James Hunter

Being Scottish, it is a sad fact that I was in my mid-twenties before I learned the full extent of the Highland Clearances. Being from Moray, it is even more saddening that it was only through this self-learning I became aware of the Moray food riots. This highlights how much of Scotland’s history is whitewashed.

Aside from being an extremely compelling read, this book is meticulously researched with links to sources, providing evidence that contradicts the stance taken by some well-known historians who, in recent years, have tried to explain away the Highland Clearances, amongst other shameful episodes in the history of the British empire, as merely the march of progress.

This book tells the history of the cruelty that some of the richest land proprietors in the British empire perpetrated upon the working classes in the North of Scotland, for the sake of extra profit.

The book also gives testament to the bravery of ordinary men and women from Aberdeen, through Banffshire, Moray and the Highlands and all the way to Caithness, who stood up to face legal threat and military violence in the face of famine and destitution. They attracted a national backlash that would help to grow the movement that would lead to workers’ and tenants’ rights and eventually universal suffrage.

Although the disastrous events in this book were in part brought about by misfortune (the failure of the potato harvest), the escalation and exacerbation of misery, suffering and death, was caused by the greed of the rich landowners and merchants in the North of Scotland and the injustice of a corrupt legal system.

It is a must-read for anyone interested in the history of Scotland, the British Empire or the worldwide struggle for equality.