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.

世界各地最近发生的事件促使社区、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进程，尤其是在苏格兰。迄今为止，我们对奴隶制遗产的重新审视主要集中在讲英语的苏格兰，而很少关注说盖尔语的人的经历，这些经历有可能使我们对苏格兰人在历史上的作用的理解变得复杂、细致。大英帝国杜格尔德·麦克尼科尔（Dugald MacNicol，1791-1844 年）出生于苏格兰西海岸的利斯莫尔岛，他的父亲、著名盖尔学者唐纳德·麦克尼科尔牧师在十几岁时被任命为皇家西印度的一名军官。杜加尔德在流浪者队前往加勒比海度过了余生，最终晋升为少校，这对于麦克尼科这样的人来说是非常出色的。定居巴巴多斯，在那里他与乔安娜·富兰克林建立了终生未婚关系，乔安娜·富兰克林被描述为“一个自由的有色人种女人”，并育有七个孩子。他在休假期间多次返回阿盖尔，最后在去世前不久，回到了阿盖尔。 1844 年，他去世后，他为自己的七个混血孩子和他们的母亲留下了一笔巨额遗产，这一遗产和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；他竭尽全力阻止他的苏格兰亲戚剥夺她和他们孩子的继承权，尽管如此，像大多数居住在加勒比地区的欧洲人一样，麦克尼科尔参与了奴隶制：1836 年，他获得了 19.8 英镑的解放补偿。一名被奴役者的日记，幸存的记录显示他之前还拥有另外四名被奴役者的麦克尼科尔盖尔语日记，保存于 1809 年至 1809 年之间。 1813 年，从一个年轻人的角度记录了他在获得陆军委任之前在讲盖尔语的阿盖尔和克莱德河口的日常生活、他离开格拉斯哥的准备、他前往巴巴多斯的旅程以及他在西印度群岛的早年生活。该杂志以盖尔人的独特视角讲述了 19 世纪初高地的社会生活，以及苏格兰盖尔人与大西洋殖民世界的接触。苏格兰国家图书馆收藏了大量家庭文件，其中包括曾经属于他父亲的文学材料，被称为“麦克尼科尔收藏”，其中还包括 1810 年代在阿盖尔和西印度群岛创作的诗歌。歌曲与他日记中对旅行的散文描述形成鲜明对比；这些歌曲常常充满忧郁和思乡之情，但有些歌曲也对正在发生的快速社会变革提供了更具批判性和洞察力的评论。高地（Kidd 2010；Leask & Ó Muircheartaigh 2022）。虽然麦克尼科尔的日记和一些诗歌是在 20 世纪初印刷的，但他们的维多利亚时代编辑乔治·亨德森牧师博士（Rev. Dr George Henderson，1866-1912 年）删除了许多细节他进一步误读了公认困难的盖尔语中的许多细节，并且没有尝试提供翻译或上下文信息。该项目将编辑、翻译和注释麦克尼科尔的著作，并从三个广泛的学科角度（文学和文本；语言学（包括盖尔语读写能力问题）；历史）审查他的著作。该项目打开了一个鲜为人知的盖尔语材料档案。该书写于加勒比海地区，不仅在盖尔语或苏格兰语境中具有重要意义，而且在 19 世纪初大英帝国企业的更广泛背景中也具有重要意义。