Keep the content coming awesome!

  • @DonMackay64
    @DonMackay64 4 роки тому +3

    Beautifully filmed and very well written. Great work Bruce.

  • @scrapbagstudios
    @scrapbagstudios Рік тому

    Thank you for this excellent video. You have packed a lot into this short video and painted a very vivid picture. I live in Australia and First Nations people are currently battling (still battling I should say) for recognition - of the true history - of culture, language and to be listened to, to be included in the constitution. I do not have First Nations heritage, I was born in England, but I cannot stand injustice in any form, wherever it lands and by whom it is wielded. I did not know a lot of the detail of the clearances, but I have known about them for a long time and like the Enclosures in England, that they caused a lot of suffering at the hands of fat cats. Keep up the good work. 💙

  • @fionadrummond9538
    @fionadrummond9538 3 роки тому +2

    In Toronto, Canada, there is a movement afoot to change Dundas St./Dundas Square because of Henry Dundas’ links to slavery. I don’t know what to think....but so true that those who forget history are doomed to repeat it....

    • @haatpraat2993
      @haatpraat2993 3 роки тому

      Do you honestly think in the 21st century with all our access to social media, media and communications people will simply forget about monsters like Dundas if we remove his statues? If anything the internet is bringing to light the massive participation of Scotland in the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade and the role played by Dundas's and many other Scots. The statue in Edinburgh never even came also to that in almost 200 years.
      The argument to preserve statues dedicated to people who committed or facilitated crimes against humanity in order to stop these crimes reoccurring is ludicrous. There is not one statue in the whole of Germany dedicated to Adolf Hitler, but yet Germany arguably is the most anti Nazi nation in the whole of Europe.

  • @Jawz8u2
    @Jawz8u2 Рік тому

    Great Story Teller. Thank You. Blood is still on our hands today. "Send the Cell Phones Back!" should be our Battle Cry : )

  • @minskybrown8634
    @minskybrown8634 Рік тому +2

    That was very informative. Thank you. I am trying to find out more about Scottish plantation owners in Jamaica and this sets the scene. So many Scot surnames there: MacKenzie, McLean, McIntosh, Graham & Stewart.

  • @jacquelinemerrick4257
    @jacquelinemerrick4257 Рік тому +1

    wow "nobody wants to be separated from this land where mountain loch and Glen pervade your soul"!!
    goosebumps

  • @jaimiehardy5652
    @jaimiehardy5652 3 роки тому +3

    I'd say that English wasn't a Latin language in any way, it's a mix (mainly) of Scandi/Germanic languages.
    I would say that you have a valuable perspective and it's one I find myself sympathetic too.

    • @ScotlandHistoryTours
      @ScotlandHistoryTours  3 роки тому

      English is essentially French (Latin language) and German, yes some other bits and bobs too.

    • @jaimiehardy5652
      @jaimiehardy5652 3 роки тому +1

      @@ScotlandHistoryTours www.britannica.com/topic/English-language
      Thats not the case, although there are many French words incorporated into English, it is not the basis of English.
      Love your videos by the way.

  • @JohnSmith-fd4wt
    @JohnSmith-fd4wt Рік тому +1

    I am a 63 year old man who could not take to school ever , but I think things would have been so much better if I had a teacher like you

  • @sparky2086
    @sparky2086 4 роки тому +17

    These costume pictures are hilarious. Love these videos on our history. They should be in the effing schools.

    • @ScotlandHistoryTours
      @ScotlandHistoryTours  4 роки тому +8

      Thanks to my son for the thumbnail pictures

    • @Scottbutcher7
      @Scottbutcher7 4 роки тому +6

      The english don't want to teach the scottish about this stuff because it will make more people want independence 😂

    • @thefastandthedead1769
      @thefastandthedead1769 3 роки тому +2

      @@Scottbutcher7 Totally true there! Can you imagine The Scotland Office run by the red and blue Tories allowing that?

  • @octavialewis6817
    @octavialewis6817 Рік тому

    I'm African American and truly enjoy your channel. 😘

  • @guychase8611
    @guychase8611 Рік тому

    I saw that monument to that I humane
    piece of entitled vermin in 1994 at Golspie for each of four days playing the Golspie Classic (£15 entry fee) . My local companions explained the clearance of the Highlands .
    Your presentation is very eloquent and fitting.
    Both monuments should have plaques attached ,explaining the tyranny of those “improvers”.

  • @NotNowCato1254
    @NotNowCato1254 3 роки тому +1

    Really good stuff. Refreshing perspective. Thanks Bruce.

