ABSTRACT
Alexander MacKenzie was a Scots historian and politician who campaigned on behalf of the crofters of the Highlands and islands. These were small-scale arable farmers, many of whom had been displaced in what were known as the Highland Clearances. The History of the Highland Clearances was first published in 1883; this second edition came out posthumously and it has remained a preeminent historical source on this subject ever since. The motives of the landlords, generally led by southern factors worse than themselves, were, in most cases, pure self-interest, and they pursued their policy of extermination with a recklessness and remorselessness unparalleled anywhere else where the Gospel of peace and charity was preached – except, perhaps, unhappy Ireland. Generally, law and justice, religion and humanity, were either totally disregarded, or, what was worse, in many cases converted into and applied as instruments of oppression.
