Highland Clearances

a person's home country is often closely tied to their identity even countries with similarities like the United States Canada and England have their own customs and Heritage that makes the people born there unique it's easy to assume that continuing to call your country home is your Birthright after all you were born there and citizenship is all you know sometimes though Outsiders can take that birth right [Music] away [Music] [Music] today Scotland is a sparsely populated country with most of its 52 million citizens living inside one of its seven major cities in fact the population is so low given its size it's often rightfully joked that there are more Scots living in places like Canada than there are in Scotland itself but it wasn't always that way back in the 1700s the country was a lot busier with various Clans that called Scotland home that was until the Highland clearances took place and forced many in the northern part of the nation out of their homes forever in 1707 economic troubles in Scotland LED them to having no choice but to form a partnership with their southern neighbors England a partnership that would go on to become known as the United Kingdom while such a union later went on to include Wales and at times parts of Ireland it was always the tense divide between the original two Nations that in many ways defined the early in stability of the UK as a result of them throwing their hat in with England the Scots had managed to to rescue themselves from certain Financial destruction but that didn't mean many of the citizenry there were happy about being tied to them long term that was because there had always been a rivalry between the two countries even prior to that as a result of the new situation said rivalry was now able to create a rift within the northern lands themselves it turned out that a lot of people living in the southern part of Scotland felt like the old feudal Clan system they were still living under was backwards and out ofd and that in order for them to grow as a nation they'd have to start adopting more of the central governance style that was being practiced by their neighbors below them meanwhile up north in the highlands the general consensus was that such a belief was ridiculous and that what the Scots really needed was to protect their culture and traditions Traditions which had by then stood for Generations as far as they were concerned it was adhering to that way of life that allowed them to fend off the advances of both the Nords and the Romans in the past last but for as much as the Highland Clans might have been dedicated to their history the reality was power had already been seeping from their culture for a long time prior as early as 16003 in fact when James v 6 then King of Scotland ascended to the throne in England as well and he decided to abandon his homeland in their way of doing things to move down south fulltime and Rule both countries from there instead with him only visiting the north once more after clearly then England was the real center of influence at that point and that influence would only increase as the decades went on and James's Reign continued in fact a full century and a half before the Highland clearances saw the various Clan leaders of the northern country be stripped of their power he'd be doing pretty much the same thing to them when he had those Chiefs spend several months out of each year away from their people as they traveled to London in order to pay an annual tribute to the crown a strategy that he hoped would maintain their loyalty to him and not their local leaders in the end they did pledge their loyalty to James so much so that after he died in the Glorious Revolution of 1688 saw William of Orange forcibly take over his King a series of rebellions in the form of the Jacobite uprisings began these uprisings were designed to install the former King's descendant Prince Charles Edward Stewart colloquially known as Bonnie Prince Charles onto the throne as the way the Scots saw it he was the real heir even after Scotland signed the acts of Union in 1707 and created the United Kingdom in the process the Jacobite rebellions continued to wage it could be argued that they got even worse as with many Scots now feeling betrayed by their leaders for having joined forces with England support for the rebels only grew still not everyone was in the fighting mood no as alluded to earlier many living in the lowland saw the English way of life as being super ior on account of it being less barbaric than what was going on up north in the highlands that ultimately left the Scottish Rebel fighter somewhat weakened both in Manpower and morale as they continued in vain in their efforts to put their man on the throne and in the process reinstate their sense of sovereignty yes despite their best efforts the rule of Bonnie Prince Charlie was never destined to come to fruition that was something the Scots were finally forced to come to terms with during the final and bloodiest of all the rebellion in 1745 and 1746 one that was led by the wouldbe king himself at the Battle of cadin during the latter year the Jacoby troops faced off against the English red coats in an open field and quickly realized they were no match for their opponents as they outnumbered them by 3 to2 rather than come out of that one Victorious and continue on their March towards London the Northerners were absolutely slaughtered with an estimated 1,000 Scots dying in that one battle alone and that wasn't all because hundreds more were captured and taken back down to England where they'd either be kept behind bars for the rest of their lives or outright executed in fact one of those prisoners Lord love it the clan chief of Fraser would be the last man ever to be beheaded in the UK needless to say then that loss pretty much cut the heart out of the Scots and brought the Jacobite rebellion to both a symbolic and literal end it would also Mark the beginning of the end for the clan Society way of life as well a way of life that the country at least in the highlands had held on to so dearly for such a long period of time why was that well wanting to ensure no further rebellions arose in the future that might threaten the union between Scotland and England the act of proscription was formally passed by parliament in 1747 an act that made it illegal for not only Clan tart to be worn by anyone north of the Border but also for bag pipes to be played or GIC the native language of the Scots to be taught to children as if that wasn't enough later that same year another piece of legislation the heritable justices act