On Wednesday, 5 February 1992 00:05:56 UTC, Tom Costello wrote:
In article <1992Feb4.103134.18368@pcsbst.pcs.com>, billp@pcsbst.pcs.com (Bill Potter) writes:
stuff ommitted
"A dance called America" which is about the forced emmigration
from the Highlands during the time of the clearances. I had
thought the title to be a clever bit of imagery, never
myself thinking that it has a historical background.
Last Friday I came across the following passage.
Three-fifths of the Highland proprietors were now absentee
landlords, and their dispossessed or unwanted tenants were
now dregs in the cup of their good fortune, The spirited
more stuff omitted, ...
... but figures given in a Parliamentary report of 1803 suggest
that at least ten thousand people had gone from the Highlands
and Isles in the previous three years. Upon each turn of the
dance a hand was outstretched for a new partner, and the
letters of the departed exiles called upon their friends
to take ship and join them.
(from Mutiny, John Prebble, Penguin, 1977, pp441-2)
Does anyone have the opporunity to look up the original Boswell
and quote it here? =============================================================================
Bill Potter : unido!pcsbst!billp : 1992 - 500th Anniv. of a lost PCS GmbH : billp@pcsbst.pcs.com : Italian sailor and 200th Anniv.
D8000 Muenchen : You can't sink a RAINBOW : of the year of the sheep. =============================================================================
I really don't have any idea where this myth of the highland clearances
comes from. The emigration from Scotland at that time was constant
accross crofters and townsfolk. There were in total four "burnings" reported, at the time the so called clearances were taking place.
Why do some people feel that they have to claim their ancestors
went through great hardship, at the hands of oppressors, when
in fact they didn't
Just wondering,
Tom
Hi Tom,
it might be a good idea to learn a little more about the Highland Clearances.
The brutality handed out to the Scots was beyond barbaric.
I'm from Inverness, and I can tell you that the Highland Clearances were very real.
There is a fabulous play called 'The Cheviot, The Stag and the Back, Black oil". If you get an opportunity to see it, it will fill in many gaps in your knowledge. Alternately if you ever come to Inverness let me know and I'll give you a tour and fill in
the history.
:-)
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