1 Exiles from their fathers’ land

In days of yore, from Scotland’s shores Our Fathers crossed the main; Tho dark and drear, they settled here To quit the “Tyrant’s” chain; With hearts so stout, they put to rout The forest beasts so wild; Rough logs they cut, to build their huts Upon Prince Edward Isle. Authorship Uncertain‘

Many left because they had to; they felt they had no other choice. The Scottish Highland emigrants were “exiles from their fathers’ land.”2 Tradition, old mores, well-developed customs had all been pushed aside and buried as adherents of a new generation of landlords forced them to vacate their property. Subsistence farming was a primary industry in the Highlands. There were no markets, no way of obtaining provisions but through the people’s own efforts. As Thomas Douglas, fifth Earl of Selkirk, noted in his Observations on the Present State of the Highlands of Scotland. . ., this environment was created by “the extensive distribution of landed possessions arising from the feudal manners, combined with the small progress that has been made in the arts of life and division of labour.” Thus, “the people of the Highlands are not separated into distinct classes of farmers, labourers and mechanics....”3 Farming was all many of them knew; when they could no longer farm the lands on which they were living, they had to go elsewhere.

The landlord/tenant rifts were born in the years following the Rebellion of 1745. Before that, relations between the two groups were as those of a clanship. The landlords were the Chieftains of the clans; the tenants, the clan members. Most of the land was held ‘by the clans and divided into as many units as possible to allow the greatest number of tenants an area on which to farm. Rents were low — far below the actual worth of the land — but the tenants also served their Chieftains as soldiers, defending them, their families, and their properties against encroachrnents by neighbours.

The Chieftains belonged to the ruling class and inherited their