Scotland forced to confront its past

Lives of figures linked to slavery must be looked at in their entirety – experts

As the post-George Floyd death anti-racism movement gathers pace, communities have been forced to shine a light on the darker sides of their history.

The toppling of the Edward Colston statue in Bristol last weekend epitomised the urgency of the Black Lives Matter movement while a “topple the racists” website has published a list of at least 78 statues “celebrating slavery and racism” it wants torn down.

The statue of Blairgowrie-born politician and reformer George Kinloch in Dundee and on Dunmore Hill, overlooking Comrie, and the Melville Monument commemorating Henry Dundas – an 18th Century politician who obstructed the abolition of the slave trade – are included.

Authorities moved to protect statues, including of Winston Churchill and Nelson Mandela, before expected protests in London this weekend.

Dr Peggy Brunache, of Perth, Glasgow University lecturer in history of slavery.

The Haitian-American agrees with the removal of “racist” statues but says this should be part of an “assertive programme” to not erase the characters from history altogether.

Instead, their slaving past and economic, political and social influences on society must be discussed together.

“The de-plinthing of statues appears to be to many unaware observers, at best, a type of hollow performative allyship, or at worse, a rushed, anarchyfuelled misdirection of action.

“What seems to be dismissed are the efforts by local social justice activists, is a the often patiently applied for decades, following the official channels of protocol to address city councils for these statues’ removal.”

Dr Brunache highlighted how so much of Britain’s wealth was directly made possible because of the forced importation and violently forced labour of hundreds of thousands of enslaved Africans and their descendants.

Tayside and Fife was not immune from these links.

The University College London Legacies of British Slave-ownership database lists at least 17 Perthshire and 21 Fife former slaveholders and dependents filing compensation claims for loss of revenue when slavery ended in the then-British Caribbean islands.

Dundee’s linen industry – crucial to the growth of the domestic economy – was also heavily connected with the slave trade, as were numerous Montrosebased ships.

Glasgow-raised author Maggie Craig, 68, who recently wrote about former Dundee MP George Kinloch in her book, One Week in April: The Scottish Radical Rising of 1820, said it would be a “tragedy” to take down his statue in Dundee’s Albert Square and questioned his slave trade involvement.

Maggie said: “I’m a wee bit worried that people are getting their history from Wikipedia.

“The radical laird was a highly important figure in the reform movement, which led eventually to democracy, universal suffrage and a vast improvement in living and working conditions. Any plaque would have to mention that too.”