Our part in shameful trade

Angus’ close association with the transatlantic slave trade is revealed in a BBC radio documentary hosted by Newport-based broadcaster Billy Kay. Michael Alexander reports

For more than 300 years European countries forced Africans on to slave ships and transported them across the Atlantic Ocean. While Portugal was the first nation to engage in the transatlantic slave trade from the late 1400s, historians have calculated British ships carried 3.4 million or more enslaved Africans to the Americas between 1562 and the abolition of the trade in 1807.

Less well known is the depth of Scotland’s – and in particular Montrose and Angus’ – connection to the trade, says broadcaster Billy Kay, who is presenting the final part of a major six-part series for Radio Scotland exploring Scotland’s Black History.

The title, It Wisnae Us, is taken from a book by Dr Stephen Mullen of Glasgow University, and refers to the denial and deflection voiced by many people when confronted with uncomfortable and brutal aspects of their past.

But Billy contends it “wis us” and Scotland has to be at one with that history to move forward as a modern inclusive, egalitarian nation in the 21st Century.

“This has always been a difficult subject,” he said, “but one which we have to confront as a people determined to acknowledge every aspect of our history – not just those where we were either heroes or victims.

“It Wisnae Us? Aye it wis, and we should never forget it.” Substantial involvement Originally aired in 2003, the revised series, available in full on iPlayer until today, explored Scotland’s substantial involvement in the slave trade, and the country’s ownership of sugar plantations in the West Indies, described by leading historian Tom Devine as among the most brutal in the Empire.

The final new programme, being aired on November 16, highlights the four ships from Montrose directly involved in the slave trade. But that was just part of the story. There were up to 30 more Montrose ships involved in tobacco trade with Virginia which was very much dependent on slave labour.

The Rossie Estate was an example of wealth founded on slavery, the programme explains, and the financial rewards of slavery are still reaped by the wider establishment as money permeates modern investments today.

“For a long time the seaports of Angus were guilty of denial but recent research is revealing substantial involvement in Montrose,” Billy said.

Hospitalfield in Arbroath recently curated artist Graham Fagan’s show which explored the subject creatively, and this too is explored in the programme.

One document buried in the National Library of Scotland archives for centuries, is the book A Narrative of an Unfortunate Voyage to the Coast of Africa, written by Arbroath sailor Thomas Smith and published in 1813.

What Smith describes is an international story as he travels first to Dundee then London and Africa, down the Guinea coast.

He recounts a dramatic rebellion that takes place on his ship, and the journey on to the Caribbean before coming back to Arbroath via Amsterdam. Out of sight Karen Salt of Aberdeen University describes the misery endured by slaves.

She said: “The trade was concealed because it happened out of sight, out of mind. People loading ships in Montrose would be loading salted fish or processed tobacco.

“They would then sail to Europe and sell these.

“It all appeared above board to anyone looking in from outside. They would then pick up goods in Europe, sail down to the Gold Coast, sell their goods there, then pick up slaves – and that’s where the money was made. The ships of course were not built for passengers so the conditions would have been horrendous.”

To add to their misery, ten would be chained together, fastened by the necks, hands and feet and marked with a burnt iron on the right hip. ‘Rape culture’ Smith described how slave ship sailors deliberately separated slave men from slave women to make them more vulnerable and open to the unwanted attentions of the crew.

The abuse continued when the ships arrived in Kingston, Jamaica, and for the rest of the women’s lives.

Colonial gentlemen came on board and purchased the best looking girls and took them away with them.

There was effectively a rape culture as female slaves with no power over their own bodies were beaten and abused, with some kept for the sexual gratification of Scots plantation owners.

Records make no reference to their African history but instead record slave names such as Dundee, Angus and Aberdeen.

The women were seen as breeding machines – producers of babies to become more slaves – ranked alongside cattle, pigs and sheep.

It Wisnae Us? Aye it wis, and we should never forget it

PA. The film 12 Years A Slave told a familiar story but the role of Scots in the trade is less known.