By an amazing piece of good luck the Aberdeen branch
of the Wallace Must Fall Campaign has discovered a hitherto unknown letter
between William Wallace and Robert the Bruce. One of the problems of medieval
history is that so few contemporary sources survive. We are forced to rely
frequently on Blind Harry whose reliability as a witness is hindered not merely
by him being blind, but more importantly by the fact that he lived some
hundreds of years after the events he describes. But finally we have a
contemporary source which provides us with insight into the mind of Wallace and
the motivations for his actions.
In time it is hoped that a full facsimile of the
letter will be published, but for the moment it is necessary to rely on a
summary. In the letter Wallace expresses his concern about his serfs and
expresses his fears about the malign influence of Magna Carta (1215) spreading
to Scotland. With wonderful insight into the future Wallace foresees that
limiting the rights of the English barons will limit the power of the English
king. He realises that ultimately it is bound to lead to a peasants’ revolt and
with it the end of serfdom. In order to maintain the rights of the nobility in
Scotland, Wallace concludes, it is necessary to fight the English who otherwise
will bring with them emancipation.
The Wallace Must Fall Campaign already knew that
both Wallace and Bruce were slaveholders. Every member of the nobility in
Scotland owned serfs, which is of course another word for slave. What was
unknown until now was that the motivation of Wallace in fighting for “freedom”
was to maintain the slavery of those serfs that he owned.
It is clearly unacceptable to have statues of
slaveholders, especially when they fought a war of independence precisely in
order to maintain the bondage of these slaves. It is for this reason that the
Aberdeen branch of the Wallace Must Fall Campaign proposes to put a rope around
the neck of the statue of William Wallace and pull it down.
Meanwhile the Aberdeen branch of the Bonnie Prince
Charlie Must Fall Campaign has discovered a hitherto unknown letter in which he
expresses admiration for the fact that there is still serfdom in Scotland. In
fact there were Scottish serfs until 1799. Charles Edward describes this as
just one of the many reasons for why he wants aims to get his father’s kingdom
back. He likewise expresses his disdain for the so called “glorious” revolution
of 1688 and the Bill of Rights that came with it in 1689. Once more the
dreadful Magna Carta codified into law along with other malign documents such
as the Petition of Right (1628) and the Habeas Corpus Act (1679) seeks to limit
the rights of Scottish kings and nobles. This must be resisted in the name of
FREEEEEDOM. All of these attempts to restrict the divine right of the Bonnie
Prince are intolerable. He goes on to express his admiration for the Clan
system (i.e. feudalism) whereby members of the clan must work for the chief without pay. Charles
Edward describes how he hopes to spread this system of bondage throughout his
father’s kingdom. What works so well in Ballachulish ought to work still better
in Bedford. Think of the costs saved when the kingdom had no need to pay wages.
The Aberdeen Branch of the Bonnie Prince Charlie
Must Fall Campaign thinks it is disgraceful that modern Scottish nationalists
call themselves after the 1745 campaign to bring slavery to Britain.
Unfortunately there is no statue of Charles Edward Stuart in Aberdeen, but it
is prosed to erect such a statue for the purpose of then toppling it.
Meanwhile the Aberdeen branch of the Robert Burns
Must Fall Campaign have discovered a letter which adds to what we already know
about the poet’s intention of working on a slave plantation in Jamaica. The
hypocrisy of Burns is fully shown. While he was willing to write The Slave's
Lament he had less than enlightened views about black people and used words
about them that would see him condemned by any right thinking person in the
world today. It is clearly unacceptable to have a statue of someone who wished
to earn his wages on the back of slaves. Luckily there is such a statue of
Robert Burns in Aberdeen so it will be unnecessary to erect one before tearing
it down.
The Aberdeen branches of the Wallace, Bonnie Prince
Charlie, and Burns Must Fall Campaigns are looking to further their work of
ridding Aberdeen of all monuments to anyone who in any way is unworthy of being
looked at. It would greatly appreciate suggestions of any other monument that should be torn down. With luck our campaign will spread and in time there will be
no unsuitable monuments at all in Aberdeen and then if others follow this
example no more such monuments in Scotland. Today Aberdeen, Tomorrow the world!
