A few years ago I read a novel by Ken Follet entitled "A Place Called Freedom"; the story was set in a Scottish Highland village in the 1840's, and the storyline covered the enslavement of coalminers, the effects of the patronage, approved by Parliament in 1712, which gave wealthy landowners the right to select and appoint the ministers of their choice to the churches of the Church of Scotland; and the Disruption of the Church of Scotland in 1843.

The novel described how, at the baptism of the children of the miners in the church, the Mine Owners could buy them into slavery by a system called the payment of "Arles" which entailed the parents accepting a purse containing ten pounds sterling.

The story went on to describe a miner who absconded from his owners, and upon his capture and return to his master, had a metal collar affixed to his neck, stating his name and the advice that he was the property of his master!

In that great Glasgow history by C.A. Oakley of the University of Glasgow, "The Second City", I found these sparse words about the subject:-  "Miners and other colliery workers were practically serfs, being "thirled" for life by Acts, passed in the seventeenth century, to the mine in which they worked.  A collar was riveted to the miner's neck, stating the name of his mine-owner".

In 1764 in Glasgow, civil court proceedings were set in motion to decide whether a mine-owner, who had sold his mine, was entitled to take his colliers with him to his other works.  The new owner argued that the colliers were part and parcel of the mine he had bought.

The Glasgow court found in favour of the outgoing owner.

However, the judgement of the lower court was reversed upon appeal to the Court of Sessions.  In effect, they were saying, that the men, women and children who mined the coal were part of the fixtures and fittings.

In the 19th century, a brass collar with the inscription "1701. Alexander Stewart, property of Sir John Stewart." was dredged from the bottom of the Firth of Forth and lodged in an Edinburgh museum.

A recorded Court case on 05 Dec 1701 advises that one Alexander Stewart was found guilty of theft at Perth and condemned to hang.

His sentence was commuted and he was given to Sir John Stewart to work in his coal mine as a "perpetual servant" for life, and around his neck was bolted a brass collar inscribed "1701. Alexander Stewart, property of Sir John Stewart".  Did Alexander Stewart end his bondage by drowning himself (or was it a failed escape attempt)?

The oldest archival record of coal-mining in Scotland, is a charter of 1219 for Newbattle Abbey, which granted the monks the right to mine coal at Musselburgh, but the onerous, dirty labour of digging the coal was undertaken by peasants, who worked as serfs under monastic rule.

In Scotland, serfdom was supposedly ended during the 15th century, but for colliers was re-introduced in the earlier part of the 1600's as they were classed as "necessary servants" and any person who worked in a colliery were considered as part of the estate, on which the mine was located.

The power of an owner over his slaves was total. An enslaved miner could be imprisoned at any time if a freeman swore a charge against him or her.  Any evidence he might wish to offer in court was denied.  He could not seek other employment, if he absconded he could be apprehended and returned to his master, and officers of the law were enlisted to capture and return him.

In 1824 an Act of Parliament was passed, relating to the miners in Scotland, and the purpose of the Act was to "explain and amend the Laws relating to colliers in that part of Great Britain called Scotland."

All Scottish colliers were to be free from servitude and were now subject to the same legislation that governed other workers in the country.  To the mine owners, the colliers were no longer classed as "necessary savants" and now they became a "necessary evil."

Many of those miners who had gained their freedom still worked in the coalmines, still doing back-breaking work for up to 16 hours a day -they were only slighter better off, than their former slavery, with a scanty living.

To increase his income, the miner took his wife and children down the mine to work beside him.  Long hours, dusty conditions, bad air and failing health made their lives miserable, and now the mine owners had a new weapon to cow his employees -the fear of dismissal.

The coal and iron-masters owned the Rows-the housing occupied by their employees-and on the Rows there were always a store and public house, where the owners recovered at inflated prices, the money paid in wages to their employees.

This eventually led to the Truck Act of 1831, which required that employers had to pay their wages in cash -not "kind."  And an Act of 1842 forbade the practice of paying wages in a public house.

Certainly, in 1774, and again in 1775, Acts of Parliament took the first official steps to dissolve the bondage of miners, but these were so riddled with "Catch 24" clauses as to be ineffective in many situations.

It could be argued effectively about the treatment meted out to the black slaves in America, that they were - all other things being equal -probably better treated, with less harsh working conditions than the Scottish slaves.

In the main, American slave-owners were reasonably benevolent towards their slaves, and the slaves were better fed and looked after, they worked hard in the open air under a warm sun.

The Scottish collier slave cost his owner little or nothing, he was not fed or housed by his master.  He toiled long hours down the pit, in poor conditions which were a constant hazard to his health.  In many cases the pit was his home, and he slept there also.

A knight of the realm viewed the barbarity of the miner's working life by observing: "there appears nothing repugnant to Christianity or reason in this system."

This is the way back to the Main page.

This site is designed and maintained by Jezzmo©
Copyright © 1999 Colleen Cahoon. All rights reserved. Images and content on this domain may not be reproduced or used in any fashion without express written permission from the owner.