We must face up to history – good, bad and ugly

Slavery has been around for thousands of years and some would argue it is still very much with us, if not in name. Today it would be hard to find people who defend it, but that was not always the case. It has not only been practised by whites over blacks. In the current debate no-one mentions that slave traders like Colston often bought their slaves from black chiefs who were content to do so. To remind people of this is not to approve of the practice in any way, just to remember that wrongdoings are not exclusive to whites.

It probably is appropriate in some circumstances to remove statues and to rename streets, though in general it is better to explain more about the person commemorated, including the downsides. It is also difficult to know where the removals should stop. Do we, after indy, rename all the Union streets up and down the land or do we accept they reflect 300-plus years of our history?

It is also a dodgy path to go down to impose our values of today on different eras in the past. What things are we doing today which our descendents in a century’s time will look back on with shock and horror? Could it be our meek acceptance that there was no alternative to neoliberalism for half a century? It is a system which benefits a few but blights the lives of millions and leads significantly to the trashing of our planet.

I should like to end by making it clear that I do agree that black lives matter and that we all should be doing more to eliminate racism.

Andrew M Fraser

Inverness

THE dismantling of various statues erected in memory of the slave traders throughout the UK is understandable given how these poor human beings, mainly from west Africa, were captured and chained and shipped across the Atlantic in atrocious conditions, many hundreds dying on these crossings. They were first shipped to the West Indies and then to the cotton plantations in the southern states of America.

The Scottish traders were every bit as guilty as their English counterparts, who became very wealthy on the proceeds of the slave trade.

I’m surprised at the number of Scottish folk who have never heard of the Sutherland stonemason Donald MacLeod, author of Gloomy Memories Versus Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Sunny Memories.

MacLeod was born in the village of Rossal in Sutherland. Following being evicted with his family, he was forced to move several times. He did not take these matters passively. He took on the establishment and exposed the atrocities perpetrated by the Duke and Duchess of Sutherland’s hired hands. The two most notorious were their factor Patrick Sellar and the Edinburgh lawyer James Loch.

MacLeod is on record as comparing the treatment of the African slaves to the plight of the dispossessed Highlanders. In some cases he noted they were treated worse, especially during the year of the burnings.

In 1841, MacLeod witnessed 250 houses set alight to clear villages. Many elderly people died as a result of being thrown out of their homes to die of hypothermia. MacLeod ended his days in Canada, where his book was published.

Many Highlanders to this day would love to see the statue of the Duke of Sutherland blown up or dismantled. “The mannie”, as christened by locals, is a sore reminder of the lands stolen from the poor Gaelic people, thousands of whom were forced to emigrate.

Also complicit in these atrocities were the Established Church ministers who, with one or two exceptions, were in the pay of the Duke and Duchess of Sutherland. Every Sunday these ministers were preaching to their poor congregations that their plight was a result of their sins. It’s little wonder that the disruption of the Established Church happened in 1842 and the Free Church came into being, where their ministers were selected by the ordinary folk and not by wealthy landowners.

Seumas MacArthur

Islay

FOLLOWING on from various pieces of history attached to Scotland’s slavery trade, I would like to make a few observations: slavery played a big part in our history; no country is innocent where slavery is concerned; slavery was not confined to black people – white slavery was also prevalent; to condemn historical figures for their part in slavery is perfectly right – we mustn’t forget our past.

These “slave masters” were entrepreneurs who made a lot of money on the backs of slaves and poor people everywhere. To reach the top of their profession, they trod on many poor people and used slaves to line their own pockets.

Out of that slavery came a lot of good, along with the obvious bad. These rich people provided many amenities for their communities. Perhaps they thought that these gestures would somehow guarantee them a place in heaven and that their slave-trading would be forgiven.

We cannot change the past; we have to live with it. Of course, we need plaques to explain why these people were remembered, warts and all. We cannot just remove hundreds of statues and act as if nothing has happened, but we must not turn to vandalism to punish our ancestors.

Will the song Rule Britannia be banned now? After all, it does refer to slaves. Personally, I would love to see Margaret Thatcher’s statue being pulled down. I had no love for her or her politics. Unfortunately, she is part of our past. But I wouldn’t remove this offending effigy – it is there to remind everyone of a more recent past.

