Scottish DNA/ Scottish slavery

Most people think that the people in scotland have mostly Scots, Celtic, Viking, and Irish blood, that is not true. Scotland apparently is one of the most diverse places on earth. There is a huge gene pool in Scotland! There is African, Arabian, south-east Asian and Siberian ancestry in Scotland! A bunch of scientists tested DNA to determine a genetic root of Scottish people. What they found is that there is 100 different groups of male ancestry from across Europe and other places, and more than 150 different types of female DNA from Europe, Asia and Africa. Isn't that cool?? That means that people all over the world came to Scotland. Maybe they took journeys, and decided Scotland was the end of their journey (since they can't exactly travel further), or maybe because of the slave trade. It makes me curious, do I have African or asian blood in me somewhere? Do I have an ancester that was a slave?

What is funny about thinking that someone in my family tree was once a slave, is that I already think that. I am Catholic, and I've heard the story of moses getting the people out of egypt, and it always says to treat strangers and slaves well because your people were once slaves, and strangers in a strange land. Though my family was probably not jewish during that time, I've always felt a part of that story. There are tons of songs about how Scotland hates slavery, like "slaves lament" by burns or "Scots wha hae" when it says "See approach proud Edward's power -Chains and slavery" and "Who's so base as be a slave? -Let him turn, and flee."
 slaves lament

While we are on the subject of slavery, did you know that alot of white scottish people were sent to colonial america as slaves? The judges of Edinburgh Scotland during the years 1662-1665 ordered the enslavement and shipment to the colonies a large number of rogues and others who made life unpleasant for the British upper class.The early ancestors of the Scots, Alba and Pics were enslaved as early as the first century BC. Varro, a Roman philosopher stated in his agricultural manuscripts that white slaves were only things with a voice or instrumenti vocali. Julius Caesar enslaves as many as one million whites from Gaul. According to these resources, Scots-Irish have been enslaved longer than any other race in the world’s history. Most governments do not teach White Slavery in their World History classes, I know I never have before. Children of modern times are only taught about the African slave trade, which I don't think is fair. If you only learn about african slavery, then african children start to think that they were the only ones ever to have their ancestors enslaved, so of course that would distrub them, it might make them think their race is inferior. It might even make them hate people for being white.

Anyway, I got a little off topic with all these things, back to genetics. They found that 1% of all Scotsmen are direct descendants of the Berber and Tuareg tribesmen of the Sahara, a lineage which is around 5600 years old. Image that, alot of Scottish people are actually african. I guess if you believe that every human started from Africa then that isn't too much of a surprise, but it blows my mind!

With all this talk about Scottish people having african DNA, it makes you wonder where all these people came from. There is a legend that the people of Scotland came from egypt (considering their DNA, maybe its true!) According to the legend, King Tutankhamen's half-sister, Princess Scota, fell out with her family and fled to Ireland and then Scotland, thereby giving the country its name. Some say the alignment of the Lamb and two nearby islands closely mirrors the layout of the pyramids at Giza, near Cairo, not to mention the three main stars in the Orion's Belt constellation.

Other legends say that she sailed from Egypt to Ireland with her sons and an army, intent on avenging the death of her husband who had been killed at the hands of the Irish. She died on Irish soil and is said to be entombed in Gleann Scoithin, Kerry (now Foley’s Glen). Some time later a group from Ireland called Scotis sailed north, settling in what became known as Scotland, keeping their name with them. The discovery of two Egyptian sailing ships in a Yorkshire Estuary, dating to around 1400 BC supports this theory, as do other archaeological findings in Scotland, including Egyptian faience beads dating from the same period. There are actually alot of stories about egypt, scotland, and their migrations, but I can't be sure which one is used the most until I do more research.

Royal Stewart DNA was confirmed in 15% of male participants with the Stewart surname. They are directly descended from the royal line of kings. Scientists believe comedian and presenter Fred MacAuley's ancestors were slaves, sold at the great slave market in Dublin in the 9th Century.They said MacAuley's slave ancestor was taken by ship to the Hebrides and had an affair with his owner's wife, thereby intruding DNA into the MacAulay line.

This discovery could change Scotlands history! Until recently, it had been believed that farming arrived incrementally in Scotland, around 3,000 years ago, by a process of slow and gradual adoption, by women, of new techniques. But their recent DNA research suggests that it arrived quickly via young male immigrants from what is now Germany.These young men, brought new techniques with them, planting grass-derived crops that could be turned into porridge and fed to young children. This new improved food production reduced the period, that the hunter-gatherer mothers had to devote to breast-feeding, and thus increased their fertility. This led to a population explosion. That shocks me, who would have thought that porridge helped the people of Scotland become numerous and the people they are.



"It was in sweet Senegal that my foes did me enthral,
For the lands of Virginia,-ginia, O:
Torn from that lovely shore, and must never see it more;
And alas! I am weary, weary O:"
(slaves lament)

--JSparrow