  • @markmacdonald3260
    @markmacdonald3260 3 роки тому +4

    We have to remember the bad things in our history a well as the good. Lest we forget.

  • @pamczech5984
    @pamczech5984 3 роки тому +1

    Here here try to tell others that we need to remember my great grandparents came to America during the civil war thank God they found freedom

  • @CrimsonRaven51
    @CrimsonRaven51 2 роки тому

    That was just great!!👍👍

  • @CAM-fq8lv
    @CAM-fq8lv Рік тому

    Very moving. I grew up in Cape Breton and we never had one word about any of this in history class. Gaelic died with my great grandmother. But my grandfather had sheep still. Thanks for this.

  • @christopherrotter3969
    @christopherrotter3969 6 місяців тому

    God Bless you Bruce. I ‘ ll light a candle for you, in a beautiful church in New York….from a son of Clan Donald

  • @fractalnomics
    @fractalnomics 3 роки тому +2

    Agree. Thank you, our family story too, we went to NZ, and we never forget.

    • @TheBirdierouge
      @TheBirdierouge 3 роки тому +3

      My family story also, mine went to Canada... Nova Scotia which is New Scotland in latin. The Highlanders left a very strong culture that survives to this day in the entire province. In some areas Gaelic is still the spoken language. The flag itself is the Scottish flag with the colors reversed. Both you and I have come from Scottish survivors and as for myself I feel it's an honor to be so.

  • @eridanoooouuuuus
    @eridanoooouuuuus 3 роки тому +2

    I came across your channel this weekend and it’s safe to say I spent a sizeable portion of it watching your videos, and this was fantastic as always.
    While I think we should pull down the statue of Dundas in St. Andrew’s square, the statue over looking Comrie may as well be left alone, except for a new plaque explaining who he was. I am from Crieff, I was last at the Comrie statue last autumn.
    You are fantastically well spoken and a real pleasure to listen to. Thanks again

  • @christianfreedom-seeker934
    @christianfreedom-seeker934 2 роки тому

    That brought a tear to my eye too! My Scots-side family's village had been abandoned and destroyed during the Clearances. I've heard the "pro-clearance" side say that the population was simply getting too large and letting millions starve in the Highlands wasn't an option. Well sending them to fertile North America seems to have been a blessing to them and to the Highlands as well. Scotland had achieved "sustainability" and even England had her own "enclosure and clear" that effectively ended feudalism and hundreds of thousands of tiny manor villages had simply vanished. And of course, the opening of North America, New Zealand and Australia had taken the population pressure off Great Britian.

  • @ryanll7312
    @ryanll7312 2 роки тому +1

    Again, I live in the American south and you’ve made another video that I love you for. Keep it up!

  • @shanedrewbattersby6291
    @shanedrewbattersby6291 3 роки тому

    Bruce. Well said. At the end of this video you articualated what i have been trying to for months.
    On another note. Thank you for having this channel. Im Canadian witha deep scottish heritage. Ive learned alot about my past thru historians like you and Dan Snow. ( yes thats right you are just as good if not better a prsenter as him) There are 2 countrys on our planet i feel at one with. Canada and Scotland. Having visited scotland a few times. There is somthing familiar somthing in grained in my being something feels at home in both Countries. Its not the romance of being in a storied land. Its the smell of the air in the great glenn, the feel of the peat underfoot. Being one in my group to help the others understand some of the more west coast and northern Brogues. I spent 26 yrs in the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders of CANADA. We had a few expats in our ranks. 1 was my first Company Sergent Major (CSM) He is Glasswiegian. He would get angery with us and start yelling we would understand the odd "EWES GUYS" but then he'd storm off leaving us on the parade square at attention for 2 or 3 mins while he calmed down. Then he'd come back and ask if we understood anything he said. He was a Corporal in the Scots Guards for10 yrs and would forget how thick his accent sounded to us. Funny. Here i was barley 17 grown up with tonnes of scots expats family friends. I though i could understand scots. Then enters CSM McCarrel.
    ALBAINN GU BRATH
    CHANADA GU BRATH

  • @kirstenperson4389
    @kirstenperson4389 3 роки тому +1

    What a powerful message. Well done.

  • @ShiningNoctowls
    @ShiningNoctowls 2 роки тому

    Thanks for sharing; take care 🔥❤🌙

  • @clockworkkirlia7475
    @clockworkkirlia7475 3 роки тому +2

    Our opinions differ as to the statues in particular, but your perspective is undeniable and I thank you for this video. It's actually brilliant, with a really solid, excellent message. I'd say I'm a year late, but I'd share this video a hundred years late.

