Introduction

In the early nineteenth century, emigration from the Scottish Highlands to Atlantic Canada was at the heart of a heated, acrimonious debate among some of the wealthiest and most powerful Scottish landowners. Lord Selkirk, an influential supporter of emigration as the solution to the economic and demographic problems of the Highland region, found himself in direct opposition to the house of Sutherland, whose tenants he was proposing to assist to emigrate to Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island (hereafter PEI) in the first decade of the nineteenth century. As he later wrote, ‘the prejudices entertained against the situation I proposed, were industriously fomented by some persons, who had conceived a jealousy against my undertaking; and, in consequence of this obstruction I found it necessary to extend my offers of encouragement as far as I could.’ The obstructions and jealousies referred to consisted of a well-organised and well-supported campaign by Highland landowners to prevent emigration from their estates, a campaign which culminated in the 1803 Passenger Vessels Act. This legislation increased the cost of emigration by imposing minimum standards of food and other supplies on emigrant passages, thereby reducing the numbers who could afford to leave. Highland landowners had been keen to prevent emigration to retain the growing population on their estates for work in the burgeoning kelp and fishing industries, and so were entirely opposed to Lord Selkirk's plans to settle Cape Breton and PEI.

Just over a hundred years later, in 1910, a prospective emigrant to Canada from the Highlands of Scotland explained his reasoning to a newspaper reporter. He was leaving Scotland because, he said, ‘I prefer to establish myself in my own colony.’ It was a classic statement of emigrant aspiration from the common person: to start a new life of freedom, with access to land free from the shadow of landlords. Ironically, this statement was made by Cromartie Granville Leveson-Gower, the 4th Duke of Sutherland and great-grandson of the anti-emigration 1st Duke, one of the richest and largest patrician landowners in Britain, about his recent decision to sell land in the Scottish Highlands and use the capital freed up to purchase land in Alberta, Canada.