This article was circulated on one of the Scottish lists, and posted to the forum by Priority Independence. It was felt to be worthy of inclusion in the 'Clearances' archive.

Now as I have just made mention, the 150th Anniversary of the Knoydart clearance occurs on August 9th, and I don't think that it should pass unmarked by those of us who well know the consequences of that day. Each one of those families taken from Scotland did not cease to exist, they were quickly forgotten by Scotland, but Scotland was never forgotten by them and at sometime this message has to get through to the Scot......

The conditions that prevailed upon that day were the result of many previous years of political posturing and the imposition of a foreign culture into a native land. However what has happened in the past 150 years after this transportation is relevant to us, now, in attempting to deal with the manner in which Scotland has accepted the fact that she has lost so many of her people to other places.

These Highland descendants are the people who are the real Friends of Scotland, the ones who still carry with them the history of who these Scots were and one wonders how any nation can be a complete entity when a 'black hole' is draining from that nation the memory of what happened in the Highlands just 150 years ago.... just how many more years have to pass until there is some recognition by the Scot that these people need to be welcomed back, and in truth they are needed back, as tourists, residents or investors........

Scotland has the records of how their people were transported, and to where they were scattered, probably located in the Scottish Public Records housed down in Kew..........

--"The Highland Clearances," by Alexander Mackenzie (pp. 267, 268).
"The tenants of Knoydart, like all other Highlanders, had suffered severely during and after the potato famine in 1846 and 1847, and some of them got into arrear with a year's and some with two years' rent, but they were fast clearing it off. Mrs. Macdonell and her factor determined to evict every crofter on her property, to make room for sheep.

In the spring of 1853 they were all served with summonses of removal, accompanied by a message that Sir John Macneil, Chairman of the Board of Supervision, had agreed to convey them Australia. Their feelings were not considered worthy of the slightest consideration. They were not even asked whether they would prefer to follow their countrymen to America and Canada.

They were to be treated as if they were nothing better than Africans, and the laws of their country on a level with those which regulated South American slavery. The people, however, had no alternative but to accept any offer made to them. They could not get an inch of land on any of the neighbouring estates, and any one who would give them a night's shelter was threatened with eviction themselves. It was afterwards found not convenient to transport them to Australia, and it was then intimated to the poor creatures, as if they were nothing but common slaves, to be disposed of at will, that they would be taken to North America, and that a ship would be at Isle Orsay, in the Island of Skye, in a few days to receive them, and that they must go on board.

The Sillery soon arrived, and Mrs. Macdonell and her factor came all the way from Edinburgh to see the people hounded across in boats, and put on board this ship, whether they would or not. An eye-witness who described the proceeding at the time, in a now rare pamphlet, and whom I met last year at Nova Scotia, characterises the scene as indescribable and heart-rending. The wail of the poor women and children as they were torn away from their homes would have melted a heart of stone! Some few families, principally cottars, refused to go, in spite of every influence brought to bear upon them, and the treatment they afterwards received was cruel beyond belief. The houses, not only of those who went, but of those who remained, were burnt and levelled to the ground. The Strath was dotted all over with black spots, showing where yesterday stood the habitations of men. The scarred, half-burnt wood--couples, rafters, and bars--were strewn about in every direction. Stooks of corn and plots of unlifted potatoes could be seen on all sides, but man was gone. No voice could be heard. Those who refused to go aboard the Sillery were in hiding among the rocks and the caves, while their friends were packed off like so many African slaves to the Cuban market."