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The Sutherland Clearances |
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In 1840 Donald MacLeod finally found a champion when the Edinburgh Weekly Chronicle published 21 of his letters, which helped to transform Lowland public opinion on the clearances. These letters were later published (in expanded form) as the "History of the Destitution of Sutherlandshire."
At this point, the Sutherlands received some literary support from an unexpected quarter. Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, visited Dunrobin in 1856, and shortly after published her "Sunny Memories", stating, despite criticisms of the Clearances, that:
"To my view it is an almost sublime instance of the benevolent employment of superior wealth and power in shortening the struggles of a civilisation and elevating in a few years a whole community to a point of education and material prosperity, which, unassisted they might never have obtained."
© SCRAN |
This so enraged Donald MacLeod, by now in Canada, that he wrote "Gloomy Memories", giving his eyewitness account of the Clearances, which was published in Toronto in 1857. This account totally refuted Beecher Stowe's story, and MacLeod went as far as to say that she was in the pay of the Duchess of Sutherland. However, it seems much more likely that Beecher Stowe fell for the spin from the Duchess, and evidence has emerged that after investigating Loch?s economic claims of the benefits of moving the population to the coast for herself, she felt embarrassed at her involvement.
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