hiya i'm bruce fumi and today i'm going
to tell you about some of the worst
excesses of the sutherland highland
clearances
now this story is important and i don't
want to interrupt it with admin details
calls to action or things like that
later so please
give me 30 seconds to get that stuff out
of the way
first if you're interested in the people
places and events and scottish history
then you can click on the subscribe
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the screen during any time of this video
secondly i'm really grateful for staff
neighbor museum have closed for covered
but they've kindly agreed to open today
for me
and let's be honest they've never heard
of me they've opened
for you so if you're on sutherland
please pay them a visit in person
thirdly i couldn't have done this if it
wasn't for the fact that alan barrett
an old pal from perth that runs out the
hara tale has generously helped out with
a wonderful
overnight stay and breakfast so please
come and patronize as a tale it's on the
north coast 500.
lastly i've got way more expenses than
that petrol alone to get up here costs a
fortune
there'll be a link at the end and in the
description below for anyone that wants
to help crowdfund
to help me make those videos there's
even a way that you can do it without
costing you a penny
now that's all that out of the way let
me tell you a story
the statue on the hill over my shoulder
is the duke of sutherland
towering over goal spirit must be the
most controversial statue in scotland
but if you know any different then let
me know in the comment section below
in the early 19th century the duke of
sutherland was possibly
the richest man in the uk and i say the
uk because you see
he wasn't scottish in fact until a few
months before he died he wasn't even
the duke of sutherland george granville
levison gower was the second marquis of
stafford and the third earl gower of
citing
by all accounts a dull and uninspiring
character
one thing he and his family were good at
was finding erases
and he'd found one
here this is done robin castle just
outside golsby
it was home to elizabeth countess of
sutherland ers
to the earldom and estates of sutherland
and over 1
700 square miles of land almost the
entirety of scotland
north of the dorner firth now this added
to the states in england under marriage
of 1785 gave stafford unassailable
unimaginable incomprehensible wealth
now the time of his marriage roughly
coincided
with the unexpected marriage of low and
sheep to highland land and the marquis
of stafford decided that he would
improve the state that scottish manager
brought
now when we say improve let's be clear
it wasn't about improving
the lives or circumstances of the people
who lived on the land
but his now there would be actual
improvements like roads and bridges but
the government of the day would pay 50
percent of the cost of those
improvements
of course somebody of the marquis says
stafford's wealth could easily find the
other 50 percent
and so from the comfort of don robbin
castle he simply
imposed a poll tax on his tenancy
an equal fee to each household no matter
how big or
small are you starting to dislike this
man
strap yourselves in we've hardly started
now before you get upset at this guy i
don't want you think that this
englishman came up from the south we
know gaelic to heartlessly
improve his land at the expense of the
galaxy-speaking people who had lived on
worked on and belonged to the land for
generations
no he employed a scotsman with no garlic
to come up from the south and do it for
him
now there were a couple of english as
well in this trinity of evil who
perpetrated the excesses that i'm about
to relate
the point is this isn't about
nationality
it's about humanity
let me introduce you to patrick sellers
he was scottish
he was a small time solicitor who
arrived in sutherland in 1809 and became
the marcos of stafford's factor
and henchmen in implementing the
depopulation of property
and the dispossession of a people
over the next few years gallic speaking
crafters would be crushed
under leaves of paper carrying the
weight of the english language
seller and the sovereign tenants may
both have been scottish
but they were a race apart when cellar
brought northumbrian farmers to replace
black cattle
with white cheviot sheep the people were
worried
clan gun came down the glands from
caldonian to goldsby to make
their case now i've spoken in other
videos about the riot act
at the end i'll leave a link to a
playlist on unrest in scottish society
but when more than 12 protesters
gathered
an official could simply read the form
of words to warn them of consequences
and then the troops had carte blanche to
do their work
no consequences a zarya act was read in
english the galaxy farmers must have
watched in bemusement wondering what was
going on
what was he saying what was he reading
from that piece of paper
as the 21st fruit fixed urbanites the
picture would have spoken louder than
words in any
foreign tongue the advantage of an
empire
was that you could bring troops from
your irish colony to subdue highlanders
and they'd do only too willingly because
they remember
the highland troops that you sent to
ireland to subdue their own parents
long gone was the gallic kingdom of
dariada
the winter fallen on the 50th of january
1814
when he arrived at akhnes to tell the
crafters of strathniver that they were
to be evicted
patrick sellers made sure to have a
translator
happy new year blaina maurer outside
alec
david mckenzie the minister in the
little mission house at akanesh not only
translated for sellers