would also be passed with a decreeing that any Scott who didn't submit to English rule going forward would forfeit their land basically then such laws were designed to break the spirit of the northern nation and put an end to the feudal Clan system with one swift movement as local leaders were now no longer in control of their own land rather they were merely watching over it for the real power their southern counterparts of course it wasn't as if england had been quietly interfering with such a way of life for decades anyway because as far back as the 1710s they'd realized the clan system no longer made any sense from an economic and agricultural perspective in the world they now lived in no with many land owners running into large amounts of debt and undergoing huge food shortages on account of them not being able to farm efficiently during poor weather conditions there really was no need for it anymore that was why pretty much as soon as the union began it was determined by those in power down south that a serious change was going to be needed north of the Border if it was going to be brought into the modern day after all with famine now being a semi-common occurrence and the debt only getting worse with each passing year it didn't benefit anyone for things to continue on as they were what was needed instead as far as the English rulers saw it was to deal with with the problem in a radical way not by increasing production of food and other produce but by trimming down the population up north that way less food would be needed overall and any future Financial issues could be solved by using the extra space that had now been freed up for different more fruitful methods of Agriculture still given the union had only just begun a few years before such a grand move couldn't be instituted on a wide scale quite yet especially not when the Scots were in the midst of Rebellion so rather than do that the English decided to test the idea in a far quieter way when they had all the Campbell of ky's properties put up for auction early in the decade forcing many of their clan members to have to migrate elsewhere if they wanted to find work with them soon seeing the positive effects of that when it came to how much better the land could be used in order to make money for the crown it meant once the chance to go all in on the idea arosed post honorable justices Act England did so with Glee with Scotland now weaker than ever on account of their Clan rights being Stripped Away they were left ripe for rampant seizures of their Estates and general takeovers of their land with the workingclass people who'd made a living there before now often being replaced with livestock which could be better monetized now that their homes and livelihoods had been upturned where would the people go anywhere that would take them quite frankly and that meant a lot of native Scots found them themselves going over to the new world of North America to make a new life for themselves there obviously then while that was the America's gain it was devastating for the small Northern nation in the long run to give an example of just how much that period ransacked the land of its people on the aisle of Sky alone one of the many small Highland Islands located off the coast of Mainland Scotland more than 40,000 locals were served with rits of removal during the first stage of the clearances alone it's easy to see the effect this had not just because it separated people from their friends and loved ones but also because it meant a large part of the local culture would be leaving with those who'd been forced out basically it was the death of dukus a belief among Scots that allegiance to your clan and as a consequence your local community came above all else but it wasn't like everyone who was evicted suddenly crossed the ocean and left their Homeland alog together there were a select few who chose to stay behind and either move closer to the coasts where where they hoped to find work as fishermen or head down to the lowlands instead where the Industrial Revolution was creating more modern jobs as for the settlements they'd left behind though well they'd now mostly be populated with sheep with the reason for that being the English land owners had determined that sheep farming was a far more efficient way of running the fertile land in order to create maximum profits it didn't matter that people have been kicked out of their homes in order to achieve that of course only that the money was now rolling in as Carl Marx put it himself in fact when later writing on the Highland clearances quote sheeps were introduced into Glenn's which had been the seats of communities of small farmers and the latter were driven to seek substance on coarser and more sterile tracks of soil why was KL Mark so interested in what was happening in Scotland during the 1700s well with him being considered the father of Communism it's no surprise he'd see that as an early example of capitalism run a muck and as fate would have it it it wouldn't be the end of the clearances either as in the 1810s a second phase began one which was largely brought about as the result of the close of the Napoleonic Wars basically what happened was that during the aforementioned Wars the UK government had found great and unforeseen value in a type of seaweed called kelp that was because when burned it produced an Alkali named Barilla that was hugely important for the wartime industry so as a result of that the remaining fishermen of Scotland who were able to bring in kelp by the barrel load suddenly became hugely valuable and their southern landlords began imposing further immigration measures as they wanted to keep as many of them in place as possible such a change in circumstance actually led to a brief uptake for the Scott's Financial fortunes as While most of the money still went down south around 500,000 was injected into the northern economy on top of that an increase in Need for fishing had led to a total of 50,000 Highlanders being employed as well a significant turnaround from where things had been during the immediate aftermath of the first stage of the clearances unfortunately though once the Napoleonic Wars Drew to a close that need quickly lessened and the brief uptake in both work and money that was being enjoyed in Scotland came to an abrupt end and to make matters worse it turned out most of the money that had been injected into the country during that period had not been spent on improving infrastructure or stimulating other economic activities meaning once the dust settled there was a desire amongst the English to remove more Scots from