To explain one of the key links to Black History in Scotland I've brought you
to the Perthshire town of Auchterarder. Now if that seems surprising it's because
people don't realise that links to the Slave Trade are all around us. If you want to know more,
then come inside this churchyard. Oh by the way, if you're interested in the people, places and events
in Scottish history, then subscribe to the youtube channel 'Scotland History Tours'. In the meantime, let
me tell you a story. I want to start by telling you about Frederick Douglass. Now there will be
people watching who already know about Frederick Douglass; much of the Scottish Black Community,
people who are interested in US or Scottish history, people who campaign for racial equality,
you know the kind of folk you'd want to have at dinner party.
Oh I've heard the word 'woke' used to insult people. I'll be honest, I've never gone to the bother
finding out what this insult 'woke' means, because frankly, the people I've heard used it are the
kind of people that you wouldn't want to invite to dinner party anyway. For those who haven't heard,
Frederick Douglass was born a slave in Maryland in 1818. He was born Frederick Bailey. That was
his slave name. Incidentally, what a lot of people don't know is that Malcolm X was once invited
to the prestigious New York Mathematician's Annual Ball, and his invitation said X plus 1.
The strange thing is, none of the mathematicians could work out Y!
Don't worry, Frederick Douglass was no good at algebra either, but he was good with words.
As a teenager, he was taught to write by his slave mistress, until her husband found out.
He went daft and stopped it. Now, you might be thinking that believing the ability to
write was a bad thing meant he was daft in the first place, and of course you'd be right,
but keep it quiet, some white folks still don't know that we can read!
He escaped and fled to the north. He changed his name from Bailey to Douglass, inspired by Sir Walter
Scott's writings, and the Black Douglas of Robert the Bruce fame, so I'm told. Come on the Jocks!
Before long his charisma and eloquence meant that he was lecturing for the Anti-slavery Movement and
he wrote a book about his life story and escape, which in those days sold 30 000 copies in
five years. Now revealing these details put him in danger of being recaptured, so sending a copy of
his book to his ex-master was ballsy, but it might not have been the smartest thing he'd ever done.
Anyway it was safer for him to be across an ocean, and in 1845 he set off for Britain and he carried
out a tour of speaking engagements. Now many of you will have heard about this too. Some of you
will know about the impact of this tour, a few of you might even know the slogan that was being
shouted in the towns and cities and rhymed in songs: "send the money back", the point is that some
of you will have heard about Frederick Douglass but less of you will know about this place. This
is the Old Parish Church of Auchterarder. Now it's only the graveyard that's left now, that and the tower,
but this is a central place in the history not only of the Scottish Church, but in the wider life of
civic Scotland, and indeed in the tour of Frederick Douglass. Let's have a seat and talk about it.
It all started with The Reformation. In England, The Reformation happened because Henry the Eighth wanted to
marry Anne Boleyn, now when the Pope said 'no', Henry thought much better if the King was Head of the
Church, rather than the Pope, so now the Monarch is the Head of the Church of England. He would appoint
Bishops rather than the Pope. The point is that whether the Catholic or the Anglican Church, the
clergy were appointees of patrons. Now in Scotland, The Reformation happened slightly differently:
it was more bottom-up, it was the congregation who appointed the Minister. The church was independent
of the patronage of the crown or landowning interests. Now this wasn't always straightforward.
Throughout the 17th and 18th Century the union of the crowns, the Bishops Wars, English civil wars and
stuff like that. There was a constant fight and tension between the Scottish Presbyterian system
and the more Anglicised Episcopalian system of patronage. Now it's too much death and with
too little time, suffice to say that in the 1707 Act of Union, Scotland was promised that it would
keep this Presbyterian, bottom up, people choose the Minister type arrangement, then four years
later, the British Parliament reintroduced the right of patrons to appoint Ministers by passing
The Church Patronage (Scotland) Act. Aye, you never saw that coming did you? That came out the left field -
promise you anything to stay part of the union, then once you vote then ... Mr Fummey!
