Coin, Kirk, Class and Kin: Emigration, Social Change and Identity in Southern Scotland

Description

There are many detailed accounts of nineteenth-century emigrants, of their journeys and settlements abroad – but what of those they left behind? This book delves into the heart of Georgian Britain to explore the role that the men and women of the Scottish Borders played in the mass emigration of the early nineteenth century. Although most never departed themselves, their perceptions of wealth, poverty, morality and community shaped the flow of emigrants from the rural south to the wide and expanding British Empire, as well as its North American rival, the United States. Scouring the records of grand estates, humble Kirks, flamboyant newspapers and family correspondences, the author returns the Scottish Borders to the centre of Scotland’s agricultural, industrial and demographic revolutions. Standing on the sharp edge of rural transformation, the Borders played both archetype and exception, pioneering the way from a regional past to an imperial future. Contents - vii Acknowledgements - ix Preface - xi Introduction: Finding a Place for Sending Communities - 1 The Myth of Clearance - 17 Population Theories and the Greater Landowners - 22 Agricultural Improvement and the Shifting Social Hierarchy - 27 The Social Cost of Demographic Change - 39 Industrial Development and Paternalism Redefined - 43 Poverty and the Promise of Emigration - 55 Population Pressures and the Old Scottish Poor Law - 57 Class Tensions and Migratory Paths - 63 Pragmatism, Paternalism and Patronage - 69 The Established Church v. Emigration - 77 The Fifth Horseman - 80 Patterns of Decline and Deprivation in the 1790s - 88 The Kirk and Rural Change - 95 The Spirits of Improvement and Emigration - 96 The Sins of the City and the Perils of Overpopulation - 114 Commercial Ventures - 129 Commodious Conveyances - 131 Promises of Patronage and Paradise - 150 Rumours and Reportage - 159 The Provincial Press in Southern Scotland - 162 North America and Commercial Compromise - 168 Antipodean Adventure and Tragedy - 178 Popular and Editorial Opinion - 185 The Family Economy - 197 The Story of Border Emigration - 200 Economic Perceptions of Perspective Emigrants - 203 Perceptions of those left behind - 216 Chains of Emigration - 225 Emigration Networks - 226 The Severance and Survival of Emotional Ties - 233 Solace and Sentimentalism - 239 Perceptions of Emigration - 251 Bibliography - 257 Manuscripts - 257 Newspapers - 258 Printed Primary Material - 258 Secondary Works - 260 Index - 269