This will be the third consecutive year the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland and Inverness Museum and Art Gallery (High Life Highland (HLH)) have worked together to arrange and jointly host a lecture and reception in Inverness for Fellows and their guests. We will be welcoming HLH Archives with original material to show guests.
‘Many historians have been of the opinion that Highland clan chiefs and proprietors in the late eighteenth century had abandoned their traditional sense of responsibility for their clansmen and small tenants and, instead, had come to see them simply as a source of income. One who does not fit this stereotype is Francis Humberston Mackenzie (from 1798 Lord Seaforth), who in 1783 inherited the Seaforth estate, comprising the island of Lewis and lands in Easter and Wester Ross. His motivations will be discussed, in particular in relation to sheep farming, army recruitment and his extravagant lifestyle. In an attempt to solve his financial problems he served as Governor of Barbados 1801-6 in the run-up to the abolition of the British slave trade. The motivations will be examined for his long struggle to make the killing of an enslaved labourer by a white person a capital offence. At the same time he attempted to build up plantations in Berbice, Guiana, to grow cotton with slave labour. Why he, as a self-professed humanitarian, came to be involved in this business and how far he was successful in his aim to treat slaves well will be discussed.’ #InvMAG
Image: The Highlanders Museum (Queen’s Own Highlander Collection)
To book please email or call 01349 781730.
Thursday 18 April: 6.30-8.30pm
IMAG Room to Discover