Right, Black History ... so the Church of Scotland regularly complained about the patronage thing,
but nothing ever happened. Things came to a head in this church on the 31st of August, 1834,
because the Minister here, Reverend Charles Stern died. Two weeks later the Earl of
Kinnoull put forward his replacement, the Reverend Robert Young. The congregation voted, and said 'no',
we don't want him, and they blocked the ordination. Now the Reverend Young and the Earl of Kinnoull went to
the Court, and the case was found in their favour. In the 1707 union, the Church of Scotland was
guaranteed by law but the law determined that in the State Religion, patronage was protected.
This landmark case was swiftly followed by more, long story short in 1843 about 400
Ministers said, 'right that's it, we're out of here, we're not prepared to remain in an established
church where the state can impose Ministers chosen by the landed elite. We must have
freedom to choose. They walked out of the Church of Scotland and set up the Free Church of Scotland.
There was one problem, the established Church of Scotland had all the churches, land and revenues.
The new Free Church had freedom to meet out in the open air. Brrrr
They needed to build churches and they needed the money to do it. The spark had been lit here at
Auchterarder Parish Church nine years before. Now let me show you something 300 meters down the road.
You see here in Auchterarder, because their dispute had started nine years earlier, by the time the schism
happened, they'd designed and built the church that you can see behind me which became the first Free
Church in Scotland, just in time for the schism. The problem was that the Free Church needed to
raise money for lots more. They'd appealed far and wide for benefactors. Now it just so happened
that there were Presbyterians of Scots descent in the southern states of America,
who were only too willing to donate funds, so the Free Church of Scotland, who found the imposition
of Ministers by a landowner such an intolerable restriction on freedom that it wasn't to be bourn,
gratefully received funds from landowners, who owned human beings as chattel. The slave owners
gave money and they were lent credibility and a tacit moral acceptance from across the ocean,
and from part of what had been the mother church. Slave owning can't be that bad, it funds God's work.
What neither slavers, nor the free kirk had reckoned on was Frederick Douglass who arrived in
Scotland in 1846 to travel the country preaching the gospel of abolitionism. He preached to large
and receptive audiences throughout the country, and the cry went up across the land 'send the
bloodstained money back'. It was sung in songs, it was shouted in the streets, it was written on paper,
some enterprising young women even had it carved on Arthur's Seat for all in Edinburgh
to see. 'Send the money back'. The hypocrisy of the Free Church provided a rallying cry
for abolitionists, and an easy target for their detractors in the established church.
So they gave the money back!
Of course they didn't, what are you like? People will always find a convoluted way to justify
a morally indefensible position if it's convenient for them to do so. My comfort in
in a pew Paisley far outweighs any discomfort felt by some black in cotton field Carolina,
but you knew that anyway, that's not history, that's current affairs. Even now we see all sorts
of contorted justifications of why equality isn't a priority. They say all lives matter,
but if they really believed all lives matter, then they'd be saving refugees in the Mediterranean, or
the English Channel, but they're not. If they really believed all lives matter,
then they'd be screaming out for justice for the poor and downtrodden in society,
but they're not. If they really believed that all lives mattered, then they would be
campaigning on behalf of the poor, underdeveloped countries affected by climate change
caused by the rich developed ones, but they're not. They don't actually mean all lives matter,
what they mean is that their life matters more, and they don't want to change, so if
the congregation will open our books and sing psalm 1999 in the consumerism hymnal, I'm all right Jack,
don't know about you. We'll remain seated in our comfortable church of privilege to sing.
Of course, I'm making a sweeping generalisation about a group of people
and I'm lumping them all together as being ignorant, contemptible and all the same. I know
it's wrong isn't it? But the fact of the matter is that we all do it to varying degrees; black
white, left right, unionist independent, not only that but I Bruce Fummey, benefit from slavery today.
Much of the physical infrastructure that we enjoy in Britain today: Victorian bridges, buildings
economic development, and first world status, much of that came from the fruits of that trade.
Every time I take a train from Glasgow to Aberdeen, I benefit from Black enslavement. If I'm honest,
I haven't really check my wardrobe, I may be benefiting from a modern
counterpart. So here's a question to ask yourself honestly, would you have sent the money back?
Would I? It's not a judgment on our past, it's a question to help us plan for the future.
Tha mi an dochas bum bith lath math leibh. Tiorridh an drasda.