but on the sunday before the evictions
he preached from the pulpit
that was the will of god that the
crafter should leave the land to be
moved to the coast
and that damnation fire and brimstone
would follow those
who disobeyed it seems that the marcus
of stafford was god
in these lands of course the minister
himself
also moved to a larger church with a big
mans
and a road for carriages leading up to
and of course some land to rear his new
literal flock
sent to replace the figurative one that
was cleared
and all gratefully given by the marquis
of stafford now this is the new church
that mckenzie
was given it's now the strathnever
museum and i'd highly recommend
a visit here if you're on the north
coast 500 or
if you're here for any other reason it
really doesn't matter
now there's lots of things to see in the
museum but i brought you here
to show you the pulpit of that new
church
from which mckenzie would announce many
more evictions
in the future the year of the burnings
was only just beginning
living in a craft might have felt a bit
like this
life wasn't grand but it's how your
family had lived for generations
and now some man had come up from london
married the countess
and told you this was his land and it
would be improved
by replacing you with sheep
does that sound heartless you don't know
the half of it
you have a harvest in the fields that
you have to vacate and
you've got livestock that will attract
fines if they're found on his land
and you've got a few bits and pieces of
furniture with no destination
or means to transport them the marquis
of stafford sat in london
or gospel it matters not the richest man
in the kingdom
could drink sweet tea as the poorest
drank from a more bitter cup
it was served by seller as he came down
the strath written hand
his men with burning torches and theirs
to ensure that nobody returned to the
land that gave them birth
each roof was burned one man humic beat
had a father who was aging and seriously
ill
knowing that cells was coming to
strathney were burning
hugh went to explain his father's
condition
what was worse his godmother had just
died
so he asked a few days grace to travel
to her funeral and see her laid to rest
seller turned away a face harder than
the rocky sutherland cliffs
a heart much harder still and lips that
said none would remain
before going to the funeral macbeth
removed some of the roof himself
hoping to show some good will hoping
that his father could have what was left
of the roof over his head until he was
returned
on hugh's homecoming he found his father
lying out in the open fields
four nights in northern scotland and
treeless sutherland
where the open meant the open
he died shortly after
old donald mcbeath wasn't the only
person left out in the fields
families desolate in a desolate land
choking on billowing smoke from their
earthwell homes
wandering and wondering
some broke down physically some broke
down mentally
one pregnant lady tried to climb onto
the roof of her croft to stop them
burning it
when she fell through the roof it
brought on a labor that must have been
an agonizing way to bring a child into a
painful world
there's not much left of baden-lawskin
when sellers burning squad reached the
craft of william chisholm
he like many of the main folk was out in
the hills trying to make the beast safe
his 90 year old bedridden mother-in-law
margaret mackay
was in the house several eyewitnesses
report that when sellers was begged to
spare a thought for the aged lady
he said damn the witch she's lived too
long let her burn
having given the order he laid
against the cottage himself to show the
way
family and neighbor struggled into the
house to carry out the old ladies are
very blanket burned
old margaret mackay was laid in a barn
she survived the fire but died five days
later
and the burning went on
it took two years much struggle and a
crafter's crowd funding before sellers
finally faced a day
in an english-speaking court accused of
homicide amongst other atrocities from
that summer of burning
there were witnesses of course but more
important were the letters from the
gentleman of the county who hadn't been
there to see the events
but who wrote that patrick sellers was a
person of the strictest integrity
incapable of any cruel or oppressive
action a most respectable character
and of a humane disposition
needless to say these english words on
paper would carry more weight
because as the judge instructed the jury
made up of local landowners
merchants solicitors and justices of the
past
he told them that if they had any
difficulty striking a balance
they must take into account the
character of their cues
so eloquently described
sellers went free to continue with
evictions
the old who survived were driven to the
coast
the young were driven across the
atlantic
forced to leave the land by men with
pieces of paper
that meant more than your ancestry
history
heritage and all the oral culture that
connected you to the land
hundreds moved on so that a few could
bring their sheep
what they called improvements
it's irony that the weeping highlanders
forced off their lands to the americas
so much resemble the native americans in
their trail of tears
history is complex and interwoven i've
been told that there are presenters much
cleverer and more important than me
who said of these people not that they
were forcibly cleared
but that they left their windswept
crofts behind
looking for adventure in the promised
land
maybe they're right i can't see it
but then again i'm just a ball bag or a
smartphone and a tripod
i mean doc is going to be allowed my
life cheering rasta
you