Manchester University Press
3 The transformation of Gaeldom
Abstract
Gaelic society and clanship were in decay long before the later eighteenth century. However, in the 1760s and 1770s there was a marked acceleration in the rate of social change and, in subsequent decades, material, cultural and demographic forces combined to produce a dramatic revolution in the Highland way of life. The cultural distinction was vital in understanding the impact of clearance on the psyche of the Gael. There were echoes of the dramatic transition in the wave of clearances and land improvements which swept across the Scottish Highlands from the last quarter of the eighteenth century. The depth and extent of the markets for all that the Highlands could export was transformed and the commercial forces were so powerful that social change in Gaeldom became irresistible.
Abstract
Gaelic society and clanship were in decay long before the later eighteenth century. However, in the 1760s and 1770s there was a marked acceleration in the rate of social change and, in subsequent decades, material, cultural and demographic forces combined to produce a dramatic revolution in the Highland way of life. The cultural distinction was vital in understanding the impact of clearance on the psyche of the Gael. There were echoes of the dramatic transition in the wave of clearances and land improvements which swept across the Scottish Highlands from the last quarter of the eighteenth century. The depth and extent of the markets for all that the Highlands could export was transformed and the commercial forces were so powerful that social change in Gaeldom became irresistible.
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of colour plates vi
- List of figures vii
- List of maps xiii
- Dedication xiv
- Preface xv
- Acknowledgements xvi
- Maps of highlands and islands xvii
- 1 Clanship 1
- 2 Jacobitism and the ‘45 19
- 3 The transformation of Gaeldom 32
- 4 The final phase of clearance 54
- 5 Revolution in landownership 63
- 6 The making of Highlandism, 1746–1822 84
- 7 The social impact of protestant evangelicalism 100
- 8 The language of the Gael 110
- 9 Peasant enterprise 119
- 10 The migrant tradition 135
- 11 The great hunger 146
- 12 A century of emigration 177
- 13 After the famine 192
- 14 Patterns of popular resistance and the Crofters’ War, 1790–1886 209
- 15 The intervention of the state 228
- 16 Diaspora 241
- Index 251
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of colour plates vi
- List of figures vii
- List of maps xiii
- Dedication xiv
- Preface xv
- Acknowledgements xvi
- Maps of highlands and islands xvii
- 1 Clanship 1
- 2 Jacobitism and the ‘45 19
- 3 The transformation of Gaeldom 32
- 4 The final phase of clearance 54
- 5 Revolution in landownership 63
- 6 The making of Highlandism, 1746–1822 84
- 7 The social impact of protestant evangelicalism 100
- 8 The language of the Gael 110
- 9 Peasant enterprise 119
- 10 The migrant tradition 135
- 11 The great hunger 146
- 12 A century of emigration 177
- 13 After the famine 192
- 14 Patterns of popular resistance and the Crofters’ War, 1790–1886 209
- 15 The intervention of the state 228
- 16 Diaspora 241
- Index 251
