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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you missed in History Class from how

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Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot Com. Hellow and welcome to the podcast.

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Speaker 1: I'm Tracy V. Wilson and I'm Holly Fry. So we

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Speaker 1: don't typically on the show try to tackle something really

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Speaker 1: complicated that spanned like a century. It's tricky, it's difficult

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Speaker 1: to do. Normally. What we do is choose an isolated

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Speaker 1: piece that's sort of emblematic of the larger story and

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Speaker 1: put that smaller piece into the context of the bigger story.

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Speaker 1: That is really hard to do with today's subject, which

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Speaker 1: is the Highland Clearances, because the Highland Clearances were a

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Speaker 1: long and very complicated and really messy series of evictions

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Speaker 1: and the Highlands and Western Islands of Scotland tenant farmers

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Speaker 1: were forced from their homes to make way for sheep pastures,

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Speaker 1: and the clearances were at their peak from seventeen eighty

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Speaker 1: to eighteen fifty five, but they were really part of

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Speaker 1: ongoing changes in the Highlands and elsewhere really that started

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Speaker 1: long before that and ended long after that. And they're

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Speaker 1: also one of those subjects that a lot of people,

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Speaker 1: especially Scott's and people of Scottish descent already have their

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Speaker 1: minds made up about even though there continues to be

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Speaker 1: really extensive debate among historians about how to exactly interpret

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Speaker 1: what happened, and in a lot of retellings, the Highland

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Speaker 1: Clearances are presented basically as nothing more than the really

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Speaker 1: greedy schemings of wealthy landlords to callously strong armed their

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Speaker 1: tenants off their land and an effort to just eradicate

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Speaker 1: Highland culture. Some of that is not quite accurate, and

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Speaker 1: overall it's just a lot more complicated than that, and

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Speaker 1: any little isolated piece that we might pick to try

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Speaker 1: to talk about and make it be more emblematic of

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Speaker 1: the whole, we just reinforced that oversimplified story in this case.

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Speaker 1: So since the Alley is a lot more complicated than that,

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Speaker 1: and to be clear, there are definitely tragic and unjust

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Speaker 1: aspects of the Clearances, they were really a lot more

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Speaker 1: complicated than a little piece. They're even more complicated than

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Speaker 1: our our thirty minute ish podcast today. But we're going

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Speaker 1: to try to to give a better sense of of

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Speaker 1: the complexities of what happened. We're gonna start with a

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Speaker 1: bit about what life was like in the Scottish Highlands

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Speaker 1: before the start of the clearances. By the early to

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Speaker 1: mid seventeen hundreds, the Highlands and Lowlands of Scotland were

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Speaker 1: dramatically different in terms of how people lived and worked.

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Speaker 1: The Highlands are the northwestern portion of the country and

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Speaker 1: are sometimes also grouped in with the islands off of

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Speaker 1: the western coast. The Scottish Highlands were mostly rural, but

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Speaker 1: the Lowlands, or southeastern portion of the country, were far

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Speaker 1: more urban. In a very general sense, people in the

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Speaker 1: Lowlands of Scotland often spoke English and we're culturally more

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Speaker 1: similar to England, while people in Highlands of Scotland typically

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Speaker 1: spoke Scott's Gaelic and had their own unique Gaelic culture.

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Speaker 1: Scottish Highland society followed the clan system, which was a

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Speaker 1: semi feudal militaristic system in which each clan was ruled

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Speaker 1: by a chief. The chief managed a largely agricultural society

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Speaker 1: and that society was really intensely connected through through both

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Speaker 1: family ties and a sense of clan loyalty. And to

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Speaker 1: be clear, there are also Lowland clans, but since the

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Speaker 1: Lowlands had become so much more urban, they weren't really

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Speaker 1: following the whole economic and social system that we're about

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Speaker 1: to talk about. Highland society was highly stratified at the

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Speaker 1: top where the clan chiefs and their aristocratic family connections,

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Speaker 1: and then below that was an affluent middle class made

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Speaker 1: up of tax men who managed tax which were subdivided

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Speaker 1: pieces of land that were worked by tenant farmers. These

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Speaker 1: tenant farmers were essentially the peasant class, referred to as

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Speaker 1: cutters or smallholders, and they paid rent to the taxman,

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Speaker 1: either in farm labor goods from that farm, or sometimes

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Speaker 1: even money, and then the tax men then passed that

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Speaker 1: revenue up to the chief. There was really not a

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Speaker 1: lot of social or economic mobility in this system. The

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Speaker 1: clan chiefs and other members of the upper class were

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Speaker 1: often living in castles, while the cutters were living in

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Speaker 1: turf or clay and wattle huts that had that roofs,

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Speaker 1: and particularly for the peasantry, this was a really difficult life.

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Speaker 1: Most tenant families were living at a subsistence level. The

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Speaker 1: highland soil also was not great for growing crops, and

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Speaker 1: the Highlands of Scotland saw serious food shortages and famines

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Speaker 1: over and over in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Even

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Speaker 1: when there wasn't a huge famine going on. A lot

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Speaker 1: of times, individual families and more isolated regions faced a

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Speaker 1: series of hardships thanks to everything from crop failures to disease.

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Speaker 1: On average, crops failed in the Highlands every third year.

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Speaker 1: The it's a really high rate of failure. That's rough, yeah,

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Speaker 1: especially when you're not you're not producing enough to be

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Speaker 1: able to to preserve things for later. And at the

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Speaker 1: same time, prior to the eighteenth century, clan leaders tended

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Speaker 1: to take a paternalistic attitude toward the clans tenants, so

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Speaker 1: the clan chief could expect loyalty from the rest of

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Speaker 1: the clan, including when it came to mustering a military force,

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Speaker 1: and the clan members could expect help if they met

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Speaker 1: some kind of hardship in a time of famine or

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Speaker 1: these crop failures, the chief might defer the tenant's rent

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Speaker 1: or provide food from a common store. Naturally, in the

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Speaker 1: face of such a difficult and uncertain life, people who

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Speaker 1: had the means often moved out of the Highlands of Scotland,

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Speaker 1: and this was typically true among the middle class, who

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Speaker 1: sent their sons outside the Highlands for their education and

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Speaker 1: their future work. Families also immigrated to the Lowlands or

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Speaker 1: to other countries, including the America and colonies in Australia,

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Speaker 1: if they were able to scrape up the financial means

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Speaker 1: to do so. In earlier times it might have been

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Speaker 1: possible to do this through an indenture, but by this

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Speaker 1: point in history in the seventeenth and eighteenth century, that

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Speaker 1: was not so much an option anymore. Sometimes, wealthier clans

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Speaker 1: would also buy land in the colonies or in other

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Speaker 1: parts of the British Empire, and then persuade groups of

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Speaker 1: tenants to emigrate there to work that newly acquired land.

