Between 1840 and 1880 over 40,000 people were Cleared from the Isle of Skye alone. Many islands and mainland rural areas were completely depopulated to make way for deer and sheep. (See the list for details of the Clearances by town). The indigenous people soon started to become extremely wary of their landlords and their motives and, in response, the landlords and their agents became very cunning.

On the islands of Barra, Benbecula, and South Uist, people were called to meetings in the village halls by their landlords, Gordon of Cluny, on the pretext of discussing fair rents. The people were threatened with a two pound Sterling fine (a huge sum of money for subsistence crofters) if they did not attend the "meetings". When they got to the meeting places they were tied hand and foot, literally thrown into ships and sent to America with nothing at all other than the clothes they were wearing at the time. It is difficult for us today to image such a thing being possible but a quote from an eye-witness Barra woman, Catriona Ni Phee (Catherine MacPhee) graphically describes this terrible scene-

"Many a thing I have seen in my own day and generation. Many a thing., O Mary Mother of the black sorrow. I have seen the townships swept, and the big holding being made of them, the people being driven out of the courtryside to the streets of Glasgow and to the wilds of Canada, such as them that did not die of hunger and plague and smallpox while going across the ocean. I have seen the women putting the children in the carts which were being sent from Benbecuala and the Iochdar to Loch Boisdale, while their husbands lay bound in the pen and were weeping beside them, without power to give them a helping hand, though the women themselves were crying aloud and their little children wailing like to break their hearts. I have seen the big strong men, the champions of the countryside, the stalwarts of the world, being bound on Loch Boisdale quay and cast into the ships as would be done to a batch of horses or cattle in the boat. The bailiffs and the constable and the policemen gathered behind them in pursuit of them. The god of life and He only knows all the loathsome work of men on that day."

Another eyewitness of this dreadful event said, "The people were seized and dragged on board. Men who resisted were felled with truncheons and handcuffed; those who escaped, including some who swam ashore from the ship, were chased by the police and press gangs."

And another commented, " One morning, during the transportation season, we were suddenly awakened by the screams of a young woman who had been recaptured in an adjoining house, she having escaped after her first capture. We all rushed to the door and saw broken-hearted creature, with dishevelled hair and swollen face, dragged away by two constables and ground officer. Instrumental in these events was the Rev. H Beaton who gained a black name in the memory of the migrants."

Another report: "I saw a man who was caught and tied and knocked down by a kick despite the fact he was trying to bury his four dead children before being sent to America."

Another said, "Were you to see the racing and chasing of policemen, constables and ground officers pursuing the outlawed natives you would think, only for their colour, that you had been by some miracle transported to the banks of the Gambia on the slave coast of Africa."

Written and published by the Highland Clearances Memorial Fund

Back to Highland Clearances Memorial Fund Series Main Page

Part One: Background
Part Two: Highland Portrait
Part Three: Bonnie Prince Charlie
Part Four: The Clearances
Part Five: The Improvements
Part Six: The Sutherland Estate
Part Seven: The People and the Church
Part Eight: US Slave-Owners
Part Nine: Queen Victoria and Red Deer
Part Ten: 1840-1880 Eyewitness Accounts
Part Eleven: Famine!
Part Twelve: Famine Immigration
Part Thirteen: Forced Eviction to the Cities
Part Fourteen: Changing Ways
Part Fifteen: Things Change Yet Remain The Same
Appendix A: Highland Clearances, Dates & Places
Appendix B: Bibliography