their homes as the way they saw the lands to the north were once again overpopulated with people who were making it a financially nonviable location to own so began the second stage of the Highland clearances as between 1815 and the 1850s tens of thousands more people were evicted from their lands and forced to quickly try to find a home elsewhere all while their English landlords made out like bandits in the process of course and of the people who benefited from that period perhaps none were more Infamous than Patrick C during one of the most notable individual episodes of the time period the Southerland clearances seller had been employed by the Countess of southernland in order to help her coordinate the evictions of anyone who had to go that was a role he took on with such Glee that it actually became enjoyable for him partially because he already had a plan in mind to later rent some of the clear lands himself and used them for large-scale commercial sheep farming that said lots of people were looking to make some money out of what was happening so such an attitude alone shouldn't have been enough to make sellers so vilified amongst the Scots what really pushed him over the edge into complete monster Dum for the locals was an incident that took place not long after the second stage of the clearances began when Once he'd served an eviction notice to William Chisum and his family and gave them what he felt was an ample amount of time to leave their property he burned said property to the ground what he didn't realize at that point though was that when he set the fire chism's bedridden mother-in-law was still inside while seller would quickly see his mistake and Order his people to go in and rescue her the smoke inhalation she suffered led to the woman dying just 6 days later news of what had happened quickly spread in the local populace understandably became outraged after all being evicted from their home and being deprived of the ability to make a livelihood for themselves was one thing but now that they were being outright murdered as far as they saw it the Scots had finally reached their breaking point so in order to try and bring about some justice Robert Mackey a local man who already held an existing Vendetta against Patrick C decided to file charges against him and take him to court for the Dual crimes of arson and murder while his goal might have been to get a conviction and perhaps even do some damage to the clearance movement in the process it all ultimately backfired as seller ended up being acquitted on all counts still though even if he was technically deemed to be innocent of his crimes the public perception of his guilt would continue on for a long time north of the border so much so that even other English land owners started to take notice of the methods that were being used to evict people as they didn't want to end up involved in a scandal just as the Sutherlands had unfortunately that would not be the only death that came about as a direct result of people being forcibly removed from their homes no just over a decade later in 1826 passengers who were on board a boat headed from the aisle of rum to Canada all died when they were exposed to tyus while on board in a way they were the lucky ones as some others who didn't die of General poor health brought about by their new circumstances were actually sold into indentured servitude and even that wouldn't be as bad as things got because as the 1840s rolled around a whole new dis disaster arose in the form of a particularly devastating Potato Famine that's right poor weather conditions had led to a decrease in Crop Production all over again and as a result what was already a difficult life for those still living in the highlands now became completely untenable that led to even more immigration as most people realized they simply had no hope of survival if they stayed where they were and even if they didn't realize that at first they were often incentivized to do so by the immigration advances act which was passed in 1851 allowing land owners to financially assist the poor in leaving their Estates even then some stubborn Scots stuck by their guns and remained where they were and for those who remained some Hope was about to appear on the horizon as by now the public down south had become far more aware of what was happening in the highlands of Scotland and they were actually beginning to grow sensitive to their plight it wouldn't be the kind hearts of the English who rescued the Scots from their misery in the end however no it was the Scots who ultimately did that themselves when in 1882 the battle of the Braves took place a battle that saw a group of local Crafters stage a rebellion of their own against not only their landlord who was attempting to evict them but also the police who had been brought in to help him do so once that was over realizing things couldn't continue on as they were the UK government created a royal commission to formally look into the conditions the working classes were living under up North with the findings of that Commission eventually leading to the creation of the Crafters Holdings act in 1886 something that protected workers from arbitrary eviction or extortion at rents and finally mercifully signaling the end of the Highland clearances but while it might have now been over the effects of such clearances would be felt for Generations thereafter even today in fact the highlands of Scotland remain sparsely populated and those who do live and work there are often continuing to do so under the thumb of richer land owners the effects this has had on the psyche of the nation as a whole remain strong as the anger many Scots have towards their English neighbors can still be felt in just about any area of the country in many ways the Highland clearances could be seen as the defining event of modern Scottish history as it shaped the mentality of the people who live there so much it might never fully be repaired and given that mentality is often one of inferiority and persecution with regards to the way they feel they're being treated by those down south it has to rank is one of the most damaging events the UK has ever produced thanks for letting us tell you this Sinister story if you enjoyed it subscribe on whatever platform you're on and hit like rate it or leave a comment join us next week when we'll take you somewhere sinister

Channel: Somewhere Sinister

Views: 35,389

Keywords: true crime, travel, history, documentary, highland clearances, scotland

Id: VEXf3mWVBJM

Length: 19min 49sec (1189 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 01 2023