Scottish Highlands and the Atlantic World: Social Networks and Identities
S. Karly Kehoe (ed.) et al.
Published:
2023
Online ISBN:
9781474494328
Print ISBN:
9781474494304
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Scottish Highlands and the Atlantic World: Social Networks and Identities
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David Alston
Pages
115–147
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Published:
July 2023
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Alston, David, 'Christian Robertson (1780–1842) and a Highland Network in the Caribbean: A Study of Complicity', in S. Karly Kehoe, Chris Dalglish, and Annie Tindley (eds), Scottish Highlands and the Atlantic World: Social Networks and Identities (
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Abstract
This is an account of the extended Robertson family of Kiltearn (Ross-shire) and their involvements with Caribbean slavery, especially in Demerara and Berbice (Guyana). The family included George Robertson, a founding member of what was to become Sandbach Tinné & Co, one of the businesses to benefit most from compensation at the end of British colonial slavery. Marriages linked the Robertsons to Samuel Sandbach and Charles Parker, two other founding partners, and to networks beyond the Highlands in Liverpool, Glasgow and Edinburgh. The focus on Christian Robertson, who never travelled beyond Britain or Ireland, illustrates both how a Scottish family of the ‘middling sort’ benefitted from slavery and how that wealth was used in supporting ‘enlightened’ cultural initiatives in Liverpool and in Scotland. Christian’s second marriage to Thomas Stewart Traill brought her into contact with many distinguished scientist of the time. This approach also allows an exploration of what information circulated – and did not circulate – within the family. In this context, the chapter examines relationships of family members with women of colour and the place of children of mixed race within the family networks. As a study of complicity it demonstrates the disturbing coexistence of enlightenment and oppression.
Keywords: Slavery, Complicity, Guyana, Demerara, Sandbach Tinné, Highlands of Scotland, Liverpool, Thomas Stewart Traill, Women of colour, Middling sort
Subject
Scottish Studies
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