National Galleries 'historically illiterate' over Burns slavery links

In 1786 and facing financial ruin, Burns accepted a job on a sugar plantation in Jamaica as a bookkeeper.

However, the success of his first anthology of poetry drove him to Edinburgh rather than the Caribbean and he did not take up the post.

Slavery – and abolition – later became a theme of some of his work, including The Slave’s Lament, published in 1792. 

A spokeswoman for National Galleries said online and gallery content was continually being developed as part of its "commitment to equality, diversion and inclusion."

Professor Sir Tom Devine said the decision to "name and shame" Burns marred the Galleries' reputation and said its leaders were guilty of the "gross intellectual sin of anachronism" of judging our ancestors by present standards.

READ MORE: Kevin McKenna: Rescuing Burns from the Scottish enlightment

"This is yet another ludicrous example of the effect of the bandwagon currently rolling to damn all famous Scots and others of the eighteenth century who are suspected of having any connections with slavery, no matter how tenuous that was," said Prof Devine.

"Burns's interest in taking employment in a West Indies slave plantation has been known in the public domain for many years. Why therefore the interest now in publicising that fact?

"Burns now apparently joins David Hume, our greatest ever philosopher, in that unenviable list.

"This is a cult of propaganda not of history.

"Are the NG and management and curatorial staff historically illiterate?

READ MORE: Rare first edition Burns book on display after being saved from destruction 

"If not, how can they possibly justify imposing 21st century values on a society in the past with a different mindset and morality.

"They are guilty of the gross intellectual sin of anachronism, judging our ancestors by our present standards.

"This would guarantee failure in any first-year undergraduate history essay in which it featured.

"Do the staff of NGS therefore  need some remedial education in historical methodology?"

In 1786, Burns was a broken man, both financially and emotionally, following the death of his father and the poor offerings of the family smallholding in Ayrshire. His own health was also weakening.

The father of his lover Jean Armour was also threatening to have him arrested and forced into supporting the illegitimate children.

Burns bought a ticket for the voyage following the publication of his first ‘Kilmarnock’ poems, but the success of the publication kept him on Scottish shores.

"The entire Scottish nation of the time not simply a tiny number of well-known figures, benefited directly or indirectly from the markets and profits from the trades of tobacco, sugar, and cotton," said Prof Devine.

READ MORE: 'Rare' restaurant project with links to Robert Burns up for auction  

"Their ‘crime’ was to be born into a white world where the enslavement of black people in the colonies was still universally accepted and the abolitionist  movement which eventually ended their torments remained in its infancy."

He said that Burns would "almost certainly" have believed in racial equality towards the end of his life.

"By the end of the 1780s, the abolitionist movement had started but it was not very important or influential," said Prof Devine.

"As time went on it became increasingly influential and I'm certain by the time he died, Burns would have been a committed and determined abolitionist as so many Scots became."

Last year Edinburgh City Council apologised for its past role in slavery and colonialism but stopped short of any intervention over its statues.

The apology was the result of an action plan from the Edinburgh Slavery and Colonialism Legacy Review Group which made 10 recommendations after studying the city's history.

The review group was set up in 2020 in response to the Black Lives Matter movement.

Edinburgh's apology follows a similar move by Glasgow in March, while other UK cities such as Liverpool and London have also issued formal apologies.

As a young scholar in his twenties in the 1970s Sir Tom Devine argued in his seminal publications on the tobacco lords, West India merchants and Scottish Atlantic trades, and against the prevailing academic orthodoxy at the time, that these factors were fundamental to triggering  Scotland’s national economic development.

This pioneering analysis has now been accepted for some time as today’s conventional wisdom on this important insight into our past.

A spokeswoman for the National Galleries said: "The National Galleries of Scotland is reviewing the information we hold about the national art collection. 

"This is part of our core research purpose as well as our commitments to equality, diversion and inclusion.

"This review explores the previous ownership of artworks, artists, their subject matter, sitters depicted and existing interpretation.

"It considers the experiences of people of diverse backgrounds and issues that impact upon them. 

"It also includes colonialism, slavery and their legacies. Building on ongoing activity in this area, new and additional content is continually being developed in-gallery and online."

The portrait of Burns, framed within an oval, has become the most well-known and widely reproduced image of the famous Scottish poet. 

Alexander Nasmyth's painting, commissioned by the publisher William Creech, was to be engraved for a new edition of Burns' poems.

Burns and Nasmyth had become good friends, having been introduced to one another in Edinburgh by a mutual patron, Patrick Miller of Dalswinton. 

Nasmyth, pleased to have recorded Burns' likeness convincingly, decided to leave the painting in a slightly unfinished state.