The Scots in South Africa : ethnicity, identity, gender and race, 1772-1914 / John M. MacKenzie with Nigel R. Dalziel.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

MacKenzie, John M. (John MacDonald), 1943-

Contributor:

Dalziel, Nigel.

Series:

Studies in imperialism (Manchester, England)

Studies in imperialism

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Scots--South Africa--History.

Scots.

Scots--South Africa--Ethnic identity.

Scots--South Africa--Social conditions.

Scots--Cultural assimilation--South Africa.

Assimilation (Sociology).

Social conditions.

Ethnicity.

History.

South Africa.

Physical Description:

xii, 283 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Manchester ; New York : Manchester University Press ; New York, NY : Palgrave, [2007]

Summary:

The description of South Africa as a 'rainbow nation' has always been taken to embrace the black, brown and white peoples who constitute its population. But each of these groups can be sub-divided, and in the white case the Scots have made one of the most distinctive contributions to the country's history. The Scots, as in North America and Australasia, constituted an important element in the patterns of white settlement. They were already present in the area of Dutch East India Company rule and, after the first British occupation of the Cape in 1795, their numbers rose dramatically. They were exceptionally active in such areas as exploration, botanical and scientific endeavour, military campaigns, the emergence of Christian missions. Western education, intellectual institutions, the professions, as well as enterprise and technical developments, business, commerce and journalism.

This book is the first full-length study of their role from the eighteenth to twentieth centuries. It highlights the interaction of Scots with African peoples, the manner in which missions and schools were credited with producing 'black Scotsmen' and the ways in which they pursued many distinctive policies. It also deals with the inter-weaving of issues of gender, class and race as well as with the means by which Scots clung to their ethnicity through founding various social and cultural societies. This book offers a major contribution to both Scottish and South African history and in the process illuminates a significant field of the Scottish diaspora that has so far received little attention.

Contents:

1 Introduction: imperialism and identities 1

Scots and empire 4

Scots, Scottish identity, Scotland and southern Africa 9

2 The Scots presence at the Cape 29

The travelling Scot 29

Prominent Scots in the British occupations 37

The Moodie settlement 39

The 1820 settlement 48

3 Radicals, evangelicals, the Scottish Enlightenment and Cape Colonial autocracy 64

How many Scots? 65

Somerset and the 'Scotch Independents' 66

Greig and the dissemination of the press 74

Reform and Emancipation 76

Fairbairn: commerce, finance and education 79

Representative government 81

Intellectual and scientific institutions 84

4 Scots missions and the frontier 94

The military frontier 96

The missionary frontier 99

Scots missionaries: politics, land and war 106

Mission education: the Lovedale and Blythswood Institutions 109

Lovedale and medical mission 115

African ministers 116

Scots women on the frontier 118

Natal and the Gordon Memorial Mission 120

5 Continuing migration to Natal, the Cape and the Transvaal 135

Migration to Natal 135

Byrne and other settlements 138

Success stories 144

Ne'er-do-wells 148

Women and entrepreneurship 149

White population and later settlements 149

Immigration to the Cape 156

New Scotland 157

South Africa and the migration boom 161

6 Professionals: the Church and education 169

The Church 170

Education 183

7 The professionals: the environment, medicine, business and radicals 204

Scots and the environment 204

Medicine 216

Business 223

Radicals 228

8 Maintaining Scots identity 240

Caledonian and other Scottish societies 242

The South African Scot 248

The South African 'Scottish' regiments 252

Scotland and South African 'Scottishness' 258.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780719076084

0719076080

OCLC:

144227193