In Blood Legacy, journalist Alex Renton sets out to examine his Scottish family connections with the West Indies. However, both authors also attempt to illuminate elements of the lives of the enslaved. The two books under review here give considerable attention to aspects of the Scottish (predominantly male) engagement with slavery in the Caribbean. Mostly, however, current research has been aimed at unearthing the Scottish networks of individuals and businesses, assessing the economic impact of transatlantic slavery on Scotland, and examining legacies. Such appeal has occasionally sparked considerable debate, as with the controversy over the Henry Dundas monument in Edinburgh (see my own contributions to the May and August 2022 issues of Scottish Affairs). In recent years, interest in Scotland’s involvement in transatlantic slavery has emerged as a key area of concern among academics, activists, and the public (see, for example, T.M. Devine, Recovering Scotland’s Slavery Past ). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2021. & David Alston, Slaves and Highlanders: Silenced Histories of Scotland and the Caribbean. Alex Renton, Blood Legacy: Reckoning with a Family’s Story of Slavery.
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