POIGNANT LETTERS HOME
Dr Annie Tindley explores a 19th-century text that gives a rich insight into what life was like for Scots who started a new life in North America, the challenges they faced and the difficulties of keeping in touch with those back in the land of their birt
In this edition of History Scotland, we have learned about the archaeology of a settlement in Nova Scotia, Canada (page 27): a fascinating and innovative way to track the lived experiences and legacies of Scottish settlers in a new world. The Society’s volumes have a wealth of textual material that interested readers can add to their understanding of the history of Scots overseas and the kind of impact they had – on the indigenous peoples they interacted with – and of course on their own fortunes and their new environments.
In the volume Scotland and the Americas, there is a whole chapter dedicated to the textual record of Scots settlement and resettlement in North America, including Nova Scotia, which allows us to hear the voices of those who travelled thousands of miles to try to better their prospects – many of whom achieved this, but many of whom faced steep challenges.
As the sources show, the main draw was the promise of land, free – in most cases – of landlords and rents. But there were many challenges, not least homesickness and the vagaries of keeping in touch with family back home, as a poignant letter from a Captain Donald MacNeil, of Cape Breton to his brotherWilliam at home in North Uist in 1849, testifies. In the letter he writes about his delight in speaking to a fellow sea captain who had just arrived with news of his brother and family back in the Hebrides, from whom he had not heard in over 20 years, writing endless unanswered letters.
Captain MacNeil also reminds us that life was tough in Nova Scotia, where he had only what he could make from his farm, together with his captain’s half-pay, to support a wife and nine children. Nonetheless, his economic prospects were not what depressed him, but rather the fact that he was unlikely ever again to visit ‘that Happy Isle’ to ‘ramble in meditation through the Scenes of my youth’. In the mid-19th century the cost of a return ticket would have been well beyond Captain MacNeil’s means; only in the 20th century did these costs reduce and allow a greater flow of travel back and forth, something that in this time of global pandemic, we can hope for a return to as soon as possible.
Scotland and the Americas c.1650-c.1939: a documentary source book, edited by A. I. Macinnes, M. A. Harper and L. Fryer, 5th series, vol. 13 (2002). Read the volume at http://scot.sh/americas
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