Cluny, The Caribbean and The Clearances
This film explores nineteenth century connections between the Cluny estate of Colonel John Gordon in Aberdeenshire, the Colonel's slave estates on the Caribbean island of Tobago and the clearance of Barra in the Western Isles during the Highland potato famine of 1846-1851.
Many Thanks to :-
Cosmo Linzee Gordon for permission to film at Cluny Castle. University of Aberdeen Special Collections Librarians for all their assistance.Duncan MacKinnon, Barra, for Eoligarry landscape photographs.Eain Scott for Tropical Sunset Photograph.Music by David Hilowitz
Records and Documents
University of Aberdeen Special Collections LibraryMS 3600 Gordon of Cluny Papers.MS SCA OL Scottish Catholic Archives: Oban LettersKildonan Museum, South UistReport to Colonel John Gordon of Cluny by John Fleming 1839Description of Grazings to let on Long Island by Col Gordon 1844/45.Other Sources
Hillary McD Beckles. The First Black Slave Society UWI press 2016Keith Brannigan. The Last of the Clan. Amberley 2010Keith Brannigan. From Clan To Clearance. History and Archaeology on the Isle of Barra c 850-1850 Oxbow Books 2005Neil Bruce. What I propose doing with the people? -I say nothing. History Scotland Vol 18 ,2018John Malcolm Bulloch. The Gordons of Cluny. 1911John Malcolm Bulloch. The Making of the West Indies: The Gordons as Colonists. Buckie 1915John Lorne Campbell. The Book of Barra. 1936Susan Elizabeth Craig-James. The Evolution of Society in Tobago 1838-1900 PhD Thesis LSE 1995T.M.Devine (ed) Recovering Scotland’s Slavery Past : The Caribbean Connection EUP 2015T. M. Devine. The Scottish Clearances. Penguin Books 2019Madge Dresser and Andrew Horn. Slavery and the British Country House English Heritage 2013Catherine Hall, Nicholas Draper et al Legacies of British Slave Ownership: Colonial Slavery and the Formation of Victorian Britain CUP 2014H. Gordon Slade. Cluny Castle Aberdeenshire PSAS 111 , 1981James Hunter. The Making of the Crofting Community. Birlinn 2010James Hunter. Insurrection. Scotland’s Famine History. Birlinn 2019.K.O. Laurence. The Tobago Slave Conspiracy of 1801 .Caribbean Quarterly 28, 3, 1982Alexander Mackenzie. History of the Highland Clearances Edinburgh 1883John N Macleod. Memories of the Rev Norman Macleod. Edinburgh 1898David Miller. Tudor Johny: The Life and Works of John Smith 1781-1852 Librario 2007Kenneth Morgan. A short History of trans-Atlantic Slavery I.B.Tauris 2016Stephen Mullen. It Wisnae Us. The Truth about Glasgow and Slavery 2009New Statistical Account for Barray Vol XIV 1845New Statistical Account for South Uist Vol XIV 1845Eric Richards. The Highland Clearances. Birlinn 2000.David Walker et al. The Buildings of Scotland: Aberdeenshire North and Moray YUP 2015Web SitesDavid Alston. Slaves and Highlanders https://www.spanglefish.com/slavesandhighlanders/History of Parliament Online.orgLegacies of British Slave Ownership UCL onlineNapier Commission (UHI) Online . Vol 1Drone Footage
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