From Lismore to Barbados: The Gaelic Caribbean Travel Journal and Verse of Dugald MacNicol (1791-1844)

从利斯莫尔到巴巴多斯：盖尔加勒比旅行日记和杜加尔德·麦克尼科尔 (1791-1844) 的诗

• 批准号: AH/Y000293/1
• 负责人: Peadar Ó Muircheartaigh
• 金额: $ 22.34万
• 依托单位: University of Edinburgh
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2024 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FY000293%2F1
• 关键词: Lismore; Barbados; Gaelic; Caribbean; Travel

Recent events around the world have caused communities, countries, and public institutions such as universities, museums etc, to reassess the enduring historical legacy of imperial enterprises, including the slave trade and processes of colonisation. In Scotland, especially, there has been a profound re-examination of the legacy of slavery. To date, this has focused on Anglophone Scotland and has paid little attention to the experience of Gaelic speakers, experiences which have the potential to complicate, nuance and add to our understanding of the role of Scots in the British imperial enterprise. Dugald MacNicol (1791-1844) was born on the Isle of Lismore off the west coast of Scotland where his father, the renowned Gaelic scholar Rev. Donald MacNicol, was minister. Commissioned in his teens as an officer in the Royal West India Rangers, Dugald took off for the Caribbean. He would spend much of the rest of his life in Barbados, rising eventually to the rank of Major. Exceptionally, for someone of his rank, MacNicol settled in Barbados where he entered a life-long unmarried relationship with Joanna Franklin, described as 'a free coloured woman', with whom he had seven children. He returned to Argyll several times on furlough, and finally, shortly before he died, to make his will and set his affairs in order. When he died in 1844, he left his seven mixed-race children and their mother a significant fortune. Both this legacy, and and other factors speak to a relationship of warmth and trust between the couple; there is evidence that he went to some lengths to prevent his Scottish relatives from disinheriting her and their children. Nonetheless, like most Europeans residing in the Caribbean, MacNicol participated in the slavery system: in 1836, he received compensation of £19.8s.4d for the freeing of one enslaved person, and surviving records show he had earlier owned a further four enslaved people. MacNicol's Gaelic journal, kept between 1809 and 1813, documents his everyday life in Gaelic-speaking Argyll and the Clyde estuary prior to securing an army commission, his preparations for departure in Glasgow, his journey to Barbados, and his early years in the West Indies. Written from the perspective of a young man just embarking on his professional career, the journal offers a unique Gaelic perspective on social life in the early 19th century Highlands, and the engagement of Scottish Gaels with the Atlantic colonial world. The journal is preserved in the National Library of Scotland, among a large collection of family papers, including literary material once belonging to his father, in a valuable collection known as the 'MacNicol Collection'. MacNicol also composed verse in both Argyll and the West Indies throughout the 1810s. These songs offer a point of contrast with his prose account of his travels found in his journal; the songs are often filled with melancholy and homesickness but some also offer more critical and insightful commentary on the rapid social change taking place in the Highlands (Kidd 2010; Leask & Ó Muircheartaigh 2022).While MacNicol's journal and some of the poetry was printed at the start of the 20th century, their Victorian editor, Rev. Dr George Henderson (1866-1912), expunged much of the detail he found objectionable. He further misread numerous details in the admittedly difficult Gaelic and made no attempt to provide a translation or contextual information. This project will edit, translate and annotate MacNicol's writings as well as examining his writings from three broad disciplinary perspectives (Literary and Textual; Linguistic (including the question of Gaelic literacy); Historical). This project opens up a little-known archive of Gaelic material written in the Caribbean which is of importance, not only in its Gaelic or Scottish context, but also in the broader context of the British imperial enterprise in the early 19th century.

世界上最近的事件导致社区，国家和公共机构（例如大学，博物馆等）重新评估帝国企业的持久历史遗产，包括奴隶贸易和殖民过程。特别是在苏格兰，对奴隶制的遗产进行了深刻的重新审查。迄今为止，这已经集中在苏格兰英语中，几乎没有关注盖尔语演讲者的经验，这些经验有可能使我们对苏格兰人在英国帝国企业中的作用的理解变得复杂，细微差别并增加。 Dugald Macnicol（1791-1844）出生于苏格兰西海岸的利斯莫尔岛，他的父亲，著名的盖尔学者唐纳德·麦克尼诺尔牧师担任部长。杜加尔德（Dugald）在皇家西印度游骑兵队（Royal West India Rangers）担任军官的十几岁委托。他将在巴巴多斯度过余生的大部分时间，最终升至少校。对于他的等级人来说，麦克尼科尔（Macnicol）异常地定居在巴巴多斯（Barbados），在那里他与乔安娜·富兰克林（Joanna Franklin）建立了终生的未婚关系，被称为“一个免费的有色女人”，与他有七个孩子。他在休假时多次回到阿盖尔，最后，在他去世前不久，他遵守自己的意愿，并井井有条。当他于1844年去世时，他给了他的七个混血儿和他们的母亲一大笔钱。这种遗产以及其他因素都表明了这对夫妇之间的温暖和信任关系。有证据表明，他竭尽全力防止他的苏格兰亲戚对自己和他们的孩子取消剥离。尽管如此，就像大多数居住在加勒比海的欧洲人一样，麦克尼科尔也参加了奴隶制系统：1836年，他因释放一个被奴役的人而获得了19.8s.4d的赔偿，生存记录显示他早些时候拥有了另外四个梅特拉夫人。 Macnicol的《盖尔杂志》（Gaelic Journal）在1809年至1813年之间进行，记录了他在盖尔语的阿盖尔（Argyll）和克莱德（Clyde）教育之前的日常生活，在获得陆军委员会之前，他在格拉斯哥出发的准备工作，他的前往巴巴多斯的旅程以及在西方印度的早期。 《杂志》从一个年轻人刚刚开始职业生涯的年轻人的角度撰写了关于19世纪初期社会生活的独特观点，以及苏格兰盖尔人与大西洋殖民地的订婚。该杂志保存在苏格兰国家图书馆，其中包括曾经属于父亲的文学材料，其中包括属于他父亲的文学材料，其中有价值的藏品被称为“ Macnicol Collection”。 Macnicol还在1810年代在Argyll和West Indies撰写了经文。这些歌曲与他在日记中发现的旅行的散文描述形成了鲜明对比。这些歌曲通常充满了忧郁和归乡，但有些歌曲也对高地的快速社会变化提供了更为关键，更有见地的评论（Kidd 2010; Leask＆oirchearthaight 2022222）。麦克尼克尼（Macnicol）的日记和一些诗人的著作，一些诗歌在20世纪开始印刷了20世纪，是他们20世纪的初期，他们的维克多（Victorian Edorian）杂物（Revorian Editor），乔治（Revorian Editor）。他发现令人反感的细节。他在公认的盖尔语中进一步误解了许多细节，并且没有尝试提供翻译或上下文信息。该项目将从三个广泛的纪律角度（文学和文字；语言问题（包括盖尔语扫盲的问题）;历史）编辑，翻译和注释Macnicol的著作，并从三个广泛的纪律角度（包括文学和文字;历史）来研究他的著作。该项目打开了鲜为人知的盖尔语材料档案，不仅在盖尔语或苏格兰的背景下，而且在19世纪初的英国帝国企业的更广泛背景下，这也很重要。