The Scots who left a stain on American history
There are few places in the world where Scots have failed to leave their mark on the fabric of that particular society.
And the world’s bookshelves are full of accounts of their achievements and worthy deeds, which helped establish cities, continents and brought new hope where there was none.
Then there is another book and it makes some fascinating reading.
Titled Between Daylight and Hell: Scots who left a stain on American history, it is the culmination of years of research into the lives of Scots who were guilty of dastardly deeds after leaving Scotland for America – in some cases they literally got away with murder.
These emigrants were rogues, con artists, charlatans and reprobates of the worst order, and their crimes are laid out in detail. For each character, the author relates their early lives in Scotland, family backgrounds and why they left to make a fresh start in the New World.
The author is Scots journalist Iain Lundy, originally from Ayrshire, himself now an exiled Scot living in Arizona, and a friend of The Arran Banner.
As he himself admits, the book has been a labour of love for longer than he cares to remember and in the credits he thanks his wife Be who he says ‘never lost faith this project would one day reach completion’.
As he says, it was as he researched the Scots who had made an impact on the New World that he was again and again drawn to the ‘baddies’. And for a book looking at the darker side of the ‘Scots abroad’, you won’t find a better recent tome. Some were involved with scheming dastardly acts, others were bad, without some redeeming qualities, others were militarily incompetent, others cruel and sadistic and some just evil.
Step forward, then, a roll of dishonour who include Lochaber man William Stewart, who butchered victims as they tried to flee a massacre perpetrated by members of a religious sect; conniving Charles Forbes, who fleeced brave First World War veterans to the tune of millions of dollars to line his own pockets; William Dunbar, a son of the Scottish Enlightenment who was only too happy to mete out brutal punishments, including hanging, to his slaves in the American south; or the hapless Adam Stephen, who led troops into a crucial revolutionary war battle while drunk as a lord – and attacked men fighting on his own side.
Foul deeds
They came from all over Scotland and their foul deeds spanned a continent – colonial Virginia, the Mormon State of Utah, Chicago, Boston, the Texas hill country and the Pacific coast of California.
However, history has been relatively kind to this band of ne’er-do-wells. Their crimes may have made headlines for a brief time after the event but the vast majority of these scoundrels are ‘unknown’ instead of being cloaked in notoriety for their crimes.
Between Daylight and Hell is a well written and beautifully researched book that explores the lives of 16 Scots who settled in America and whose deeds earned them infamy rather than fame, along with dishonourable mentions for another seven.
As author Iain says: ‘The book is not an academic study of the Scots diaspora in America, or an attempt to explain the multitude of reasons for Scots leaving their native land for a fresh start in the USA. As a long-time journalist, my great love is telling interesting and gripping stories using the written word, and that is what Between Daylight and Hell is meant to be – a good read. I sincerely hope you enjoy it.’
Everyone loves a good ‘baddie’ and this book is full of them.
The book is available from Whittles Publishing at www. whittlespublishing.com or from Amazon, on Kindle and in all good bookshops, priced £18.99.