I read something last night that shook me to my very core.
I've been planning a diary on a genocidal event known as Fuadach nan Gaidheal, what we call the expulsion of the Gael. I have begun the process of collecting primary sources, as most of my knowlege comes through the words of historians, and I discovered that the number of first hand accounts available has grown since the last time I studied the subject in depth. The English name is the "Highland Clearances."
It began in the latter half of the 1700s, and continued until 1895. A' Ghàidhealtachd as it was called was the culturally distinct Gaelic speaking part of Scotland, known romantically as the Highlands.
Is Gaidheal mi. I am a Gael. This is where my people come from, and records of family there stretch back as far as history can record. My people inhabited that land when it swallowed the 9th Roman Legion.
America has an immigrant culture. One of the aspects of that culture is asking ourselves the question "Why are we here?" What compelled our ancestors to leave their homes?
This question stirred in me when I went home, and visited the land of my ancestors. And found it empty. Deforested, and depeopled, I saw many empty stone foundations littering a countryside almost completely devoid of human life. We went through valleys that I knew from song and story, and found no one.
Why did we leave, and why was no one left behind?
The short and brutal answer is that we were intentionally wiped out. In the aftermath of the bloody Jacobite rebellions we were deemed dangerous to the British state, and through a series of "Reforms," we were wiped out. Our homes, our communities, and even our language was targeted for extermination by the government in London.
The most brutal and least understood period of this history was the expulsion. The highland clearances. The process of burning down nearly every Gaidhlig-speaking town in the Highlands and forcibly transporting us to the American colonies. The precursors began in some parts of the Highlands as early as 1760, though the clearances proper began in the 1780s.
With any account, it is important to do some historiography, and this is something I have endeavored to do.
How do we know that this account of the destruction of Melvaig is accurate?
There are a number of ways to tell. The most difficult step is to verify that her father was a real person, and that he indeed served in the Crimean war, losing an arm. The British military kept very good records. One could contact the Royal Highland Regiment about a soldier discharged due to the loss of his arm. The home town, Melvaig, would be listed, and as it was a small community, it will be easy to narrow things down. Some military records were destroyed during the London blitz, so it is possible that the record of his service has been lost, but if it exists, it could verify her story. I intend to contact her great-grandson, and verify as much of this information as possible.
As for the rest, the time period is right. We know that other clearances were in fact happening in this time. The language is right. The translation is awkward, but there are ways of speaking used in her account, phrases such as "Roof-Trees" rather than timbers, which even to my elementary understanding of the conventions of the Gaidhlig language, lend much credence to her account.
Most importantly, the houses that were burned down? They would have been made of wood and stone. In most cases of clearances during this time period, foundations or walls of the cleared houses still remain. They stand as a poignant reminder of this period in history.
You can see the remains of the old crofting town of Melvaig on Google maps. Here's an image of one of the destroyed homes from Google's Street View.
We know that there were clearances in her area in this time period. We know that Gaidhlig-speaking war veterans had no special protections from these attacks. We know that sexual assault and rape occurred. We know that clearances were often done during the colder parts of winter. We know that Melvaig itself was cleared, and we can see the remains of the old settlement by using the incredibly powerful tools that the internet has given us.
Until new information surfaces, and I do intend to do some digging, I have no reason to disbelieve her. I would rate this account as accurate.
As with any oral history, it is important to find other, verifying documents. I am searching for those now, but I believe I've done due diligence in my attempts to verify this account.
I am posting her account of the event in full below the jump.
A massive trigger warning on the words you are about to read. After reading this account, I did not sleep.
One note on the language, the word "chattels" here refers to any movable property. Furniture, Beds, Clothing, Trunks, that sort of thing.