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LONG NAN DAOINE (THE SHIP OF THE PEOPLE)
Another Scottish chartered ship scandal story (summarised from Wikipedia) —
« The Ship of the People (Long/ Soitheach nan Daoine) is a moniker given to the Irish ship ‘William’, which played a key role in a Scottish human trafficking scandal in 1740, when over a hundred men, women and children were kidnapped from the Hebrides with the intention of selling them as indentured servants in the Thirteen Colonies. The scheme was devised by Norman MacLeod of MacLeod, chief of Clan MacLeod, who was in deep debt at the time, and Sir Alexander MacDonald, chief of Clan MacDonald of Sleat.
« The last chief of Clan MacLeod to live full time at Dunvegan Castle in the Isle of Skye, their traditional centre of power, was John ‘the Speckled’ (Iain Breac), who died in 1693. Subsequent chiefs lived as absentee landlords to their estates in the Scottish Highlands, who continued the trend starting with John of living lavish lifestyles at the expense of their clansmen. Norman MacLeod, who was clan chief since the death of his father at age 1 in 1707, became the most extravagant spender of these absentee chiefs when he came of age, and accumulated a large number of debts which threatened to bankrupt him and his estate.
« In early 18th century Scotland, the illicit selling of clansmen into indentured servitude under trumped-up charges by chiefs was a known business. At some point before 1739, Norman, alongside chief Sir Alexander MacDonald of Sleat, planned to kidnap a large number of their own tenants under the pretense of them being criminals.
« On 13 August 1740 the ‘William’ set sail from Donaghadee in Ireland with the ostensible destination of Norway. In actuality, the ship landed in Bracadale on the coast of the Isle of Skye several days later. On the island, nearly a hundred men, women and children as young as five were forcibly abducted from their homes by Davidson’s men, mostly on Norman MacLeod’s estates, but some from MacDonald’s lands as well. From Skye, the ‘William’ departed to the Isle of Harris to kidnap more people. After brief stops to disembark people unlikely to survive the trans-Atlantic crossing, the ship stopped once again in Donaghadee on 20 October to procure provisions for the voyage to America. Several victims attempted to escape, alerting local authorities and attracting the attention of the British government. All the victims were subsequently set free and mainly settled in Ireland for the remainder of the lives. Had the ship arrived at her intended destination, the newly indentured servants would have faced conditions little better than the slavery endured by African-Americans at the time.
« Norman and Sir Alexander both denied their complicity in the Ship of the People scandal. The two chiefs insisted they were legally transporting petty criminals who were allegedly present on the island, and that there were no innocents on board the ‘William’.
« MacLeod appealed to Duncan Forbes of Culloden, Lord President of the Court of Session and the senior-most judicial authority in Scotland at the time for aid, insisting on his innocence. Forbes, who was known to drop potentially difficult legal cases, did not charge either chief for their role in kidnapping the tenants, and tactility aided MacLeod in covering up his role in the incident. »
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