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Speaker 1: This exodus got much worse after the end of the

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Speaker 1: Jacobite Rising of seventeen forty five, and we've talked about

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Speaker 1: the rebellion in a prior episode of the show, but briefly,

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Speaker 1: a number of Scottish clans backed Charles Edward Stewart, known

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Speaker 1: as Bonnie Prince Charlie, in a rebellion intended to supplant

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Speaker 1: the House of Hanover and return the House of Stuart

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Speaker 1: to the British throne. The rebellion ended on April sixteen,

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Speaker 1: seventeen forty six, with the Jacobite rebels defeat at the

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Speaker 1: Battle of Coloten. After the end of the rebellion, British

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Speaker 1: troops moved through Scotland in a really brutal effort to

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Speaker 1: rouse out all the rebels and anyone else who had

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Speaker 1: been supporting the Jacobite cause, and the result was devastating.

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Speaker 1: More than a thousand Highland Scots were killed, and in

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Speaker 1: some cases entire clans were decimated or forced into exile.

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Speaker 1: There were already disarming acts in place forbidding the ownership

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Speaker 1: of firearms among Highland Scots, and new legislation incorporated the

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Speaker 1: Dress Act of seventeen forty six. The Dress Act forbade

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Speaker 1: men to wear Highland dress outside of the context of

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Speaker 1: military service. A lot of times this is interpreted as

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Speaker 1: not being allowed to wear tartan at all, and that

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Speaker 1: is not quite accurate. The Heritable Jurisdictions Act of seventeen

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Speaker 1: forty seven also stripped clan chiefs of their already waning

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Speaker 1: judicial and military power. These actions were motivated by both

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Speaker 1: pragmatism and prejudice. Multiple Scottish clans had just mounted an

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Speaker 1: armed rebellion against the House of Hanover and the British Crown.

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Speaker 1: This was clearly a three it to the monarchy and

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Speaker 1: the stability of the kingdom. Simultaneously, the fact that the

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Speaker 1: Highlands were so rural, so remote, and home to their

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Speaker 1: own unique semi feudal society meant that they were viewed

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Speaker 1: as uncivilized, archaic, backward, and in need of modernization and

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Speaker 1: assimilation with a more English way of life. Afterwards, things

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Speaker 1: got a lot harder for everyday people left in the Highlands.

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Speaker 1: The clans still existed as family and a social units,

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Speaker 1: but not nearly so much as a as an economic

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Speaker 1: and political system. The system that replaced it had a

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Speaker 1: lot of similarities. Though former clan chiefs became private landowners,

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Speaker 1: and even though they no longer had the same judicial

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Speaker 1: and military power that they had before, in a lot

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Speaker 1: of places, they were still the most powerful people in

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Speaker 1: terms of their social and political positions. Tax Men were

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Speaker 1: replaced by factors who did a very similar job managing

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Speaker 1: subdivided parcels of land, and then the peasantry still lived

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Speaker 1: on small, all rented holdings which were commonly known as crofts.

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Speaker 1: They became more often known as crofters, and they're rented

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Speaker 1: farms as they had before, combined enclosed areas for growing

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Speaker 1: crops and common grazing land. No longer bound by loyalty

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Speaker 1: to the clan, landlords started raising rents and having less

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Speaker 1: of a paternalistic attitude towards their tenants. Some became increasingly

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Speaker 1: focused on profits, regardless of how that affected people living

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Speaker 1: and working on their land. As this was happening among

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Speaker 1: former Highland Clan leadership, English and Lowland Scottish landlords withholdings

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Speaker 1: in the Highlands were similarly becoming more and more focused

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Speaker 1: on using their land for the most profit as well.

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Speaker 1: Happening in tandem with all of this were efforts to

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Speaker 1: reform and modernize the Highlands. Even when these efforts were

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Speaker 1: well intended, they tended to bring more chaos and displacement

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Speaker 1: than actual improvement. This included an expansion and cattle farming,

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Speaker 1: which caused tenant families to be dis placed. At least

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Speaker 1: as far back as the seventeen thirties, people who had

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Speaker 1: survived Colloden and its aftermaths started leaving Scotland in bigger numbers,

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Speaker 1: looking for a better life elsewhere. People's reasons and how

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Speaker 1: much autonomy they had in this was really all over

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Speaker 1: the spectrum. Everything from landlords who decided to sell what

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Speaker 1: was left of their estates and immigrate with their families,

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Speaker 1: leaving their tenants to make their own way to desperately

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Speaker 1: poor tenant farmers agreeing to work on their landlord's new

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Speaker 1: venture in Australia because they were coerced into it or

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Speaker 1: felt like they simply had no other choice. In seventeen

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Speaker 1: seventy three, James Boswell and Samuel Johnson toward the Highlands

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Speaker 1: and the Western Islands of Scotland and they wrote about

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Speaker 1: the dissolution of clanned loyalties, increasingly mercenary landlords, and a

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Speaker 1: crumbling social system that was threaded through with abject poverty.

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Speaker 1: The clearances started a little less than a decade later,

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Speaker 1: and we're going to talk about those after we first

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Speaker 1: have a sponsor break. By the seventeen seventies, it was

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Speaker 1: clear that the Highlands and Islands of Scotland had a

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Speaker 1: range of very real economic and social problems, and there

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Speaker 1: was huge disagreement among the ruling class over exactly what

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Speaker 1: to do about it. Traditionalists thought the Highlands could continue

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Speaker 1: to function as a system of landlords and tenants with

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Speaker 1: a few changes and improvements, like, for example, cutting out

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Speaker 1: the middlemen and having tenants worked directly with their landlords

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Speaker 1: rather than going through factors, but otherwise, a lot of

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Speaker 1: traditionalists thought that Highland society had been working the way

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Speaker 1: that it was virtually unchanged for centuries, there was no

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Speaker 1: reason to expect it could not just continue. And definitely

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Speaker 1: on the other side were the improvers, who thought the

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Speaker 1: Highland way of life was obviously doomed and needed to

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Speaker 1: be replaced with some other system. Entirely, opinions were all

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Speaker 1: over the map about exactly what that other system should be.

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Speaker 1: And all of this was happening during both the Industrial

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Speaker 1: Revolution and the Enlightenment, which we're bringing huge changes to

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Speaker 1: Europe and other parts of the world, and we're naturally

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Speaker 1: influencing all of these opinions. By the seventeen seventies, the

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Speaker 1: price of wools started to rise, and by seventeen eighty

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Speaker 1: the highland landlords realized that their land could be put

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Speaker 1: to much more profitable use through sheep farming than through

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Speaker 1: raising other livestock or crops. Instead of being home to

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Speaker 1: collectives of tenant farmers who lived on and worked the land,

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Speaker 1: the estates would become mostly pasture land. The homes and

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Speaker 1: the other associated buildings would be destroyed to make way

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Speaker 1: for grazing sheep In the aftermath of the Jacobite Rising

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Speaker 1: and the events that followed it, Some of these estates

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Speaker 1: were already vacant or nearly so. In these cases, the

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Speaker 1: clearances proceeded very quietly without attracting much attention. Or landlords

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Speaker 1: waited until their last few tenants leases were up and

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Speaker 1: then they just went on from there. But a lot

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Speaker 1: of landlords still had hundreds or thousands of tenants, and

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Speaker 1: starting around seventeen eighty they started systematically evicting them as