  • @Khaylus
    @Khaylus 3 роки тому +1

    My son is half french and half English, I wish everyone was as intelligent as you, I envy my boy, he has two heritages to be greatful for and study the history’s and feel pride over.

  • @johnmackinnon1026
    @johnmackinnon1026 3 роки тому +1

    This was just an excellent,well thought out,and mature video, well done,....

  • @dorasmith7875
    @dorasmith7875 3 роки тому +1

    I thought I was going to learn about Henry Dundas, the highland clearances, and the Scottish slave trades and it's pretty much a poetic durge for the clans.

  • @junesmith852
    @junesmith852 11 місяців тому

    Oh bruce this video is so heartbreaking 💔 to hear, human's can be so cruel 😢 the scenery is beautiful though and you told the story with sympathy and empathy, thank you kindly. God bless 🙏🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🥃

  • @stevefarable
    @stevefarable 3 роки тому

    And you my friend reveal history with such clarity, making it so relevant to day.

  • @rogerwright1168
    @rogerwright1168 Рік тому

    It wasn't just Scotland that suffered clearances. It happened in Canada, in America, in Australia, in New Zealand, in Rhodesia, in South Africa and many, many more places.

    • @ScotlandHistoryTours
      @ScotlandHistoryTours  8 місяців тому

      This channel is only about Scotland. The clue is in the name

  • @josephcianflone9901
    @josephcianflone9901 3 роки тому +1

    Powerful words, well said and well felt!

  • @rubywestmoreland7485
    @rubywestmoreland7485 2 роки тому

    Thank you for this. It is perfect for bringing all the frayed ends of this history together in one picture.

  • @margaretjohnson4413
    @margaretjohnson4413 2 роки тому

    Loving the videos thanks very much. You certainly know your stuff

  • @barbaralavoie1045
    @barbaralavoie1045 3 роки тому +1

    A very good video and very enlightened for all to hear and understand. In all countries this stuff happened and yes, all lives do matter.❤️

  • @kerrwintersgill
    @kerrwintersgill 4 роки тому +3

    Excellent - thank you for an insightful and meaningful video!

    • @ScotlandHistoryTours
      @ScotlandHistoryTours  4 роки тому

      No, thank you for stopping by. Please subscribe for more, if you haven't already done so

  • @shelleygibbons1065
    @shelleygibbons1065 2 роки тому

    Beautifully done !! As always. So we'll done . As a history lover . Who wants to learn from our past ! We cannot erase the past ! But we can change the future

  • @aronwyedwards5401
    @aronwyedwards5401 3 роки тому +1

    Thank you, from a descendant of Campbell, McLaren, Douglas, Crerar who resided in Ardeonaig, Lawer, Lix, Killin, Kenmore. Left for New Zealand in 1858. History, we need to know who we are

  • @HayleyK-
    @HayleyK- 9 місяців тому

    Wish there was HOURS long episodes, I’m born a Swede, stay in Sweden 🇸🇪
    I’ve generations of Scottish family from the 1800’s & I can’t find anything interesting BEFORE THAT & NOW I know why. Extremely impressed & extremely interesting xxx
    💁‍♀️😘☮️💕🇸🇪🇸🇪

    • @ScotlandHistoryTours
      @ScotlandHistoryTours  9 місяців тому +1

      Just watch a bunch in a row😂

    • @HayleyK-
      @HayleyK- 9 місяців тому

      @@ScotlandHistoryTours typical Scottish answer lol. At least I wasn’t told to SELLOTAPE them together, my “Grann-Da” told me sellotape my Snapped VHS tape of CINDERELLA together. My fave childhood film Forced on me because he’d get _Aww us wains_ plonked in front of the TV, was the Boys that didn’t like it best 😆
      🏆🏆💁‍♀️😘💕🇸🇪🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇸🇪🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿☮️☮️☮️

  • @hoplitethirtynine1487
    @hoplitethirtynine1487 3 роки тому

    Well said. These statues are no longer monuments to glory. They are monuments to our shame, that should not be hidden or forgotten.

  • @christinat56
    @christinat56 11 місяців тому

    Thank you for exposing what they did, it’s not to be forgotten. I appreciate your take on this. Writing from America where people want to forget and pretend nothing happened.

  • @tayman6665
    @tayman6665 3 роки тому +1

    Excellent video very moving. well done Bruce