Tour Scotland photographs and videos from my tours of Scotland. Photography and videography, both old and new, from beautiful Scotland, Scottish castles, seascapes, rivers, islands, landscapes, standing stones, lochs and glens.
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Tour Scotland Road Of Tears Video
Tour Scotland Road Of Tears Video. This song is about forced emigration from Scotland. The Battlefield Band was founded in Glasgow in 1969.
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
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They came at dawn from out the darkness
Swords and torches in their hands
They said it was the chieftains orders
Clear the hillsides and the glens
No more we'd smell the broom and the heather
Share the bannock with our kin
Be laid to rest beside our fathers
It almost broke our hearts and minds
To board the ship, the ship of tears
To board the ship, the ship of tears
We crossed the sea to flee the hunger
Wasted rags of skin and bone
The fields we left were black and barren
A ravaged land no longer home
The coffin ships were filled with mourning
We'd one last look back to the land
The quiet men, the women keening
It almost broke our hearts and minds
To leave the fields. the fields of tears
To leave the fields, the fields of tears
They came in floods in covered wagons
Drove across our ancient lands
They said to scorn our elders wisdom
Take the path their lord commands
They stole our hills, they stole our rivers
The mother earth with whom we're joined
They lead us from our spirit fathers
It almost broke our hearts and minds
To walk the trail, the trail of tears
To walk the trail, the trail of tears
They came in hordes across the desert
Storms of dust that sear the skin
They said they'd come from our oppressor
They would make a meal of him
They said that we would earn our freedom
And come to see their way is right
But still we weep and we are bleeding
They have not won our hearts and minds
We're on the road, the road of tears
We're on the road, the road of tears
It never ends the road of tears, the road of tears,
the road of tears.
Why stop at the clearances?
ReplyDeleteNow that there are so many documents online, I've been investigating my family's Scottish history, only to find that my ancestors, who fought on the side of Robert the Bruce, were dispossessed of their lands in Fife when James the IV decided to give it to a Norman, Ayton.
They weren't poor, at least not until this point. Their name name appears on the Ragman Roll, 1296, as landowners in Fife, Dundemor. Today, there's probably narry a Dunsmore left in Scotland.
Scotland has a bloody history, rife with betrayal. Many of its more loyal and ancient peoples have long since left the country.