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Speaker 1: they converted their tenant farms to sheep farms. At first,

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Speaker 1: a lot of these landlords expected that their tenants would

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Speaker 1: relocate elsewhere in the highlands and islands. The most popular

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Speaker 1: destination was the Scottish coast, where people could work in

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Speaker 1: the fishing or kelp industries. Of course, fishing was a

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Speaker 1: lot more dangerous than working on a farm, and kelp

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Speaker 1: processing was hard and it was unpleasant work In the

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Speaker 1: kelp industry, Seaweed was processed through burning to produce things

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Speaker 1: like iodine and an alkaline product that was used in

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Speaker 1: the manufacture of things like glass and soap. Kelp processing

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Speaker 1: had a pretty short working season, but it required a

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Speaker 1: lot of labor during that time, so to most tenants

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Speaker 1: this move to the coast was a huge step down,

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Speaker 1: on top of being uprooted from land that their families

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Speaker 1: had often been on for generations. Some landlords also helped

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Speaker 1: to reset all their tenants, especially those who were old

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Speaker 1: are sick. Others offered to pay for passage out of

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Speaker 1: Scotland to other parts of the British Empire. Some forgave

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Speaker 1: any rent that their tenants still owed, or bought any

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Speaker 1: livestock or salable goods that the tenants had to offer

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Speaker 1: from their farms. So while being displaced to another part

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Speaker 1: of the country or another country entirely to work in

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Speaker 1: a different industry would have been difficult and unpleasant, and

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Speaker 1: leaving the land that you and your ancestors had worked

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Speaker 1: for generations could be emotionally devastating, but these early clearances

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Speaker 1: were really not a matter of just turning people out

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Speaker 1: of their homes with no resources and no thought about

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Speaker 1: what they should do. Even in these earlier years, though

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Speaker 1: there was significant resistance to the clearing of tenant farms

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Speaker 1: and the introduction of sheep. In sevente families who had

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Speaker 1: been evicted from farms in Rosshire and Sutherland rose up

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Speaker 1: in what came to be known as the Rosshire Sheep Riots,

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Speaker 1: which included rounding up thousands of sheep trying to drive

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Speaker 1: them out of the area. The forty two Regiment, also

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Speaker 1: known as the Black Watch, was deployed to restore order.

250
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Speaker 1: Two was nicknamed the Year of the Sheep. As the

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Speaker 1: clearances progressed, landlords generally put less and less thought and

252
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Speaker 1: fewer resources into what to do with their evicted tenants.

253
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Speaker 1: One issue was that even though there were these evictions

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Speaker 1: going on and people had been leaving the Highlands since

255
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Speaker 1: long before the Jacobite Rising, the total Highland population was

256
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Speaker 1: actually increasing. Even in the early years of the clearances.

257
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Speaker 1: The population was rising faster than the economy was growing,

258
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Speaker 1: so the labor pool was getting bigger as the need

259
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Speaker 1: for labor was getting smaller. This started to trickle down

260
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Speaker 1: to landlords having few resources and less money available to

261
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Speaker 1: try to resettle or redistribute their tenants, especially because some

262
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Speaker 1: of them didn't feel like they could evict their excess

263
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Speaker 1: labor pool. One of the largest clearances started in eight

264
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Speaker 1: teen oh seven and it actually lasted until eighteen one,

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Speaker 1: known as the Sutherland Clearance. This displaced about fifteen thousand

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Speaker 1: people from the estate of English landowner George Granville Levison Gower,

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Speaker 1: Marquess of Stafford, who would later become the first Duke

268
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Speaker 1: of Sutherland. His estates were at that time likely the

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Speaker 1: wealthiest in all of Scotland. While his money funded the clearance,

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Speaker 1: it was his wife, Elizabeth Gordon, who was really the

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Speaker 1: one pushing for sheep farming. Patrick Seller was the estates

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Speaker 1: factor and was the one in charge of converting the

273
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Speaker 1: estate and dealing with the tenants. Although the Sutherland Clearance

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Speaker 1: did include resettling people to the coast to work, Kelp

275
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Speaker 1: Seller became notorious for his callous and brutal treatment of

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Speaker 1: the tenants. This treatment got worse as time went on.

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Speaker 1: When the tenants resisted moving, he and his meant threatened them,

278
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Speaker 1: destroyed their possessions, and burned down their homes and crops.

279
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Speaker 1: While clearing tenants from land and strath nighbor, he allegedly

280
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Speaker 1: had a house burned down with somebody still inside. Seller

281
00:17:08,080 --> 00:17:11,040
Speaker 1: was arrested and charged with a number of crimes, including

282
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Speaker 1: arson and culpable homicide, but was ultimately found not guilty.

283
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Speaker 1: The Sutherland Clearances overlapped a major event that influenced how

284
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Speaker 1: the later clearances progressed, and that was the end of

285
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Speaker 1: the Napoleonic Wars. The incident in which Seller's men reportedly

286
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Speaker 1: burned down a house with someone inside it took place

287
00:17:29,240 --> 00:17:33,960
Speaker 1: in eighteen fourteen. In eighteen fifteen, the Napoleonic Wars ended,

288
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Speaker 1: which had a huge effect on the Highland economy. The

289
00:17:37,280 --> 00:17:40,119
Speaker 1: price of fish started to drop and the kelp industry

290
00:17:40,160 --> 00:17:44,000
Speaker 1: completely collapsed due to cheaper and better products from elsewhere

291
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Speaker 1: in Europe, and the price of wools started to drop

292
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Speaker 1: as well. With all their money making industries no longer

293
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Speaker 1: making so much money, even the landlords who had intended

294
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Speaker 1: to help resettle their tenants or to invest in coastal

295
00:17:57,960 --> 00:18:01,199
Speaker 1: industries didn't have the money to do it anymore, and

296
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Speaker 1: the kelp industry just no longer existed for them to

297
00:18:03,920 --> 00:18:08,400
Speaker 1: invest in at all. Evictions became faster and more aggressive,

298
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Speaker 1: with far less help offered to the evicted tenants. In

299
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Speaker 1: eighteen fourteen, Seller's treatment of the Sutherland tenants had been

300
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Speaker 1: pretty well outside the norm, but after eighteen fifteen, the

301
00:18:20,240 --> 00:18:23,520
Speaker 1: clearances in general started to look a lot more like

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Speaker 1: what had happened in Sutherland. By the eighteen thirties, the

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Speaker 1: wool industry had become so powerful in the Highlands that

304
00:18:30,600 --> 00:18:34,560
Speaker 1: sheep farmers had leverage over their landlords, doing things like

305
00:18:34,680 --> 00:18:37,800
Speaker 1: refusing to sign a new lease unless the landlord evicted

306
00:18:37,800 --> 00:18:41,920
Speaker 1: the remaining tenants and converted their former acreage into sheep pasture.

