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Scottish
Emigration
In
the British Isles the countries that have suffered most from
emigration since the mid-eighteenth century have been Ireland,
Wales and Scotland, and in Scotland especially the Border counties
and the Highlands and Islands. " Lochaber no more, "
by John Watson Nicol.
The break-up of the clan system during the eighteenth century
caused massive emigration from the Highlands, from the 1760s
onwards, to the cities and Lowlands and to America first
to the Carolinas, and Albany (New York) and, after the American
War of Independence, to Canada (Prince Edward Island, Cape Breton,
the eastern provinces and central Canada). From the 1840s emigrants
began to favour Australia and New Zealand. One group from Assynt,
led by the Reverend Norman Macleod, moved first to Canada in
about 1820 and thence in 1850 to Waipu in New Zealand. Successive
waves of emigration took place, mostly connected to the Highland
Clearances for sheep farming, and periods of destitution.
There were Government inquiries, but not until later in the
century was emigration officially controlled, and usually by
the new self-governing colonies. Emigration has continued at
a high rate well into the twentieth century. Between 1850 and
1950 the Highland population declined by at least 100,000.
Wherever they went, the Highland emigrants carried their language,
culture and traditions and eased their pain and homesickness
by transporting to their new lands the place names of their
homeland Glengarry, Glenelg, etc. In the Gaelic periodicals
of the nineteenth century there is much about the emigrants
and their new countries. One thinks too of Norman Macleods
work in Gaelic, The Emigrant Ship, and John Macleans Gaelic
poem, The Gael in Canada
Scots
in Canada: A Concise History The story of the Scots who
went to Canada, from the 17th century onwards. In Canada there
are nearly as many descendants of Scots as there are people
living in Scotland; almost 5 million Canadians ticked the "Scottish
origin" box in the most recent Canadian Census. Many Scottish
families have friends or relatives in Canada. Who left Scotland?
Why did they leave? What did they do when they got there? What
was their impact on the developing nation? Thousands of Scots
were forced from their homeland, while others chose to leave,
seeking a better life. As individuals, families and communities,
they braved the wild Atlantic Ocean, many crossing in cramped
under-rationed ships, unprepared for the fierce Canadian winter.
And yet Scots went on to lay railroads, found banks and exploit
the fur trade, and helped form the political infrastructure
of modern day Canada. This work follows the pioneers west from
Nova Scotia to the prairie frontier and on to the Pacific coast.
It examines the reasons why so many Scots left their land and
families. The legacy of centuries of trade and communication
still binds the two countries, and Scottish Canadians keep alive
the traditions that crossed the Atlantic with their ancestors.
Twa
Tribes: Scots Among the Native... Americans. This is an
enlightening account of three pioneering Scots and the special
relationships they had with the native people of North America.
Hugo Reid, Alexander Ross and Charles McKenzie fought against
the attitudes of prejudice of their day and assumed the language
and culture of the tribes they encountered and married into.
This is the fascinating story of their experiences and achievements
in a land far away from their Scottish birthplace.
Plaids
and Bandanas: From Scottish... From droving to driving,
reivers to rustlers, heilan kye to long horns, "Plaids
and Bandanas" explores the link between the two cattle
cultures in music, song and dance, and folklore. The vast number
of Scots who emigrated to North America has been well documented,
whether through forcible eviction during the clearances of the
18th and 19th centuries, or voluntarily in the hope of a better
life. With them they took their culture, their language, their
music, and their skills. Cattle droving in Scotland was an established
profession from the 16th century, and many such migrants took
cowboy jobs in the American West. The medium of music paints
a vivid picture of their social and personal lives and the exchange
was not all one way. The music crossed and re-crossed the Atlantic
creating strong links between the old culture and the new. Lonely
men in strange surroundings found comfort in songs that reminded
them of home. The author, himself a musician, researched the
roots of the songs and the routes of the drovers, provding a
text which highlights the links between the Wild West and the
no-less-wild Highlands.
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