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.

最近发生在世界各地的事件促使社区、国家和公共机构（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，人们对奴隶制的遗产进行了深刻的重新审视。到目前为止，这主要集中在讲英语的苏格兰，很少关注讲盖尔语的人的经历，这些经历有可能使我们对苏格兰人在大英帝国事业中的作用的理解变得复杂、细微差别和增加。Dugald MacNicol（1791-1844）出生在苏格兰西海岸的利斯莫尔岛，他的父亲，著名的盖尔语学者Donald MacNicol牧师，是那里的牧师。十几岁时，达加尔德被委任为皇家西印度游骑兵队的一名军官，前往加勒比海。他将在巴巴多斯度过余生的大部分时间，最终晋升为少校。麦克尼科尔在巴巴多斯定居下来，在那里他与乔安娜·富兰克林（被称为“一个自由的有色女人”）建立了终身未婚的关系，并与她生了七个孩子。他在休假期间几次回到阿盖尔，最后，在他去世前不久，他立了遗嘱，把他的事务安排得井井有条。当他于1844年去世时，他给他的七个混血孩子和他们的母亲留下了一笔可观的财富。这两个遗产，以及其他因素都说明了这对夫妇之间的温暖和信任关系；有证据表明，他不遗余力地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制度：1836年，他因释放了一个奴隶而获得19.8万英镑的赔偿，幸存的记录显示，他早些时候还拥有另外四个奴隶。麦克尼科尔的盖尔语日记保存于1809年至1813年之间，记录了他在盖尔语的阿盖尔和克莱德河口的日常生活，在获得军事任务之前，他准备从格拉斯哥出发，他去巴巴多斯的旅行，以及他早年在西印度群岛的生活。这本杂志从一个刚刚开始他的职业生涯的年轻人的角度出发，提供了一个独特的盖尔人的视角来看待19世纪早期高地的社会生活，以及苏格兰盖尔人与大西洋殖民世界的接触。这本日记被保存在苏格兰国家图书馆，与大量家庭文件一起，包括曾经属于他父亲的文学材料，被称为“麦克尼科尔收藏馆”。整个19世纪10年代，麦克尼科尔还在阿盖尔岛和西印度群岛创作诗歌。这些歌曲与他在日记中对旅行的散文叙述形成了鲜明对比；这些歌曲往往充满了忧郁和乡愁，但也有一些歌曲对高原地区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（Kidd 2010; Leask & Ó Muircheartaigh 2022）。虽然麦克尼科尔的日记和一些诗歌在20世纪初出版，但它们的维多利亚时代编辑乔治·亨德森博士（1866-1912）删去了许多他认为不合适的细节。他进一步误读了公认的盖尔语中的许多细节，也没有试图提供翻译或上下文信息。该项目将编辑、翻译和注释MacNicol的著作，并从三个广泛的学科角度(文学和文本；语言学（包括盖尔语读写问题）；历史)。这个项目打开了加勒比地区盖尔语材料的鲜为人知的档案，它不仅在盖尔语或苏格兰语境中很重要，而且在19世纪早期大英帝国企业的更广泛背景下也很重要。