Question | Answer |
What is the connection between the defeat of the Highlanders at Culloden and the clearances? | Culloden fanned the distrust between highlands and lowlands and lead to the influx of lowland landlords who were determined to modernise highland life/ farming.
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When did the Clearances start and end? | mid C18th to mid C19th
| What was life like for the highlanders- how did they farm/ survive? | Grew their own food, lived off the land, cattle and chickens for milk, meat and eggs.
| Why did the Duchess of Sutherland want to remove the tenants? | In order to increase the profits on the estate and to prevent famine.
| How important was the Industrial Revolution in causing the Highland Clearances? | It created demand for wool for the new textile factories and therefore encouraged the farming of sheep
| What happened in Stathnever in 1813? | Patrick Sellar came to clear families off the land on the orders of the Duchess of Sutherland
| Where were the people initially moved to after leaving Strathnever? | to the coast where industries and jobs had been set up
| Why were the highland people upset by the clearances? | Many had lived on the land for centuries and felt they had a right to continue to live there.
| Why didn't the clan system protect the highlanders from the clearances? | The clan system had started to break down after Culloden and many of the landowners no longer had any personal connection with their tenants- they saw it as an economic relationship
| Why might the highlanders feel they had to leave their homes and villages- push factors? | Famine, high rents, destruction of their homes and a Hard life.
| Why might the highlanders feel they wanted to leave their homes and villages- pull factors? | Better opportunities in cities with higher pay and more social life and land/ new life overseas.
| What tactics did Sellar and the men employed to clear the villages/houses use? | posted eviction notices (often in English) then arrived in force to evict tenants often burning the roof and beams to prevent people returning
| Why was 1814 known as the year of the burnings? | The year when the Sutherland Clearances reached their height and large numbers were evicted, crofts burnt and the hot weather made the fires more dramatic
| What was Patrick Sellar accused of? | Culpable homicide of an old lady who died from shock as her house was set on fire.
| Why are the Sutherland Clearances so infamous? | very thorough - large numbers of families moved and use of force
| What evidence is there that Patrick Sellar was guilty of murder? | indictment which lists all he was accused of at his trial in 1816
| What evidence is there that Patrick Sellar was just used as a scapegoat for the policy of the Sutherland estate? | Historians say that there is evidence that he actually ordered the rescue of the old lady once he realised what had happened.
| What evidence did Donald MacLeod present about the Clearances in his book "Gloomy Memories"? | Very negative picture of the destruction of communities and the harsh methods that were used.
| What happened to Patrick Sellar after he lost his job with the Sutherland estate? | Became a wealthy sheep farmer
| Describe the event that affected the potato crop and increased the Highland Clearances? | Potato blight of the 1840s which decimated the crop and pushed people away from the Highlands as they were starving. |