Anti-slavery protesters remembered
Many of us have been shocked to learn the extent of Scotland’s shameful links to historic slavery.
The past was frequently a horrible place. But a few people did campaign and resist and I think we ought to know more about them.
In the late 18th century enslaved individuals were brought to Scotland but it was never clear if this was legal - famously Joseph Knight sued his‘owner’for his freedom. Lord Kames of Blair Drummond was one of the judges who confirmed Joseph’s freedom.
John Russell, the minister of the Church of Holy Rude famously satirised by Burns, was a fierce advocate of abolition. Of course Burns was accepted but never took up a job on a slave plantation. In Cambusbarron, William‘citizen’jaffray conspired to liberate awest Indian female slave.
After slavery’s abolition in the British Empire, campaigning started to end it in America and people in Stirling, Buchlyvie, Blairlogie and Balfron hosted Moses Roper, an ex-slave who spoke on the evils of American slavery.
Another element of this campaign was a response tothe Free Church of Scotland acceptance of £3000 from American slave owning plantations.this led to ex-slave Frederick Douglass’demand to ‘Send the Money Back’(they never did).
America’s eventual abolition of slavery was celebrated by a stained glass panel in the Church of the Holy Rude, commissioned by Stirling Provost John Dick of Craigengelt, which shows a man of African descent in chains before Christ.the presence of the panel in a Church of Scotland building was subtle criticism of the Free Church. In addition, it coincided with the commissioning of new stained glass for Glasgow Cathedral which was supported by Stirling of Keir, some of whose wealth came from slavery.
While these were good people and worth celebrating, the other list, of the ones who profited is much larger and there is simply not enough space to record their guilt.
DIGGING INTO THE PAST with Dr Murray Cook