David, et al, Some vague notes here....My family is from Pensacola, FL (since 1889)... To Tony's Innerarity clan, I'll add the McGillivrays. I believe those two Scotsmen had interests in competing trading posts in Pensacola. Alexander McGillivray (ca 1750-1793)--part Scots, part French, part Creek. http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-690 Alexander McGillivary's father, Lachlan, b. Invernesshire, Scotland, 1719, d. 1799, owned a plantation in Georgia near Savannah, and probably owned slaves, although not all landowners had them. There's more here: http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-1030 Also, tho' not a direct Scots link, David may like to mention to his students the affair of the slaves aboard the Amistad schooner out of Cuba in 1839. http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/ amistad/AMISTD.HTM Also, there is a very good timeline on slavery in America at http:// amistad.mysticseaport.org/timeline/united.states.html. Cheers, Laura in NC (and, for the time being, the hinterlands of VA) > > Message: 1 > Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2008 20:15:40 -0500 > From: "Ernest M. Wiltshire" <[email protected]> > Subject: RE: Bicentenary of Abolition of the Slave Trade > To: <[email protected]> > Message-ID: <[email protected]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1250" > > > Cod has given a very detailed response, but I would just add that > though > there may not appear to be a DIRECT link between Aberdeenshire or > North-East > Scotland and the slave trade, one should certainly consider the > possible > involvement of the Scottish ship-building industry in the slave trade. > > Though Bristol & Liverpool were probably the two most important > slave-trading ports in Britain, they must have acquired their ships > somewhere, and the most likely source would seem to me to be Scottish > shipyards. > > In addition, the Scots were huge land-owners (often absentee > landlords) with > large sugar estates in several West Indian islands (in particular, > but not > only, in St. Vincent, Tobago, and to some extent Jamaica). > Moreover, many > of the attorneys, factors, overseers etc. of sugar estates may > have been > Scots (good with money???). > > David Dobson's books on Scots in The West Indies are indeed an > obvious start > for examining possible links. > > Ernest M. Wiltshire >