Burning Questions

All this current hysteria involving the vandalising and demolishing statues of historic  individuals in various countries because of a tragic, nasty event in America that some consider to be the direct legacy of racism and slavery is worrying to all with a passion for history.  *

There is a desperate need to stop judging our ancestors through modern eyes and to recognise the past is a different country that can never be changed, but must be acknowledged. We all have ancestors who were slaves in some form - serfs, peasants, indentured labourers - as well as more privileged others such as farmers, landholders and merchants who owned or controlled them. 

Removing offending images from sight and memory will never solve current problems. If anything, people should have reminders of the wrongs of the past in order to strive for right in the present. 

History abounds with conundrums of moral conscience. A century from now, the principles and truths we hold dear may shock and horrify our descendants and memorials to our current heroes could cause some new and as yet unimagined offence. 

Thinking of examples of other distasteful monuments, I am reminded of a visit some years ago to St Nicholas Buccleuch Church in Dalkeith, Scotland, when I stood in front of an ornate and impressive wall-mounted edifice to a minister of the church that was erected by his family in his memory. The flowery Latin description indicated that he had been a venerated individual; a loved father and respected pastor of his parish for more than twenty years from the mid 17th Century.

But when I read the leaflet provided about the Church, I was horrified. Reverend William Calderwood was revered because he personally undertook the investigation, torture and condemnation of 60 local women for witchcraft and who were subsequently burned at the stake.

During his tenure as minister, trials were held weekly at Dalkeith and his partner in this "witch-pricking" was the local headmaster: two educated men from whom one would have expected enlightenment but instead they were involved in this most macabre and cruel practice. 

In his life and times, Calderwood was considered a good man for doggedly searching out what he thought were the bad elements in his society, the "Devil's spawn", and doing away with them. For this, he received the esteem of his community much as we give out medals and awards today.

(This image comes from the church leaflet and it is difficult to find any others online, my personal photos being too dark to reproduce. Perhaps being well aware of the unpleasant history behind the Calderwood memorial, the church's governing body prefers it remains low-key.)

So - if one believes that monuments celebrating historic individuals who did offensive, cruel or wicked things should be desecrated or removed from public sight, then every single statue, effigy and plaque in every historic setting needs to be examined. Who is going to decide what goes and what does not? It is a ludicrous idea not far removed from book-burning and destruction of archives undertaken by many dictatorships. 

Edinburgh Witch Burning

Germany Book Burning

There are no images of Calderwood himself to be found, but it also worth noting that the paranoia against witches in Scotland was initiated at the highest level by King James VI (later to be King James I of England).  It was he who gave free rein to men like William Calderwood, encouraging them to do their best in ridding his country of witches.

King James VI (James I) can be seen in several places - there are effigies at the Bodleian Library in Oxford and at Trinity College, Cambridge, as well as in the grounds of Glamis Castle, childhood home of the late Queen Mother.

It is doubtful anyone is going to deface or pull them down anytime soon because of the hundreds of innocent women and men who died horrific deaths as a result of his own phobia.

King James VI of Scotland and I of England
Glamis Castle, Scotland

Witches Well Memorial -
site where witches were executed outside
Edinburgh Castle, Scotland
(Atlas Obscura)

The Daemonolgie, written by King James VI/James I.

Map of Scotland showing where witches were tried and/or executed. Lists 45 names in Dalkeith alone and includes a number of men.

Database of nearly 4,000 individuals in Scotland accused of witchcraft.


* It is often overlooked that many African slaves sent to the Americas were the victims of their own race when warring or rival tribes captured them and transported them for sale to the Europeans at the coast. The Arabs perpetuated this shocking trade until well into the 20th Century (see my earlier blog on the home for slaves in Cairo.)