Black Isle historian David Alston set to share research into Highland links with slavery at Tain and Easter Ross Civic Trust talk

A BLACK Isle historian who has devoted two decades to ground-breaking research into the links between the Scottish Highlands and slavery will share his story at a gathering in Tain next week.

The unlikely, and still largely unknown, shared histories of the Highlands and the islands of the Caribbean will be explored at the next talk of the Tain and Easter Ross Civic Trust.

Guest speaker at the meeting, which is taking place at the town’s Royal Hotel on Tuesday, February 15, is local historian and author David Alston.

He has spent 20 years researching the role of northern Scots in the slave-worked plantations of the Caribbean – and especially Guyana.

The results of his research are captured in his latest book Slaves and The Highlanders, which reveals Scots’ involvement in every stage of the slave trade –from slaving ships to auctioning captured Africans in the colonies and hunting those who escaped from bondage.

The book looks at the Scottish Highlanders who engaged in, or benefited from, those crimes.

In an interview with Dr Juanita Cox, co-founder of Guyana Speaks and resident fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Countries, the author said he hoped his research and resulting book would help more people understand slavery’s links with the history of Scotland.

Chairman of the Trust, Richard Littlewood, said everyone was welcome at the talk, which starts at 7.30pm.

He said: “I am sure this will be a thought-provoking and enlightening evening. There is no

need to book. It is an open meeting and everyone is welcome.”

Plenty of evidence of Ross-shire links with slavery – amongst them Tain

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