307
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Speaker 1: Even though the price of wool was falling, will was

308
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Speaker 1: still more profitable than anything else they might use that

309
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Speaker 1: land for Most landlords couldn't afford to lose their sheep

310
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Speaker 1: farmers and ultimately gave in to their demands. The eighteen

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Speaker 1: thirties were also marked by food shortages and famine in

312
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Speaker 1: the Highlands and Islands as a result of the displacement

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Speaker 1: and changes in land use. Some of the most infamous

314
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Speaker 1: clearances took place in the eighteen forties, with some of

315
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Speaker 1: that infamy stemming from newspapers publishing stories that were very

316
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Speaker 1: sympathetic to the evicted tenants and Glenn Calvy. In eighteen

317
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Speaker 1: forty five, massive clearances were publicized by Free Church ministers

318
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Speaker 1: who were critical of what was happening. These articles really

319
00:19:25,359 --> 00:19:28,160
Speaker 1: focused on the plight of the families and the idea

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Speaker 1: that they've been living and farming there for generations. The

321
00:19:31,520 --> 00:19:34,720
Speaker 1: Glenn Calvy story was picked up by the Times, largely

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Speaker 1: in connection to debates that were going on in Parliament

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Speaker 1: over assistance programs for the poor in Scotland. Another clearance

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Speaker 1: in Strathconin played out with similar sympathy in the press

325
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Speaker 1: in the eighteen forties as well, with the evicted tenants

326
00:19:48,560 --> 00:19:53,959
Speaker 1: portrayed is destitute, devastated and meekly compliant with their landlords.

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Speaker 1: So when it came to that meekly compliant with their

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00:19:58,119 --> 00:20:03,960
Speaker 1: landlords part, that wasn't exactly true. Tenants resisted being evicted

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Speaker 1: all through the Highland clearances, including strath Conan. Usually things

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Speaker 1: followed a predictable pattern. Someone would show up to serve

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Speaker 1: an order of removal tenants. Usually the women would say

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Speaker 1: they'd refuse to go, mocking the person serving the order

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Speaker 1: and sometimes tearing that order up in front of his face.

334
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Speaker 1: Things would escalate from there, with the sheriff arriving with

335
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Speaker 1: a posse, often very early in the morning, to evict

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Speaker 1: everyone by force. If people still refuse to go, the

337
00:20:33,240 --> 00:20:37,000
Speaker 1: sheriff would seek military help. Usually the threat of troops

338
00:20:37,040 --> 00:20:39,680
Speaker 1: being deployed would prompt people to leave, but in at

339
00:20:39,720 --> 00:20:43,240
Speaker 1: least ten cases troops really did arrive on the scene

340
00:20:43,320 --> 00:20:47,040
Speaker 1: to force people to go. The last of the major

341
00:20:47,080 --> 00:20:51,080
Speaker 1: clearances were over by about eighteen fifty, although people continued

342
00:20:51,200 --> 00:20:53,439
Speaker 1: to be evicted to make way for other uses of

343
00:20:53,480 --> 00:20:57,200
Speaker 1: the land that they releasing until at least the eighteen eighties.

344
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Speaker 1: Some of these removals were still quite side sizable. Between

345
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Speaker 1: eighteen fifty one and eighteen fifty seven, about five thousand

346
00:21:04,920 --> 00:21:08,440
Speaker 1: Highland Scots, most of them living in severe poverty, were

347
00:21:08,480 --> 00:21:12,040
Speaker 1: relocated to Australia to try to address a labor shortage

348
00:21:12,119 --> 00:21:15,080
Speaker 1: during the gold rush there, and then throughout all of this,

349
00:21:15,320 --> 00:21:19,119
Speaker 1: food shortages and famine continued in the Highlands, including a

350
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Speaker 1: famine that started around eighteen forty six and was caused

351
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Speaker 1: by the same potato blight that had struck Ireland the

352
00:21:25,400 --> 00:21:30,520
Speaker 1: year before. The aftermath of the clearances actually went on

353
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Speaker 1: much longer, and we're gonna get into that. After we

354
00:21:33,400 --> 00:21:44,440
Speaker 1: first paused for another sponsor break after clearing the Highlands

355
00:21:44,440 --> 00:21:47,639
Speaker 1: of Scotland to make way for sheep, the sheep themselves

356
00:21:47,680 --> 00:21:50,680
Speaker 1: did not last for very long. The price of wool

357
00:21:50,800 --> 00:21:54,160
Speaker 1: continued to fall after it had started following in eighteen fifteen.

358
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Speaker 1: Eventually sheep farmers in Australia and New Zealand were producing

359
00:21:58,640 --> 00:22:01,919
Speaker 1: much higher quality good for much less money, and in

360
00:22:01,960 --> 00:22:05,080
Speaker 1: some cases these sheep were even being raised by people

361
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Speaker 1: who had been displaced in favor of sheep during the

362
00:22:08,040 --> 00:22:13,280
Speaker 1: Highland Clearances as well became less and less profitable. Land

363
00:22:13,359 --> 00:22:16,719
Speaker 1: use in the Highlands changed once again, with deer forest

364
00:22:16,880 --> 00:22:20,600
Speaker 1: used for hunting replacing pasture land used for raising sheep.

365
00:22:21,280 --> 00:22:23,960
Speaker 1: There are still plenty of sheep farms in the Highlands,

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00:22:24,000 --> 00:22:26,760
Speaker 1: but overall, landlords who had invested all their money into

367
00:22:26,800 --> 00:22:30,840
Speaker 1: sheep production didn't ultimately see many returns on that investment.

368
00:22:31,720 --> 00:22:34,919
Speaker 1: Although the population of the Highlands had been increasing in

369
00:22:34,960 --> 00:22:38,119
Speaker 1: the early years of the clearances, as the evictions became

370
00:22:38,280 --> 00:22:42,119
Speaker 1: larger and more aggressive, the Highland population finally did start

371
00:22:42,119 --> 00:22:46,720
Speaker 1: to decline. Soon there were more Highland Scots living outside

372
00:22:46,720 --> 00:22:49,960
Speaker 1: of Scotland than living in the Highlands, and by eighteen

373
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Speaker 1: fifty the Highlands of Scotland had one of the lowest

374
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Speaker 1: population densities in all of Europe. Entire communities, some of

375
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Speaker 1: which had been there for centuries, were gone at the

376
00:23:01,240 --> 00:23:04,160
Speaker 1: same time. It's a bit of a misconception that most

377
00:23:04,200 --> 00:23:07,120
Speaker 1: of the people who immigrated from Scotland during the Clearances

378
00:23:07,480 --> 00:23:10,680
Speaker 1: were people who had been evicted. While there were definitely

379
00:23:10,720 --> 00:23:14,320
Speaker 1: crofters whose landlords either paid their way or offered other

380
00:23:14,359 --> 00:23:17,399
Speaker 1: assistance to immigrate out of the country, most of the

381
00:23:17,400 --> 00:23:20,679
Speaker 1: people who made that voyage were people with more financial means.

