Paisley Book Festival

Scotland and the Legacy of Slavery . Scots were involved in every stage of the slave trade: from captaining slaving ships to auctioning captured Africans in the colonies and hunting down those who escaped from bondage. In this event, historian and independent researcher David Alston. in conversation with Peggy Brunache, Lecturer in the History of Atlantic Slavery and Director of the Beniba Centre for Slavery Studies at the University of Glasgow. David’s new book Slaves and Highlanders: Silenced Histories of Scotland and the Caribbean focuses on the Scottish Highlanders who engaged in or benefitted from these crimes against humanity in the Caribbean Islands and Guyana. As Scots recover and grapple with their past, this legacy, entwined with so many of our contemporary institutions, must be reckoned with.