In 1881, Paisley man James Rennie was blind drunk at Barassie Junction defiantly walking on the tracks when he was flattened by the 1030 express to Ayr. When the train moved off him the stationmaster picked him up and found him to be completely unharmed.
Ardrossan and Saltcoats Herald. 9th July 1881. pg. 5.
Fortunes in Old Weird Scotland were made through black slavery. Many of the figures revered as “canny Scots”, were directly involved in, or complicit in colonialism, oppression, exploitation and subjugation (e.g. Livingstone, Monboddo, Burns). Here are *few* times Scots stood up for black slaves and were united against racism in their communities, not so Scots can pat ourselves on the back, but as examples perhaps worth aspiring to.
In 1769, A slave named “Black Tom”, brought to Methil by David Dalrymple, fled to E. Wemyss and was baptized David Spens. A farmer in Methilhill sheltered Spens but Dalrymple had him jailed in Dysart. The local miners, salters, and labourers took up collection for Spens’s bail (£30) and legal fees. Spens was part of their community and they stood up for him.
Ned Johnston, a black slave brought to Scotland by Archibald Buchanan in the 1760s (Buchanan Street Buchanans) was helped to escape by his local community and given freedom by magistrates in Glasgow. He was badly abused and his community stood up for him.
Tom Jenkins lived in Teviothead having left West Africa on a slaveship in 1803. He attended the village school and taught himself maths, Latin, & Greek in his spare time.
At age 17, Tom was recommended as the new parish school teacher, but the racist presbytery refused to appoint him. Clearly the best candidate, his community started a fund for a salary and created an independent school for him to teach in. Between 1814 and 1818 he taught up to 45 pupils at a time in the Teviothead Smiddy. With his salary and donations he took classes at the University of Edinburgh and went to teacher training school in London.
Tom Jenkins was Britain’s first black schoolteacher. His community rallied around him and gave him the support he needed when the system in power denied him it.
Peter Burnet, an American runaway slave (but born free in Virginia) came to Paisley and worked as a weaver in the 1780s. Said to be the best dressed man in town, he was well-liked in the weaving community.
Peter was falsely imprisoned after his landlord lied about him owing money. Without work, the weavers, led by the Tannahill family, got him a bed and food and organised his release. The radical weavers looked after their own.
Incidentally, it was Peter who dived into the Candren Burn and retrieved the body of his friend Robert Tannahill after the poet drowned himself in 1810. In 1841, a friend published Peter’s life story so he could support himself in his old age.
“A Sketch of the Life of Peter Burnet”, which went to at least 8 editions, was subtitled “who came to Paisley sixty years ago, where he still lives, a very old and respectable man”. It is well worth a read. Peter Burnet died in 1847 aged 86, an auld Buddy.
Scots today are taught very little about Scotland’s history in establishing and profiting from black slavery. The modern day legacies of the slave trade also get little attention.
You can sit back and say “it wisnae me” when it comes to racism, or you can stand up for those on the receiving end.
These Old Weird Scotland stories are examples of communities using their privilege to help black Scots.
We maun dae the same the day.
Whyte, I. (2006) Scotland and the abolition of Black slavery, 1756-1838, Edinburgh University Press. 278pp.
On 25th May 1661, Paisley Council declared that folk in the town must pile their foulzie by their back door and not out their front door in middens as it is “unbecoming, uncomely, and dishonest to the toun”.
Foulzie is human excrement.
Anyone who did pile up their foulzie at the front door had 48hrs to clean it up or sell it under pain of £10. In 1670, Paisley made it illegal to sell foulzie to anyone not from Paisley. In 1690, everyone had to clean up any foulzie outside their door, if it was theirs or not.
Robert III hated himself and his reign. He told his wife: “So that my soul may be saved in the day of the lord, bury me, I beg you, in a midden, and write for my epitaph: Here lies the worst of kings and the most wretched of men.”
He got Paisley Abbey.