382
00:23:21,240 --> 00:23:24,439
Speaker 1: In historical documents from the time, people gave reasons for

383
00:23:24,480 --> 00:23:27,880
Speaker 1: immigrating that included increasing rents or the idea that life

384
00:23:27,880 --> 00:23:31,680
Speaker 1: would be better somewhere else. The Clearances were definitely part

385
00:23:31,760 --> 00:23:34,640
Speaker 1: of the idea of a better life elsewhere, but most

386
00:23:34,640 --> 00:23:37,719
Speaker 1: people questioned about their reasons for immigrating didn't say it

387
00:23:37,760 --> 00:23:40,679
Speaker 1: was because they had been evicted. By the end of

388
00:23:40,680 --> 00:23:44,440
Speaker 1: the Clearances, overall, the Highlands had no more factors. They

389
00:23:44,440 --> 00:23:47,479
Speaker 1: had no more midsized tenants who were sub letting their

390
00:23:47,600 --> 00:23:51,359
Speaker 1: lands to other farmers. Most of the former Highland clan

391
00:23:51,520 --> 00:23:54,399
Speaker 1: leaders were also gone from the country, and what was

392
00:23:54,560 --> 00:23:58,440
Speaker 1: left were predominantly sheep farms, deer parks, and a much

393
00:23:58,680 --> 00:24:02,240
Speaker 1: much smaller population of crofters who continued to work on

394
00:24:02,280 --> 00:24:07,560
Speaker 1: small parcels of rented farmland. Meanwhile, Highland Scotts who emigrated

395
00:24:07,560 --> 00:24:11,760
Speaker 1: from Scotland often faced discrimination and prejudice wherever they settled.

396
00:24:12,080 --> 00:24:14,840
Speaker 1: Which tends to be the case anytime a large population

397
00:24:14,880 --> 00:24:18,520
Speaker 1: of people immigrates to a new place. At the same time,

398
00:24:18,560 --> 00:24:23,119
Speaker 1: as fiction, poetry, music, news reporting and historical writing began

399
00:24:23,119 --> 00:24:26,359
Speaker 1: to take a more nostalgic view of Highland culture and

400
00:24:26,440 --> 00:24:29,960
Speaker 1: present its end as a tragic loss, the general perception

401
00:24:30,000 --> 00:24:33,760
Speaker 1: of Highland Scotts started to shift outside the Highlands. No

402
00:24:33,840 --> 00:24:37,480
Speaker 1: longer were the Highlands viewed as uncouth and backward. Clan

403
00:24:37,640 --> 00:24:42,840
Speaker 1: culture and Highland traditions became heavily romanticized. The Highlands and

404
00:24:42,920 --> 00:24:46,680
Speaker 1: Highland Scots became emblematic of all of Scotland, and traditions

405
00:24:46,680 --> 00:24:50,359
Speaker 1: from the Highlands became a core part of Scottish national identity.

406
00:24:51,840 --> 00:24:54,879
Speaker 1: I cannot exaggerate there are lots and lots and lots

407
00:24:54,960 --> 00:24:59,439
Speaker 1: and lots of novels about Scotland before and during the

408
00:24:59,520 --> 00:25:03,560
Speaker 1: Clearance is and overwhelmingly they present the Highland clan lay

409
00:25:03,720 --> 00:25:06,760
Speaker 1: way of life in a really romanticized way. The thing

410
00:25:06,840 --> 00:25:10,520
Speaker 1: that people probably would come to mind most as outlander.

411
00:25:11,520 --> 00:25:15,199
Speaker 1: But I mean that that whole genre goes back, you know,

412
00:25:15,440 --> 00:25:18,800
Speaker 1: more than a hundred years easily, and this is often

413
00:25:18,800 --> 00:25:22,560
Speaker 1: written to provoke a sense of injustice and outrage. Over

414
00:25:22,760 --> 00:25:28,480
Speaker 1: what had happened. Um. Also, the part where the Highlands

415
00:25:28,520 --> 00:25:31,679
Speaker 1: of Scotland became emblematic of all of Scotland reminds me

416
00:25:31,720 --> 00:25:33,320
Speaker 1: of when we when I was in college and we

417
00:25:33,359 --> 00:25:37,600
Speaker 1: had a visiting professor from Scotland and in the first

418
00:25:37,640 --> 00:25:40,439
Speaker 1: day of class he I don't remember where precisely he

419
00:25:40,560 --> 00:25:42,600
Speaker 1: was from, but but he told us where he was

420
00:25:42,640 --> 00:25:45,160
Speaker 1: from and showed us a picture of it which looked

421
00:25:45,240 --> 00:25:47,440
Speaker 1: like a major city. And he was like, when I

422
00:25:47,600 --> 00:25:50,720
Speaker 1: when I say Scotland, you are probably thinking the Highlands

423
00:25:50,760 --> 00:25:54,080
Speaker 1: of Scotland. I am from the Lowlands of Scotland and

424
00:25:54,119 --> 00:25:57,200
Speaker 1: it looks like this, and we were all like, really,

425
00:25:58,359 --> 00:26:03,520
Speaker 1: where are the pastures? Uh? There have been intentional efforts

426
00:26:03,560 --> 00:26:07,320
Speaker 1: to preserve the Highland culture that existed before the clearances,

427
00:26:07,400 --> 00:26:11,680
Speaker 1: including songs, customs and languages, and although there has been

428
00:26:11,680 --> 00:26:14,320
Speaker 1: a revival in Scott's Gaelic in the twentieth and twenty

429
00:26:14,320 --> 00:26:18,639
Speaker 1: first centuries, several dialects of Scott's Gaelic that existed before

430
00:26:18,680 --> 00:26:23,280
Speaker 1: the clearances have been lost. In the eighteen eighties, the

431
00:26:23,359 --> 00:26:27,960
Speaker 1: remaining crofters and the Highlands and Islands started protesting increasing rents,

432
00:26:28,040 --> 00:26:32,000
Speaker 1: evictions and just the general lack of civil and land rights,

433
00:26:32,040 --> 00:26:35,480
Speaker 1: like a lack of tenant protections had been part of

434
00:26:35,520 --> 00:26:38,199
Speaker 1: this whole process, and they still did not really have

435
00:26:38,320 --> 00:26:42,320
Speaker 1: a lot of protection as tenants. This unrest became really

436
00:26:42,440 --> 00:26:45,920
Speaker 1: violent at times, and as a result. The Napier Commission,

437
00:26:46,080 --> 00:26:49,399
Speaker 1: more formally known as the Royal Commission of Inquiry into

438
00:26:49,480 --> 00:26:52,040
Speaker 1: the Condition of Crofters and Cotters in the Highlands and

439
00:26:52,080 --> 00:26:56,320
Speaker 1: Islands was established in eighteen eighty three. After studying the issue,

440
00:26:56,440 --> 00:26:59,320
Speaker 1: the Commission published a report on the situation in eighteen

441
00:26:59,320 --> 00:27:03,120
Speaker 1: eighty four, and in that same year the Highlanders established

442
00:27:03,200 --> 00:27:07,840
Speaker 1: the Highland Land Law Reform Association. The Crofters Party was

443
00:27:07,960 --> 00:27:11,639
Speaker 1: established soon after, and in eighteen eighty six four members

444
00:27:11,720 --> 00:27:15,600
Speaker 1: of that party were elected to Parliament. In eighteen eighty six,

