Cairness and the Caribbean

Cairness and the Caribbean: Slavery's Legacy in North East Scotland

This film builds on recent work by historians about the role of Scots in Caribbean slavery . It focuses on the Gordon family of Cairness near Fraserburgh in Aberdeenshire in the late eighteenth and early 19th centuries and describes the links between Cairness House, one of Scotland’s greatest neo-classical country houses and the Georgia sugar plantation on the island of Jamaica. Cairness House and many other country houses in Scotland reminds us of a dark period in our history and of our common, shared heritage with people of West Africa and the Caribbean.

Thanks To

University of Aberdeen for permission to use images from Gordon of Buthlaw and Cairness Estate papers. MS1160The staff at Special Collections Library, University of Aberdeen .National Trust for Scotland for permission to use portraits of Charles Gordon and Christian Forbes from Fyvie Castle.Professor Jane Geddes for information on the Powis GatewayJohn and Gillian Moir, Home Farm, Cairness.

SOURCES USED

MS 1160 Papers of Gordons of Buthlaw and Cairness AUSC MS 3913 “ “ “ “ “Hilary McD Beckles. Britain’s Black Debt: Reparations for Caribbean Slavery and Native Genocide UWIP 2013Hilary McD Beckles The First Black Slave Society UWIP 2016John Malcolm Bulloch. The Gay Gordons: Some Strange Adventures of a famous Scots family. 1908John Malcolm Bulloch. The Making of the West Indies: The Gordons as Colonists. 1915J G Burnett. Powis Papers 1507-1894 Spalding Club. Aberdeen 1931T.M.Devine (Ed) Recovering Scotland’s Slavery Past EUP 2015T.M. Devine.Scotland’s Empire 1600-1815 Allen Lane 2003Madge Dresser, Andrew Horn(Eds) Slavery and the British Country House. English Heritage 2013Olaudah Equiano. The Interesting Narrative and Other Writings. Penguin edition 2003James Glass. Sugar for the Brose. Part1 History Scotland March/April 2006James Glass. Sugar for the Brose. Part2 History Scotland May June 2006Catherine Hall and Nicholas Draper. Legacies of British Slave Ownership: Colonial Slavery and the Formation of Victorian Britain. CUP 2014David Hamilton. Scotland ,the Caribbean and the Atlantic World. MUP 2005John D Hargreaves. From Aberdeenshire to Africa.North East Scots and British Overseas Expansion Elsevier 1982B.W.Higman. Slave populations of the British Caribbean 1807-1834 CUP 1976Alan Karras. Sojourners in the Sun: Scottish Migrants in Jamaica and the Chesapeake. 1992Kenneth Morgan. A Short History of Transatlantic Slavery 2016Joseph Sharples,David W.Walker and Mathew Woodworth. The Buildings of Scotland. Aberdeenshire : South and Aberdeen YUP 2015Hugh Thomas : The Slave Trade .The History of the Atlantic Slave Trade 1440-1870 Phoenix 2006 David Walker and C McWilliam. Cairness, Aberdeenshire,1 Country Life 1971 JanuaryDavid Walker and C McWilliam. Cairness, Aberdeenshire 2 Country Life 1971 February James Walvin. A Short History of Slavery Penguin 2007Iain Whyte. Scotland and the Abolition of Black Slavery 1756-1838 EUP 2006William Watt. A History of Aberdeen and Banff Edinburgh 1900

WEB SITES

Legacies of British Slave Ownership https:// www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/Transatlantic slave trade database https://www.slavevoyages.org/A Visual Record of the African Slave Trade and Slave Life http://www.slaveryimages.org/s/slaveryimages/page/A North East Story:Scotland, Slavery and the Caribbean https://www.abdn.ac.uk/slavery/CANMORE: The online catalogue to Scotland’s archaeology, buildings, industrial and maritime heritage. Historic Environment Scotland https://canmore.org.ukJamaican History and geneology Website http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/

MUSIC

Breathing Planet by Doug MaxwellWistful Harp by Andrew HuangWind Marching for Rain by Puddle of Infinity

Any factual errors or errors in interpretation in this video have been made in good faith

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