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A Companion Guide to Three Figures

Who Impact the Life of

John Ingarvan

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Robbie Burns, Scipio Kennedy and Thomas Clarkson

Robert (Robbie) Burns, Poet.

(1759-1796)

Robert Burns and

Jamaica

(Texts and photos below are From Wikipedia)

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His first child, Elizabeth “Bess” Burns (1785–1817), was born to his mother’s servant, Elizabeth Paton (1760–circa 1799), while he was embarking on a relationship with Jean Armour, who became pregnant with twins in March 1786. Burns signed a paper attesting his marriage to Jean, but her father “was in the greatest distress, and fainted away”. To avoid disgrace, her parents sent her to live with her uncle in Paisley. Although Armour’s father initially forbade it, they were married in 1788.^[7] Armour bore him nine children, three of whom survived infancy.

Burns was in financial difficulties due to his lack of success in farming, and to make enough money to support a family he took up an offer of work in Jamaica from Patrick Douglas of Garrallan, Old Cumnock, whose sugar plantations outside Port Antonio were managed by his brother Charles, under whom Burns was to be a “book keeper” (assistant overseer of slaves).^[8] It has been suggested that the position was for a single man, and that he would live in rustic conditions, not likely to be living in the great house at a salary of £30 per annum.^[9][10] It is said in Burns’s defence that in 1786 the abolitionist movement was just beginning to be broadly active.^[11][12] Burns’s authorship of “The Slave’s Lament” (1792), a work claimed to typify his egalitarian views, is disputed. Burns’s name is absent from any abolition petition and “is strangely silent on the question of chattel slavery compared to other contemporary poets”.^[13][14]

At about the same time, Burns fell in love with Mary Campbell (1763–1786), whom he had seen in church while he was still living in Tarbolton. She was born near Dunoon and had lived in Campbeltown before moving to work in Ayrshire. He dedicated the poems “The Highland Lassie O”, “Highland Mary”, and “To Mary in Heaven” to her. His song “Will ye go to the Indies, my Mary, And leave auld Scotia’s shore?” suggests that they planned to emigrate to Jamaica together. Their relationship has been the subject of much conjecture, and it has been suggested that on 14 May 1786 they exchanged Bibles and plighted their troth together over the Water of Fail in a traditional form of marriage. Soon afterwards Mary Campbell left her work in Ayrshire, went to the seaport of Greenock, and sailed home to her parents in Campbeltown.^[9][10]

Burns lacked the funds to pay for his passage to the West Indies, Gavin Hamilton suggested that he should “publish his poems in the mean time by subscription, as a likely way of getting a little money to provide him more liberally in necessaries for Jamaica.” On 3 April Burns sent proposals for publishing his Scotch Poems to John Wilson, a printer in Kilmarnock, who published these proposals on 14 April 1786, on the same day that Jean Armour’s father tore up the paper in which Burns attested his marriage to Jean. To obtain a certificate that he was a free bachelor, Burns agreed on 25 June to stand for rebuke in the Mauchline kirk for three Sundays. He transferred his share in Mossgiel farm to his brother Gilbert on 22 July, and on 30 July wrote to tell his friend John Richmond that, “Armour has got a warrant to throw me in jail until I can find a warrant for an enormous sum … I am wandering from one friend’s house to another.”^[15]

Burns postponed his planned emigration to Jamaica on 1 September, and was at Mossgiel two days later when he learnt that Jean Armour had given birth to twins. On 4 September Thomas Blacklock wrote a letter expressing admiration for the poetry in the Kilmarnock volume, and suggesting an enlarged second edition.^[16] A copy of it was passed to Burns, who later recalled, “I had taken the last farewell of my few friends, my chest was on the road to Greenock; I had composed the last song I should ever measure in Scotland – ‘The Gloomy night is gathering fast’ –

He also had an affair with a servant girl, Margaret “May” Cameron. His relationship with Nancy concluded in 1791 with a final meeting in Edinburgh before she sailed to Jamaica for what turned out to be a short-lived reconciliation with her estranged husband. Before she left, he sent her the manuscript of “Ae Fond Kiss” as a farewell.^[c

Robert Burns

Ihae sworn by the Heavens to my Mary, Ihae sworn by the Heavens to be true; And sae may the Heavens forget me, When I forget my vow! O plight me your faith, my Mary, And plight me your lily-white hand; O plight me your faith, my Mary, Before I leave Scotia’s strand. We hae plighted our troth, my Mary, In mutual affection to join; And curst be the cause that shall part us! The hour and the moment o’ time!