445
00:27:15,800 --> 00:27:19,320
Speaker 1: Parliament passed the Crofters Holdings Act, which was the first

446
00:27:19,320 --> 00:27:22,280
Speaker 1: of several pieces of legislation meant to make the crofting

447
00:27:22,320 --> 00:27:26,200
Speaker 1: system more fair and to offer crofters protections from things

448
00:27:26,200 --> 00:27:31,440
Speaker 1: like unreasonable evictions and unfair rents. By the eighteen eighties,

449
00:27:31,520 --> 00:27:34,680
Speaker 1: historians had also started to write about what had happened

450
00:27:34,760 --> 00:27:38,800
Speaker 1: during the clearances, and historians interpretations of what happened have

451
00:27:39,040 --> 00:27:43,800
Speaker 1: varied wildly since then the storiography of the Highland Clearances

452
00:27:43,840 --> 00:27:46,879
Speaker 1: as its own intriguing subject, And if you're not familiar

453
00:27:46,920 --> 00:27:51,440
Speaker 1: with that term, historiography generally means the writing of history,

454
00:27:51,520 --> 00:27:55,000
Speaker 1: but it also more broadly includes the theory and history

455
00:27:55,160 --> 00:27:59,600
Speaker 1: of that righting itself. There are extensive documents from the

456
00:27:59,680 --> 00:28:03,640
Speaker 1: Highland Clearances that still survived today, far far more than

457
00:28:03,680 --> 00:28:07,560
Speaker 1: anyone historian could really read through, synthesize and analyze in

458
00:28:07,600 --> 00:28:11,440
Speaker 1: a lifetime. But at this point there's even more historical

459
00:28:11,480 --> 00:28:15,800
Speaker 1: writing about the Clearances. In the words of historian Eric Richards,

460
00:28:15,800 --> 00:28:18,919
Speaker 1: who has written numerous books on the Clearances, quote, the

461
00:28:19,000 --> 00:28:21,800
Speaker 1: historiography of the Clearances and the way it has been

462
00:28:21,840 --> 00:28:26,000
Speaker 1: constructed has become a subject with its own fascination, notably

463
00:28:26,119 --> 00:28:30,440
Speaker 1: for historians of the public memory with a postmodernist bent.

464
00:28:31,400 --> 00:28:34,520
Speaker 1: For a long time, and really maybe even still, the

465
00:28:34,560 --> 00:28:37,600
Speaker 1: most popular book on the Highland Clearances was written by

466
00:28:37,680 --> 00:28:40,960
Speaker 1: popular historian John Prebble, and that was first published in

467
00:28:41,080 --> 00:28:45,120
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty three. He'd previously written a book called Colloden,

468
00:28:45,240 --> 00:28:48,360
Speaker 1: which was about the Jacobite Rising of seventeen forty five.

469
00:28:48,760 --> 00:28:52,440
Speaker 1: So Prebble's interpretation of both the Jacobite Rising and the

470
00:28:52,520 --> 00:28:56,000
Speaker 1: Highland Clearances was that they were emblematic of Scottish or

471
00:28:56,080 --> 00:28:59,840
Speaker 1: Highland nationalism, and in the book The Highland Clearances he

472
00:29:00,080 --> 00:29:05,080
Speaker 1: focuses primarily on greedy, scheming, callous landlords and not really

473
00:29:05,120 --> 00:29:07,280
Speaker 1: on any of the other factors that were involved in

474
00:29:07,320 --> 00:29:10,560
Speaker 1: the clearances. In the decades after these books came out,

475
00:29:10,760 --> 00:29:13,600
Speaker 1: organizations like the Communist Party of Great Britain and a

476
00:29:13,760 --> 00:29:17,120
Speaker 1: range of working class organizations were starting to focus their

477
00:29:17,160 --> 00:29:20,960
Speaker 1: efforts related to labor rights and social issues in Scotland

478
00:29:21,240 --> 00:29:25,120
Speaker 1: in a more nationalist direction. These books fit right into

479
00:29:25,160 --> 00:29:28,719
Speaker 1: that sentiment, and these social influences and John Prebble's works

480
00:29:28,760 --> 00:29:32,360
Speaker 1: worked together to cement the idea that both the Jacobite

481
00:29:32,440 --> 00:29:36,560
Speaker 1: Rising and the Highland Clearances were part of ongoing systemic

482
00:29:36,560 --> 00:29:41,800
Speaker 1: oppression of Scotland and helped inspire Scottish nationalism. So I'm

483
00:29:41,880 --> 00:29:45,560
Speaker 1: glad that popular histories exist and that popular historians are

484
00:29:45,560 --> 00:29:47,880
Speaker 1: writing these histories, because for a lot of people that's

485
00:29:47,920 --> 00:29:53,040
Speaker 1: their introduction into historical thought. But professional historians have been

486
00:29:53,080 --> 00:29:56,720
Speaker 1: strongly critical of Prebble's work, pointing out instances of cherry

487
00:29:56,720 --> 00:29:59,720
Speaker 1: picking the source material and presenting a lot of historical

488
00:29:59,720 --> 00:30:03,720
Speaker 1: events without their proper context. For example, the Highland Clearances

489
00:30:03,840 --> 00:30:07,880
Speaker 1: largely ignores the fact that the landlords themselves were existing

490
00:30:07,920 --> 00:30:11,080
Speaker 1: in and responding to a whole range of other social

491
00:30:11,120 --> 00:30:13,800
Speaker 1: and economic factors. They didn't just come up with the

492
00:30:13,800 --> 00:30:16,200
Speaker 1: idea of changing their land over to seep out of nowhere.

493
00:30:16,880 --> 00:30:19,400
Speaker 1: And events that made the clearances so much worse, like

494
00:30:19,440 --> 00:30:21,640
Speaker 1: the end of the Napoleonic Wars and the collapse of

495
00:30:21,640 --> 00:30:24,920
Speaker 1: the kelp industry and the falling wool prices, were sort

496
00:30:24,920 --> 00:30:28,800
Speaker 1: of outside the landlord's control, but also had a huge

497
00:30:28,800 --> 00:30:32,920
Speaker 1: effect on how things progressed. And there are so many

498
00:30:33,000 --> 00:30:36,560
Speaker 1: questions that historians don't agree on how to answer regarding

499
00:30:36,600 --> 00:30:40,720
Speaker 1: the Highland Clearances. Are the clearances their own unique event

500
00:30:41,080 --> 00:30:43,480
Speaker 1: or are they just part of a pattern of clearances

501
00:30:43,520 --> 00:30:47,600
Speaker 1: happening all over Europe during the Industrial Revolution? How much

502
00:30:47,680 --> 00:30:51,040
Speaker 1: was really influenced by anti highland prejudice and how much

503
00:30:51,160 --> 00:30:54,200
Speaker 1: was a matter of simple economics. How much did the

504
00:30:54,240 --> 00:30:57,640
Speaker 1: overall under development of the Scottish Highlands and the fundamental

505
00:30:57,720 --> 00:31:01,600
Speaker 1: problems that really did exist in the Highland economy influenced

