Recovering Scotland's Slavery Past: The Caribbean Connection - Paperback

by Tom M. Devine (Editor)

For more than a century and a half the real story of Scotland's connections to transatlantic slavery has been lost to history and shrouded in myth. There was even denial that the Scots unlike the English had any significant involvement in slavery .Scotland saw itself as a pioneering abolitionist nation untainted by a slavery past.
This book is the first detailed attempt to challenge these beliefs.Written by the foremost scholars in the field, with findings based on sustained archival research, the volume systematically peels away the mythology and radically revises the traditional picture.In doing so the contributors come to a number of surprising conclusions.
Topics covered include national amnesia and slavery, the impact of profits from slavery on Scotland, Scots in the Caribbean sugar islands, compensation paid to Scottish owners when slavery was abolished, domestic controversies on the slave trade, the role of Scots in slave trading from English ports and much else.
The book is a major contribution to Scottish history, to studies of the Scots global diaspora and to the history of slavery within the British Empire.It will have wide appeal not only to scholars and students but to all readers interested in discovering an untold aspect of Scotland's past.

Back Jacket

'Scottish history has been subjected to sustained revision over the past generation. Many uncomfortable episodes and themes have been exposed but the one major exception has been the nation's involvement in slavery. This superb collection opens the field to intense academic scrutiny, suggests new areas of investigation and invites a long overdue national conversation.' Ewen Cameron, Sir William Fraser Professor of Scottish History and Palaeography at the University of Edinburgh 'T. M. Devine's impressive team of scholars confirms, individually and collectively, the pervasive and ubiquitous influence of Scots and Scotland on the shaping of Atlantic slavery. This pioneering volume also has a resonance far beyond slavery, for the essays underline the impact of slavery on Scotland itself. Here is a book which ultimately demands a broader reappraisal of modern Scottish history.' James Walvin, author of Crossings. Africa, the Americas and the Atlantic Slave Trade The first book to strip away the myths and write the real history of Scotland's slavery past Scotland has traditionally seen itself as a pioneering abolitionist nation untainted by slavery claims, but this is the first detailed attempt to challenge this belief. For more than a century and a half the story of Scotland's connections to transatlantic slavery has been lost to history and shrouded in myth and denial. Written by the foremost scholars in the field, and based on sustained archival research, the authors systematically peel away the mythology and radically revise the traditional picture. Topics include national amnesia and slavery, the impact of profits from slavery on Scotland, Scots in the Caribbean sugar islands, compensation paid to Scottish owners when slavery was abolished, domestic controversies on the slave trade, and the role of Scots in slave trading from English ports. Appealing not only to scholars and students, but to all readers interested in discovering an untold aspect of Scotland's past, this important and original collection contains many surprising and uncomfortable conclusions. It is a major contribution to Scottish history and to the history of slavery within the British Empire. T. M. Devine is Sir William Fraser Professor Emeritus of Scottish History and Palaeography at the University of Edinburgh. Author and editor of many books on Scottish history and related subjects, he is a Fellow of the British Academy, the Royal Society of Edinburgh and an Honorary Member of the Royal Irish Academy. In 2014 he was knighted for services to the study of Scottish history and he is the only historian to have been awarded the Royal Gold Medal, Scotland's supreme academic accolade, by the HM The Queen on the recommendation of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Cover image: Taking African slaves on board a slave ship (c) Mary Evans Picture Library Cover design: Michael Chatfield [EUP logo] www.euppublishing.com

Author Biography

T. M. Devine is Sir William Fraser Professor Emeritus of Scottish History and Palaeography at the University of Edinburgh. Author and editor of many books on Scottish history and related subjects, he is a Fellow of the British Academy, the Royal Society of Edinburgh and an Honorary Member of the Royal Irish Academy. In 2014 he was knighted for services to the study of Scottish history and he is the only historian to have been awarded the Royal Gold Medal, Scotland's supreme academic accolade, by the HM The Queen on the recommendation of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.