Glasgow and Edinburgh rose to be modern metropolises thanks to the heathy supply of profits from Caribbean slave plantations.

Its uneven political and economic relationship with England warps this further and allows apologists or denialists for Scottish imperialism an opening through which to spread ahistorical misinformation.īarbados is but one country from which Scots mass-extracted wealth under imperialism, wealth that still resides unevenly within Scotland to the cost of the so-called ‘Global South’. This is a marked and striking difference from the institution of slavery, where enslaved Africans were treated as sub-human chattel to be bought and sold as property.Īs a nation bereft of an independent state throughout the period of classical imperialism, Scotland's historical role as an imperial power can be challenging to unwrap. Nor was any particular ethnic or racial group specially targeted for indentured service. At the end of their period of service, they could go on to own property and own indentured servants of their own. Indentured Scots were, for all the abuse they suffered, treated and seen as humans. One defining word separates the two: human. Many in Scotland cynically misrepresent the transportation of Scottish political dissidents to Barbados as the ultimate proof to plead Scotland's case of colonial oppression at the hands of England, absolving the country of its sins and saying 'it wisnae us'.įar from being in conflict, false and reactionary comparisons of indentured servitude to slavery allow us a better understanding. As is it the time to raise the spectre of the redlegs.

Andrew might make for an uncomfortable time to raise this topic, it is exactly the time to do so. Concurrent with this explosion came Scotland's leap forward from a relatively poor backwater country to a wealthy one at the heart of a global empire a transition made possible by Scottish participation in the imperial slave economy. In the 18th Century, slavery exploded across the Caribbean. Slavery looms large over Scotland's historical legacy in Barbados.

While some Barbadians may trace their ancestry back to an indentured Scot, far more will be able to trace it to an enslaved worker owned by a Scotsman, whipped by a Scottish overseer or even raped by a Scottish owner. Many of these ‘redlegs’ can trace their ancestry back to Scottish political dissidents, including Jacobites who fought with Bonnie Prince Charlie at Culloden in 1745.īut the legacy of indentured servitude is dwarfed by that of plantation slavery. Scotland still has a visible legacy in Barbados, including a diaspora known as 'redlegs', the descendants of European indentured servants who were forcibly transported to the island in the 17th and 18th centuries. There are indeed several enduring historical currents that have swept Scotland and Barbados along in tandem.

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