506
00:31:01,640 --> 00:31:05,200
Speaker 1: the progress of the clearances and their outcome. The oral

507
00:31:05,320 --> 00:31:08,120
Speaker 1: history is full of burned down cottages and farms. But

508
00:31:08,200 --> 00:31:11,840
Speaker 1: does the archaeological evidence really support that, And how did

509
00:31:11,880 --> 00:31:15,120
Speaker 1: earlier and later clearances, some of which extended into the

510
00:31:15,120 --> 00:31:19,200
Speaker 1: lowlands compared to the famous ones. Did the clearances really

511
00:31:19,200 --> 00:31:23,040
Speaker 1: play a role in Scottish nationalism or did that really

512
00:31:23,080 --> 00:31:26,960
Speaker 1: come from fictional interpretations and later historical writing. And these

513
00:31:27,040 --> 00:31:29,800
Speaker 1: kinds of questions just go on and on and continue

514
00:31:29,880 --> 00:31:33,920
Speaker 1: to be debated. You can read ten different books and

515
00:31:34,000 --> 00:31:37,520
Speaker 1: find ten different conclusions about how to interpret all of this.

516
00:31:38,240 --> 00:31:41,760
Speaker 1: Regardless of all that, though, historians generally do agree that

517
00:31:41,840 --> 00:31:44,520
Speaker 1: in the end, the Highland clearances didn't really do anyone

518
00:31:44,560 --> 00:31:48,440
Speaker 1: any good. They forcibly displaced thailand Scott's out of their homes,

519
00:31:48,560 --> 00:31:51,920
Speaker 1: sometimes moving them into other industries, most of those industries

520
00:31:52,000 --> 00:31:55,120
Speaker 1: later collapsing, and then those who immigrated out of the

521
00:31:55,160 --> 00:32:00,440
Speaker 1: country usually endured appalling conditions aboard ship and then judice

522
00:32:00,440 --> 00:32:03,720
Speaker 1: and sometimes poverty at their new destination as well. And

523
00:32:03,760 --> 00:32:06,920
Speaker 1: then the motivation for doing all of this didn't even

524
00:32:06,960 --> 00:32:09,640
Speaker 1: turn out to be profitable for the people who ordered

525
00:32:09,720 --> 00:32:13,040
Speaker 1: the land to be cleared in the first place, so

526
00:32:13,560 --> 00:32:17,160
Speaker 1: overall it did not go well for pretty much anyone involved.

527
00:32:17,840 --> 00:32:21,000
Speaker 1: We mentioned the Highland Clearances really briefly at the end

528
00:32:21,040 --> 00:32:23,520
Speaker 1: of our episode on the Jacobite Rising, and after that

529
00:32:23,560 --> 00:32:25,360
Speaker 1: we got an email from a listener who said that

530
00:32:26,120 --> 00:32:31,000
Speaker 1: her grandmother, who was from Scotland, had described the clearances

531
00:32:31,000 --> 00:32:34,800
Speaker 1: as basically the English rolling through the Highlands and murdering everyone,

532
00:32:35,240 --> 00:32:39,640
Speaker 1: and like that's still a common perception, and it's that's

533
00:32:39,960 --> 00:32:42,200
Speaker 1: part is not accurate. But the other thing that that

534
00:32:42,400 --> 00:32:44,520
Speaker 1: really completely leaves out is that a lot of the

535
00:32:44,640 --> 00:32:48,440
Speaker 1: landlords in question, and some of the factors and some

536
00:32:48,520 --> 00:32:52,560
Speaker 1: of the incoming sheep farmers were themselves Scots, not all

537
00:32:52,600 --> 00:32:55,560
Speaker 1: of them necessarily Highland Scots, but some were Highland Scots

538
00:32:55,560 --> 00:32:58,680
Speaker 1: like they were Highland Scots, Lowland Scots and English landlords

539
00:32:58,760 --> 00:33:01,840
Speaker 1: all part of all of this us So it's definitely

540
00:33:01,880 --> 00:33:04,680
Speaker 1: not something that can be presented as simply as England

541
00:33:04,680 --> 00:33:07,160
Speaker 1: did this. Which is the thing that we have heard

542
00:33:07,200 --> 00:33:11,800
Speaker 1: in our mail related to this issue before. Speaking of mail,

543
00:33:12,160 --> 00:33:16,880
Speaker 1: do you have some sure it is from Bethany. Bethany

544
00:33:17,480 --> 00:33:20,840
Speaker 1: wrote about an episode that Holly actually researched, but a

545
00:33:20,960 --> 00:33:22,760
Speaker 1: thing I said in it, and we've gotten a couple

546
00:33:22,760 --> 00:33:26,120
Speaker 1: of emails on this subject, and so Bethany says Hi, Holly,

547
00:33:26,120 --> 00:33:28,960
Speaker 1: and Tracy talks about being a relatively new listener and

548
00:33:29,040 --> 00:33:32,720
Speaker 1: loving the podcast. Uh. Then Bethany says, I just listened

549
00:33:32,760 --> 00:33:35,760
Speaker 1: to your most recent episode, The Minuscule Science of Anthony

550
00:33:35,840 --> 00:33:39,720
Speaker 1: von Leavin Hook. I found it pretty interesting and entertaining,

551
00:33:39,840 --> 00:33:42,000
Speaker 1: especially when one of you, I think it was Tracy,

552
00:33:42,120 --> 00:33:43,840
Speaker 1: mentioned a book you used to have as a kid

553
00:33:44,000 --> 00:33:48,200
Speaker 1: that showed Gooseneck barticles growing into flying geese. I laughed

554
00:33:48,200 --> 00:33:50,719
Speaker 1: a lot and then proceeded to consult the Google in

555
00:33:50,880 --> 00:33:53,320
Speaker 1: hopes of finding the book or something like it. My

556
00:33:53,360 --> 00:33:56,360
Speaker 1: search was semi successful. I found a digital copy of

557
00:33:56,440 --> 00:34:01,160
Speaker 1: The herbal or General History of Plants. Imagine that with

558
00:34:01,200 --> 00:34:04,240
Speaker 1: some delightful sixteenth century spelling, because that's what it has,

559
00:34:05,000 --> 00:34:09,000
Speaker 1: by John Gerard from fifteen forty five to sixteen twelve,

560
00:34:10,080 --> 00:34:11,719
Speaker 1: and then there's a link to that. I also found

561
00:34:11,719 --> 00:34:13,839
Speaker 1: a couple of blog posts and an article on the

562
00:34:13,960 --> 00:34:16,960
Speaker 1: website Wired, which is weird because isn't that like a

563
00:34:17,040 --> 00:34:20,520
Speaker 1: tech magazine that talks about early thoughts on geese coming

564
00:34:20,560 --> 00:34:23,720
Speaker 1: from Barnacles? And the Wired article they talk about another

565
00:34:23,760 --> 00:34:26,320
Speaker 1: writer from seventeen fifty one. He was criticized in the

566
00:34:26,440 --> 00:34:28,840
Speaker 1: Royal Society of London for allowing one of their members

567
00:34:28,840 --> 00:34:31,320
Speaker 1: to publish something that backed the idea of Barnacle geese.

