11. A Slow Death(2)

By the 18th Century, changes were taking place, not only in the Celtic world, but worldwide.

Large-scale farming, or "Great Farming" as it was called brought in new farming techniques and increased production so as to make agriculture a good commercial venture, especially if you could get your hands on large enough tracts of land.

The invention of machinery meant that fewer labourers could be employed, so many of them had to go -some into the growing cities, some far away to the corners of the British Empire, some, as we have seen, into the army and the navy. Increasing numbers of men and boys from the Celtic Fringe found their way into the floating set of coffins known as the Merchant Marine.

So both the Agricultural Revolution and the Industrial Revolution began the process of urbanisation which crowded the majority of Britons into filthy and disease-ridden cities. even now, the process continues.

The population of Britain continued to expand, even in the North and the Hebrides. What were the Clan chiefs and the other owners to do with the population? One must forget the romantic vision of the Chief as the "father" of the Clan. By the 18th Century they were as much in love with money as the rest of the landowning classes.

One solution adopted by one pair of chiefs was to use the excess population as indentured labour. Indentured labour is a step up from slavery. You gather a group of people, and sell them into service for a specified period to plantation owners in the Carolinas or the West Indies. As the contractor you get paid - a great deal. your victims are lucky if they get paid anything, and the mortality rate is huge.

So let us go to Finsbay, and see what happened!



Finsbay, Harris



Seals off Finsbay
Copyright: Hazel Hambidge
and licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Licence

Finsbay is situated in the Bays, home of the MacDonalds for over a hundred years. A tiny village, it was inhabited by families who lived in Black Houses, scratched a living from an unforgiving moonscape, supplementing their diet with fish.

One November night, the William, out of Donaghadee in Ireland, slipped into the bay. Rounding up terrified families, the sailors dragged them on board. Some of the men escaped, but the ship set sail for Ireland with about 90 souls on board, dropping off children too young to sell, pregnant women, and one dead one.

Most of them managed to escape in Ireland, but they were rounded up as "escaped felons", beaten and re-imprisoned. It was not until the magistrates realised that young children and mothers were rather strange criminals that they decided to arrest the real felons. Forewarned, they escaped.

Most of the ninety Hebrideans never saw their homes again, but it is known that some of them were given farm work in Ireland.

The villains of the piece? Their very own chiefs, Macdonald of Sleat, chief of Clan Donald, and MacLeod of Dunvegan, owners of Harris for many centuries.

Although the incident was hushed up, it may be the reason that both chiefs were notably absent from the Jacobite rebellion of 1745-6. Not much romance about the Celtic Twilight.

Life expectancy was not good in the Carolinas, and the British made huge fortunes by running millions of black slaves from Africa into the American continent. It is said the the city of Bristol is built on the bones of slaves.

Finsbay is now a quiet, tiny village with a flourishing Art gallery and a lovely guest house, Cnocnaba.