The Slave’s Lament

(1792)

It was in sweet Senegal that my foes did me enthral,
For the lands of Virginia,-ginia, O:
Torn from that lovely shore, and must never see it more;
And alas! I am weary, weary O:
Torn from that lovely shore, and must never see it more;
And alas! I am weary, weary O.

All on that charming coast is no bitter snow and frost,
Like the lands of Virginia,-ginia, O:
There streams for ever flow, and there flowers for ever blow,
And alas! I am weary, weary O:
There streams for ever flow, and there flowers for ever blow,
And alas! I am weary, weary O:

The burden I must bear, while the cruel scourge I fear,
In the lands of Virginia,-ginia, O;
And I think on friends most dear, with the bitter, bitter tear,
And alas! I am weary, weary O:
And I think on friends most dear, with the bitter, bitter tear,
And alas! I am weary, weary O:

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Scipio Kennedy (c. 1694–1774) was a slave who was taken as a child from Guinea in West Africa. After being purchased at the age of five or six by Captain Andrew Douglas of Mains, he worked as a slave under his daughter, Jean, wife of Sir John Kennedy, 2nd Baronet of Culzean in Ayrshire, Scotland. He was granted a manumission (freedom from slavery) in 1725, but continued to work for the Kennedy family and was given land on the estate.^[1][2] He married in 1728 and had at least eight children.^[3] At least one living descendant is known from the west of Scotland and has published the story of his ancestor in a Scottish national newspaper.^[4]

(Culzean Castle, Ayrshire, Scotland below)

The commercial success of the slave-worked plantations of the late seventeenth century led to a fashion for Scottish families of the gentry class to keep black African servants. Merchants importing goods from the Caribbean and Americas made regular contact with slave ships and some were “redeemed” (purchased) for domestic service.^[5] Men and boys were more likely than women and girls to be taken into service, often in highly visible roles such as page boys or footmen. They might be given pet names, or names that sarcastically poked fun at their powerlessness, such as “Caesar”.^[6] Their lives were often much easier than that of their counterparts in the New World plantations, and they were often given an education so that they could read and write.^[7] They were also expected to become Christians and to receive baptism. By the end of the eighteenth century, they were seen as equal human beings under the law.^[8]and they were often given an education so that they could read and write.^[7] They were also expected to become Christians and to receive baptism. By the end of the eighteenth century, they were seen as equal human beings under the law.^[8]

In about the year 1700, when Scipio was aged five or six, he was captured in West Africa and taken onto a slave ship in the area known as the Gulf of Guinea. Given the normal route that these ships took, it is likely that he was transported to an island in the Caribbean before being redeemed by Andrew Douglas of Mains (which is near Milngavie in Dunbartonshire) and transported to Scotland in 1702. Douglas would probably have chosen the name Scipio, whose namesake Scipio Africanus served the Roman Empire, defeating the numerically superior forces of Hannibal in the Punic Wars.^[9] Douglas had a daughter, Jean, who married John Kennedy in 1705, and Scipio moved to Culzean with them. During this time Scipio learned to read, write and also some textile manufacture.^[10] In March 1711, on the death of his father John Kennedy succeeded as the 2nd baronet.^[11]

Scipio’s manumission document is held at the National Archives of Scotland. It is dated 1725 and grants Scipio the freedom to take employment elsewhere. The document records the “clothing, maintenance and education with more than ordinary kindness” already given to Scipio by the Kennedy family. It also details the terms of his further employment by them in a nineteen-year breakable contract, to be rewarded with “the sum of twelve pounds Scots money yearly besides my share of the drink money”.^[12]The document is signed by John Kennedy and Scipio.^[4][13]

In 1728, Scipio was recorded as having fathered a daughter, Elizabeth, by fornication with Margaret Gray. This would have been considered a scandalous event within the parish.^[14] Scipio married Margaret later that year and the couple had seven^[15] further children.^[16]

