A nation’s shame: leading historian says sorry for failing to confront Scots’ role in slave trade. Professor Tom Devine made the “mea culpa” and spoke out about Scotland’s connections to slavery in the final lecture of his 40-year career at Edinburgh University.
His controversial thesis, Did Slavery Make Scotland Great? , suggested Scotland has focused too much on its own “colonisation” by England during the Highland Clearances and confronts the role of Scots in one of the darkest episodes of world history. Professor Devine argued that there was a close relationship between the Scottish economic transformation of the 18th century and slave plantations that were owned and run by Scottish masters.
His lecturer was made at a conference entitled “The transatlantic slave trade and plantation slavery in the Americas: Exploring Scottish connections”, jointly organised by Professor Frank Cogliano of Edinburgh University and Professor Simon Newman of Glasgow University, and attended by a cadre of internationally renowned historians. Sa63_Robertson. One Scotland: No Place For Racism - Scotland and the Slave Trade. After the Act of Union in 1707, Scottish merchants were allowed access to the England's trade routes and began to trade with the new colonies.
Glasgow prospered and became known as 'the second city of the Empire'. Scots travelled to the colonies from all parts of Scotland, some transported by force, others seeking opportunity and adventure.