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The Legacy: Scotland, Britain and the Caribbean
When addressing the history of slavery, and discussing the horrors that occurred, it is often mentioned that 'not all plantation owners were cruel' and that some 'treated their slaves fairly'.
View of tobacco ships at Port Glasgow, on the west coast of Scotland, in the mid-1760s. Tobacco was unloaded here and taken to the Broomielaw, the main harbour of Glasgow at that time, by small vessels (Glasgow City Libraries).
Chapter 8: The Legacy: Scotland, Britain and the Caribbean
The legacy of the slave trade is still very much in evidence today, in the people that live in our communities, in the attitudes we have to human rights and political campaigning, in the names we have given to our streets and our buildings, and even in the documents held in our local archives. In our homes we listen to African Caribbean inspired music, we eat foods from around the world and we have mixed lineages all around us. Descendants of formerly enslaved people have Scottish surnames or ancestry.
The legacy of England's and Scotland's participation in the slave trade on the Caribbean and the Americas is equally visible there, in the street names, the dominance of the English language and the family names of those who still live there. In Virginia there is the community of Scotland in Surry county. Whilst in the Caribbean there are Scottish surnames as well a Scottish Branch of the Masons in McGregor Square, Kingston.
The journey from the slave trade to the bicentenary of its abolition was not easy. Some of the ideas embraced during that period such as racism, prejudice, stereotypes and denial of truths have remained within our societies. Nevertheless, by using the 2007 bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade as an opportunity to be better informed, we can acknowledge and accept our shared histories.
When addressing the history of slavery and discussing the horrors that occurred it is often mentioned that 'not all plantation owners were cruel' and that some 'treated their slaves fairly'. This might well be the case, but it does not change the key fact that it was deemed acceptable for one group of people to own another group and deny that group its freedom. The 2007 bicentenary is an opportunity to continue the work started by Macauley, Wilberforce and others and end slavery in the modern world, whilst remembering the past.
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