Scipio’s house

An estate map was drawn up in the 1750s by John Foulis of Redburn, a copy of which is kept in Culzean Castle. The map shows a building on a piece of land about 800 metres from the castle, near to the current walled garden, and it is overwritten with the word “Sipios”.^[17] The house cost £90 to build when new, and was probably an impressive building made of stone. The area of the grounds where the house once stood was excavated in 2007; some artifacts were found during the excavation which may have been Scipio’s personal property.^[1]

Lady Kennedy’s will

Jean Kennedy’s will dated 1751, records the gift from her estate “to Scipio Kennedy my old servant, the sum of ten pounds sterling”. As this figure is of a similar order to the amount given to each of her grandchildren (a third each of £40), this seems to show that Scipio was considered to be part of the Kennedy family.^[13]

Memorial stone

In Kirkoswald Old Church graveyard, there is a stone commemorating the life of Scipio, erected by one of his sons. The stone does not explicitly say that Scipio is buried in that place, but that his son is “also” buried there. The stone reads:

Grave Marker For Scipio Kennedy at Kirkoswald Old Churchyard, Ayrshire, Scotland

This stone is erected by Douglas Kennedy in Memory of his father Scipio Kennedy who died June 24, 1774 Aged 80 years.

Also here lieth the body of said Douglas Kennedy who died July 21, 1781 aged 49 years.^[16]

Descendants

Some authors have raised the question of Scipio’s descendants.^[16] In May 2012, The Scotsman published an article written by Jonathan Sharp, which details his personal research into his family history. He traced his lineage back through to one of Scipio’s daughters, Elizabeth Kennedy in Kirkoswald, and thence to Scipio himself.(4)

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Thomas Clarkson

Abolitionist

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(1760-1846)

(Text below from Wikipedia)

Clarkson had what he called a spiritual revelation from God as he traveled by horse between Cambridge and London. He broke his journey at Wadesmill, near Ware, Hertfordshire. He later wrote:

As it is usual to read these essays publicly in the senate-house soon after the prize is adjudged, I was called to Cambridge for this purpose. I went and performed my office. On returning however to London, the subject of it almost wholly engrossed my thoughts. I became at times very seriously affected while upon the road. I stopped my horse occasionally, and dismounted and walked. I frequently tried to persuade myself in these intervals that the contents of my Essay could not be true. The more however I reflected upon them, or rather upon the authorities on which they were founded, the more I gave them credit. Coming in sight of Wades Mill in Hertfordshire, I sat down disconsolate on the turf by the roadside and held my horse. Here a thought came into my mind, that if the contents of the Essay were true, it was time some person should see these calamities to their end. Agitated in this manner I reached home. This was in the summer of 1785.^[12]

This experience and sense of calling ultimately led him to devote his life to abolishing the slave trade.

Having translated the essay into English so that it could gain a wider audience, Clarkson published it in pamphlet form in 1786 as An essay on the slavery and commerce of the human species, particularly the African, translated from a Latin Dissertation.^[13]

The essay was influential, resulting in Clarkson‘s being introduced to many others who were sympathetic to abolition, some of whom had already published and campaigned against slavery. These included influential men such as James Ramsay and Granville Sharp, many Quakers, and other nonconformists. The movement had been gathering strength for some years, having been founded by Quakers both in Britain and in the United States, with support from other nonconformists, primarily Methodists and Baptists, on both sides of the Atlantic. In 1783, 300 Quakers, chiefly from the London area, presented Parliament with their signatures on the first petition against the slave trade.

Following this step, a small offshoot group formed the Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, a small non-denominational group that could lobby more successfully by incorporating Anglicans. Under the Test Act, only those prepared to receive the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper according to the rites of the Church of England were permitted to serve as MPs, thus Quakers were generally barred from the House of Commons until the early nineteenth century. The twelve founding members included nine Quakers, and three pioneering Anglicans: Clarkson, Granville Sharp, and Philip Sansom. They were sympathetic to the religious revival that had predominantly nonconformist origins, but which sought wider non-denominational support for a “Great Awakening” amongst believers.

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The article below gives an account of one event This among many others egregious events in the late eighteenth century, as well as the relentless voices and tireless and dedicated efforts on the part of abolitionists, led more than fifty years later to the abolition of slaves in the British Empire in 1833.

(The article is the work of Black Past Store)

https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/zong-massacre-1781/

THE ZONG MASSACRE (1781)

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