Let’s try to focus on a sensible approach to the current problems and not resort to knee-jerk reactions. We need to preserve our history for what it is and try to live our own lives in a way which doesn’t offend anyone or cause strife. Hindsight is a wonderful thing; lessons are learned from the past. We have the opportunity here to rectify continuing problems and move on to a fairer future for every human being.

Rosemarie Hogg

Cromarty

I HAVE followed all of the recent correspondence concerning removal of statuary. Most of the desire for this will be motivated by righteous indignation over regrettable actions taken during our colonialist past, although it has to be said that there may be, also, just a tad of self-righteous zeal. Who knows?

But, it seems to me that it may be an appropriate time to consider just who we do wish to commemorate, rather than obsessing over who we do not. We Scots do not enjoy the best of reputations for honouring the memory of our own great man and women. The scientist James Clerk Maxwell, for example, is finally remembered in Edinburgh, but where is a statue to the great Thomas Telford? What about the great man of the Scottish Enlightenment, our very own John Broadwood, born and raised near Haddington, and who became one of the principal inventors of the modern grand piano? Throughout much of the 19th century his instruments ranked among the very best, certainly the best of British, rivalled only by those of Sebastien Erard of Paris. Surely this genius, this true lad o’ pairts, deserves better than oblivion?

Or, if medical science is more your thing, what about this idea? Remove old Dundas from his ridiculously high column (the main benefit of which is that you cannot actually see him from ground level), place him in some purpose-built Jurassic Park, created expressly for the purpose of collecting these relics, as suggested by Bill Jamieson, lower the column very considerably, and install a new statue of the wonderful Elsie Inglis.

Now, that would really be a positive move – on a number of counts.

Brian D York

Dumfries

TODAY we have a lot of knee-jerk hysteria about the slave trade. The facts are it occurred, it was vile but very few in those times right across Europe and the rest of the world, and this includes, west Africa, saw it as anything other than normal.

Trying to put the thinking of people of olden times into the context of 2020 is puerile. Mobs attacking statues can be likened to children throwing tantrums. The suggestion that statues of obnoxious people have plaques attached to them is the way to go, explaining what they had done to gain the esteem of their times.

R Mill Irving

Gifford, East Lothian

WHILE there is no question that slavery is abhorrent, I don’t think we can exclusively blame a few individuals for their personal enrichment on the back of the slave trade. Slavery occurred because it was allowed to occur. The first article of the Treaty of Union to be signed allowed Scotland to participate in the slave trade. In other words, it was the Union which legalised slavery in Scotland.

Although there would undoubtedly have been Scots who would still have benefited in some way from the slave trade even if Scotland had remained independent, there would certainly have been no state sanctioned slavery in Scotland.

Neither am I suggesting for one moment that there are not Scots who are racist, but due to our long history of being on the side of the oppressed and not the oppressor, I would argue that we are less inclined to be racist and more open to the suffering of others.

The best thing we can do to make amends for our historical involvement in the slave trade would be to dissolve the Union and build a new Scotland on the basis of equality and racial (and religious) tolerance.

Solomon Steinbett

Maryhill, Glasgow

I AM surprised that, in all the kerfuffle over the British involvement in slavery, nobody has objected to the office of the Secretary of State for Scotland being headquartered at 1 Melville Crescent.

Randall Foggie

Kirkcaldy

WITH the attention of the media and public totally absorbed by Covid-19, the UK appears to be moving inexorably towards a No-Deal Brexit at the end of the transition period. How will this affect Scotland’s food supply? We can all recall the empty shelves in the supermarkets after lockdown was announced. That was with no shortages – just panic buying.

What will happen when/if even the mildest of border checks take place at Calais/Dover? Modelling in 2019 pointed to monstrous lorry queues and major disruption to the “just in time” delivery system that the supermarkets rely on. With Scotland a major exporter of many key staple foods (in contrast with the UK’s 60% self-sufficiency in temperate foodstuffs) it would appear at first sight that we should be OK.

However, much of Scotland’s produce is grown on contract and conveyed south for processing, packaging and distribution. Can we rely thereafter on equitable distribution?

The early days of PPE distribution for health workers indicated Scotland needed to create its own procurement and supply networks. It is to be hoped that the Scottish Government – despite the enormous burden of defeating Covid-19 – has the resources to put in place over the coming months the mechanisms to keep us all adequately fed in 2021.

Kerr Walker

Alford