568
00:34:31,719 --> 00:34:33,440
Speaker 1: I included a few links so you can read more

569
00:34:33,560 --> 00:34:35,520
Speaker 1: for yourselves if you would like, though they may not

570
00:34:35,600 --> 00:34:38,560
Speaker 1: be the best of the best resources. The digital copy

571
00:34:38,640 --> 00:34:41,000
Speaker 1: of the herbal is pretty cool. By the way, the

572
00:34:41,040 --> 00:34:43,600
Speaker 1: description and discussion of the barnacle gooses in the very

573
00:34:43,680 --> 00:34:46,879
Speaker 1: last chapter. It's a little difficult to read, but still

574
00:34:47,000 --> 00:34:50,640
Speaker 1: pretty rad. Barnacles are one of my favorite marine organisms

575
00:34:50,680 --> 00:34:53,040
Speaker 1: because of how they feed. They're so beautiful waving their

576
00:34:53,120 --> 00:34:56,080
Speaker 1: quote legs around trying to getch a meal. Thanks again,

577
00:34:56,280 --> 00:34:59,879
Speaker 1: you ladies are great, Bethany. Bethany also notes that there's

578
00:34:59,880 --> 00:35:02,319
Speaker 1: a species of goose called the barnacle goose. That made

579
00:35:02,640 --> 00:35:05,880
Speaker 1: the search process a little more challenging. Thank you, Bethany.

580
00:35:05,960 --> 00:35:08,160
Speaker 1: So we got a couple of emails about the story,

581
00:35:08,280 --> 00:35:10,480
Speaker 1: and so to clarify the book that I was looking at.

582
00:35:10,560 --> 00:35:14,800
Speaker 1: I am not sure whether it was UM an old

583
00:35:14,880 --> 00:35:19,680
Speaker 1: science textbook, because in in our family bookshelf UM we

584
00:35:19,760 --> 00:35:22,440
Speaker 1: had a few old textbooks that I think had been

585
00:35:22,440 --> 00:35:25,279
Speaker 1: bought at a yard sale or something, or if it

586
00:35:25,320 --> 00:35:27,920
Speaker 1: was a science book for kids, that we bought it

587
00:35:27,960 --> 00:35:31,240
Speaker 1: like a Scholastic book sale or something similar. Either way,

588
00:35:31,320 --> 00:35:33,640
Speaker 1: it was a book intended for kids that was a

589
00:35:33,760 --> 00:35:37,520
Speaker 1: science and science history book, and this whole barnacle goose

590
00:35:37,560 --> 00:35:40,399
Speaker 1: thing was in a section on people used to think

591
00:35:40,440 --> 00:35:43,440
Speaker 1: it worked this way, and it talked about the idea

592
00:35:43,760 --> 00:35:48,840
Speaker 1: that that maggots spontaneously generated out of meat, which I

593
00:35:48,840 --> 00:35:54,840
Speaker 1: could understand why people would think that because you don't

594
00:35:54,880 --> 00:35:58,439
Speaker 1: necessarily you don't really see the eggs that flies lay

595
00:35:58,440 --> 00:36:01,600
Speaker 1: on things before the mag it's come. So that to me,

596
00:36:01,640 --> 00:36:03,359
Speaker 1: I was like, Okay, I can I can see how

597
00:36:03,400 --> 00:36:05,920
Speaker 1: people would think that. But then I had this picture

598
00:36:05,960 --> 00:36:08,360
Speaker 1: of barnacles becoming a goose, and I was like that,

599
00:36:08,920 --> 00:36:11,680
Speaker 1: how would you get how would you work that math

600
00:36:11,719 --> 00:36:15,640
Speaker 1: out in your head? With Barnacles and geese are not

601
00:36:15,760 --> 00:36:19,520
Speaker 1: the same thing at all. These are obviously barnacles that

602
00:36:19,560 --> 00:36:22,200
Speaker 1: look kind of like geese. Have you ever been bitten

603
00:36:22,200 --> 00:36:25,120
Speaker 1: by a goose? No, because that might lead you to

604
00:36:25,200 --> 00:36:28,880
Speaker 1: associate them with the scratchy horror of barnacle. Okay, a

605
00:36:28,960 --> 00:36:32,360
Speaker 1: goose bite is mean and hard, and they have serrated,

606
00:36:32,400 --> 00:36:35,359
Speaker 1: little tiny teeth, so I could see where I mean.

607
00:36:35,400 --> 00:36:38,120
Speaker 1: It's still a long walk. I'm not I'm not saying, oh,

608
00:36:38,160 --> 00:36:40,640
Speaker 1: this makes total sense, but I could maybe see where

609
00:36:40,680 --> 00:36:45,279
Speaker 1: that might be the connective tissue of them thinking that's hilarious. Yeah,

610
00:36:45,320 --> 00:36:49,359
Speaker 1: I generally give geese a wide berth because especially when

611
00:36:49,360 --> 00:36:54,160
Speaker 1: they're nesting, they can be really kind of aggressive and

612
00:36:54,160 --> 00:36:57,000
Speaker 1: and so uh, not so much with the geese, but yeah,

613
00:36:57,120 --> 00:36:59,000
Speaker 1: it was baffling to me as a child. So thanks

614
00:36:59,040 --> 00:37:01,000
Speaker 1: to all the folks who have sent us various links

615
00:37:01,000 --> 00:37:05,279
Speaker 1: about barnacles becoming geese, which is not a thing that

616
00:37:05,320 --> 00:37:07,960
Speaker 1: they actually do. If you would like to write to

617
00:37:08,040 --> 00:37:10,680
Speaker 1: us about this or any other podcasts or a history

618
00:37:10,760 --> 00:37:13,600
Speaker 1: podcast at how stuff Works dot com. And we are

619
00:37:13,640 --> 00:37:16,319
Speaker 1: also all over social media missing History, so that is

620
00:37:16,360 --> 00:37:20,279
Speaker 1: our Facebook and our Twitter, and our Pinterest and our Instagram.

621
00:37:20,440 --> 00:37:23,040
Speaker 1: You can come to our website, which is missing history

622
00:37:23,080 --> 00:37:25,680
Speaker 1: dot com, where you will find show notes for all

623
00:37:25,680 --> 00:37:27,640
Speaker 1: the episodes that Holly and I have ever done and

624
00:37:27,719 --> 00:37:31,200
Speaker 1: a searchable archive of all of the episodes that have

625
00:37:31,320 --> 00:37:34,960
Speaker 1: ever existed on the show. And you can find our

626
00:37:35,120 --> 00:37:39,600
Speaker 1: podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, wherever else you might

627
00:37:39,640 --> 00:37:48,560
Speaker 1: get podcasts. So come and visit us or subscribe for

628
00:37:48,680 --> 00:37:51,000
Speaker 1: more on this and thousands of other topics. Is it

629
00:37:51,080 --> 00:38:00,000
Speaker 1: how stuff works? Dot com