‘We can’t hide our dirty secret. Caribbean telephone directories are packed with Scottish names. We are related by ties of blood.’

By Louise Welsh The Herald Scotland

We Scots regard ourselves as a generous nation, but when it comes to paying reparations to Caribbean countries for our involvement in the transatlantic slave trade, we are less than eager. We have our own economic worries. The past is full of injustices, why single this one out?

The extent of Scotland’s involvement in slavery is not part of the school curriculum. It’s shamefully absent from our national museums and only just being acknowledged by Scottish historians.

It is no wonder that many of us are ignorant of the disproportionate role our country played in the triangular trade, but the evidence is there, in papers lodged in the National Library in Edinburgh and the Mitchell Library in Glasgow.

It sings out to us from the blood in the mortar of Glasgow’s Merchant City, pictured below, and in our place names, Jamaica Street, Virginia Street, Plantation Quay (renamed Pacific Quay).

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There is evidence of our involvement across the water too. Professor Geoffrey Palmer lists some of the Caribbean slave plantations named after Scottish place names: Monymusk, Hermitage, Hampden, Glasgow, Argyle, Glen Islay and Dundee…Slaves were deprived of their African names and given the name of their owner who, as generations progressed, was frequently also their father. Caribbean telephone directories are packed with Scottish names. We are related by ties of blood.

It may seem long ago and far away, but the impact of slavery still resonates. The Caribbean’s socio-economic problems are a legacy of slavery and much of our country’s wealth was founded on the horrors of that system.

During the Commonwealth Games, Jude Barber of Collective Architecture and I co-directed The Empire Café, an exploration of Scotland’s involvement in the North Atlantic slave trade. We had reservations about how the project might be received. We need not have worried. Scots are engaged, enquiring and political. Over four thousand people came through our doors. Many were outraged that they did not already know the extent of our country’s involvement. No one suggested we should continue to hide it away like a dirty secret.

Our association with transatlantic slavery is not a secret from the rest of the world. Tourists visit our museums. They see exhibits celebrating the role of tobacco, sugar and cotton in Scotland’s economic development and wonder why there is little or no mention of slavery.

Whether to pay reparations may not be our decision. Resistance tends to cast Caribbeans in a passive role, but slave owners are no longer in charge. Campaigns for compensation are underway and have a good legal case. Acrimony and lawsuits are not inevitable. We have an opportunity to build positive relationships from the horrors of the past.

Scottish resistance to reparations lies partly in a misunderstanding about what compensation might be. The proposal is not to drop cheques through the doors of every household in Jamaica, Trinidad and Barbados, but to contribute towards education. We cannot reach into the past and resolve the miseries of enslaved peoples, but we can contribute towards development and in doing so build lasting relationships with our Caribbean relatives.

For more on this story go to: http://www.heraldscotland.com/opinion/13839531._We_can_t_hide_our_dirty_secret__Caribbean_telephone_directories_are_packed_with_Scottish_names__We_are_related_by_ties_of_blood__/