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.

最近世界各地发生的事件促使社区、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化进程。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。迄今为止，这一直集中在讲英语的苏格兰，很少注意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英国帝国企业中的作用的理解复杂化、细微差别化。Dugald MacNicol（1791-1844）出生于苏格兰西海岸的利斯莫尔岛，他的父亲，著名的盖尔语学者唐纳德·麦克尼科尔牧师是那里的牧师。十几岁时，杜格尔德被任命为皇家西印度游骑兵队的军官，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。作为一个特殊的人，麦克尼科尔定居在巴巴多斯，在那里他与乔安娜富兰克林建立了终身未婚的关系，乔安娜被描述为“一个自由的有色人种妇女”，与他有七个孩子。他在休假期间多次回到阿盖尔，最后，在他去世前不久，他立下了遗嘱，安排了他的事务。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大笔财产。这一遗产和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，他竭尽全力阻止他的苏格兰亲戚剥夺她和他们的孩子的继承权。尽管如此，像大多数居住在加勒比地区的欧洲人一样，麦克尼科尔也参与了奴隶制：1836年，他因释放一名奴隶而获得了19.8先令4便士的补偿，幸存的记录显示他早些时候还拥有另外四名奴隶。麦克尼科尔的盖尔语日记保存于1809年至1813年，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，他在格拉斯哥出发的准备工作，他前往巴巴多斯的旅程，以及他在西印度群岛的早年生活。从一个年轻人刚刚开始他的职业生涯的角度写的，该杂志提供了一个独特的盖尔人的角度来看待社会生活在世纪初高地，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，在大量的家庭文件中，包括曾经属于他父亲的文学材料，在一个被称为“MacNicol收藏”的珍贵收藏中。麦克尼科尔在整个19世纪10年代还创作了阿盖尔和西印度群岛的诗歌。这些歌曲与他在日记中发现的旅行散文形成了鲜明的对比;这些歌曲往往充满了忧郁和思乡之情，但有些歌曲也对高地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;莱斯克& Muircheartaigh 2022）。虽然MacNicol的期刊和一些诗歌是在20世纪初印刷的，他们的维多利亚时代的编辑，牧师乔治亨德森博士（1866-1912）删除了许多他认为令人反感的细节。他进一步误读了公认困难的盖尔语中的许多细节，并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（包括盖尔语扫盲问题）;历史）检查他的著作。这个项目打开了一个鲜为人知的档案盖尔材料写在加勒比地区是重要的，不仅在其盖尔或苏格兰的背景下，而且在更广泛的背景下，英国帝国企业在世纪初。