0:00:06 > 0:00:08Culloden.
0:00:08 > 0:00:11In Scotland, no other name casts such a long shadow.
0:00:11 > 0:00:15The Jacobites' failure to restore Bonnie Prince Charlie
0:00:15 > 0:00:18to the British throne in 1746 was a catastrophe.
0:00:18 > 0:00:22While the rest of Britain now saw Scots as hated traitors,
0:00:22 > 0:00:26the defeat had left Scotland divided and bankrupt.
0:00:26 > 0:00:29But there was another less well-known Culloden,
0:00:29 > 0:00:31here in Jamaica.
0:00:31 > 0:00:34This beautiful place was once a sugar plantation.
0:00:34 > 0:00:37Many of them round here were owned by Jacobites
0:00:37 > 0:00:39who'd fled Scotland after their final defeat.
0:00:39 > 0:00:44But why travel all this way to re-invent yourself in a new life,
0:00:44 > 0:00:48while carrying with you all the baggage of the old one?
0:00:48 > 0:00:51Because the very name Culloden was to be a bloody reminder
0:00:51 > 0:00:55that they must never again allow themselves to be so humiliated.
0:01:00 > 0:01:05But rather than dwell on defeat, on the Britain that might have been,
0:01:05 > 0:01:08the exiled Jacobites started afresh.
0:01:08 > 0:01:12Jamaica was a land rich in resources, waiting to be exploited.
0:01:12 > 0:01:16From halfway across the world they helped rebuild Scotland,
0:01:16 > 0:01:19injecting it with wealth and new possibilities.
0:01:21 > 0:01:25It was the dawn of a new era, when Scotland made her mark on the world
0:01:25 > 0:01:30by exporting her most valuable commodities - her people and ideas.
0:01:30 > 0:01:33Ideas that would help start a revolution.
0:02:23 > 0:02:25After Culloden, there was chaos.
0:02:26 > 0:02:2917-year-old Jacobite John Wedderburn
0:02:29 > 0:02:32had been lucky to escape the battle with his life,
0:02:32 > 0:02:36but his father had been captured, his lands seized and sentenced to hang.
0:02:36 > 0:02:39Now young Wedderburn was on the run.
0:02:41 > 0:02:47He needed money, and he needed to disappear, fast.
0:02:52 > 0:02:55Dodging spies, sleeping in hedges, half-starved,
0:02:55 > 0:02:57Wedderburn found his way to Glasgow.
0:02:57 > 0:03:01There, he boarded a ship, destined for the Colonies.
0:03:04 > 0:03:08Young John Wedderburn's world had been turned upside down.
0:03:08 > 0:03:11A trip like this would've been terrifying for a boy who, after all,
0:03:11 > 0:03:14had spent his whole life living in Scotland.
0:03:14 > 0:03:19And even supposing he survived the harsh voyage, who knew where he would end up?
0:03:44 > 0:03:49After months at sea, John Wedderburn arrived here, in Jamaica.
0:03:53 > 0:03:57To Wedderburn, it must have seemed fierce and strange.
0:03:57 > 0:04:01Men as black as the earth working in fields filled with giant plants,
0:04:01 > 0:04:03the place splitting with heat.
0:04:06 > 0:04:11In spite of its otherworldliness, it was a British colony, a place
0:04:11 > 0:04:15where a young man with energy and enterprise could re-invent himself.
0:04:21 > 0:04:23But what as?
0:04:25 > 0:04:28As John Wedderburn was searching for his future abroad,
0:04:28 > 0:04:31another young Scot was hoping to find it at home.
0:04:34 > 0:04:39Adam Smith had been studying in England and missed the upheaval of the Jacobite rebellion.
0:04:39 > 0:04:44As the dust settled, he returned to a country at a crossroads.
0:04:47 > 0:04:51To many Scots, the past was a dark place.
0:04:51 > 0:04:56It was time to start again. This was the dawn of a modern age,
0:04:56 > 0:05:00an age that was ready to embrace new ideas and a new philosophy.
0:05:01 > 0:05:05From childhood, Adam Smith had questioned everything around him,
0:05:05 > 0:05:08even the existence of God.
0:05:08 > 0:05:15Now he was determined to make his mark in this new Scotland, as an academic.
0:05:15 > 0:05:18Rejecting Christianity as a student at Oxford,
0:05:18 > 0:05:22Smith set out to better understand human behaviour
0:05:22 > 0:05:26and how it impacted upon the codes and laws which governed society.
0:05:26 > 0:05:29At the time, it was radical, almost taboo.
0:05:32 > 0:05:36Smith argued that if God was removed from our understanding of the world,
0:05:36 > 0:05:39man's true nature would be revealed.
0:05:41 > 0:05:47He said that man's fundamental drive was not to please God, but to please himself,
0:05:47 > 0:05:52and, controversially, that this invisible hand of self-interest
0:05:52 > 0:05:55was what made for a healthy, productive society.
0:05:59 > 0:06:03The ideas contained in his lectures threatened to blow apart a world
0:06:03 > 0:06:06that had always been dominated by God.
0:06:11 > 0:06:16But just as Smith's reputation began to spread, something happened
0:06:16 > 0:06:20that would change both Smith's and Scotland's future forever.
0:06:20 > 0:06:23Europe's first World War.
0:06:26 > 0:06:31In 1756, a global war broke out, over trade.
0:06:31 > 0:06:35Until then, trading with colonies in America, Canada and the Caribbean
0:06:35 > 0:06:37had been a free-for-all,
0:06:37 > 0:06:40but with so many valuable resources at stake,
0:06:40 > 0:06:43Europe's leading powers fought to take control.
0:06:43 > 0:06:47The war lasted seven years and a million lives were lost,
0:06:47 > 0:06:51but eventually Britain prevailed, securing a trading empire
0:06:51 > 0:06:54that stretched across the Atlantic for a century to come.
0:07:04 > 0:07:07The British victory made a huge impact on
0:07:07 > 0:07:11one element of Scottish society - Glasgow's tobacco merchants.
0:07:13 > 0:07:15Suddenly the Colonies had opened up
0:07:15 > 0:07:18and the River Clyde was their gateway to the West.
0:07:25 > 0:07:31The Glasgow merchants rapidly became the wealthiest and most successful businessmen in Britain,
0:07:31 > 0:07:38outstripping their rivals in London and Bristol and gaining 50% of the world trade in tobacco.
0:07:38 > 0:07:42With their uniform of gold-topped canes and scarlet frock coats,
0:07:42 > 0:07:47they announced their presence as the country's first self-made men.
0:07:51 > 0:07:55These Tobacco Lords fascinated Adam Smith.
0:07:55 > 0:07:58They seemed to embody his ideas.
0:08:00 > 0:08:03They were the selfish, self-interested men
0:08:03 > 0:08:06he believed would benefit society.
0:08:09 > 0:08:12It seemed that the wealth created by these men
0:08:12 > 0:08:16was the key to generating improvement and progress in society.
0:08:16 > 0:08:20But Smith wanted to get closer. He wanted to learn
0:08:20 > 0:08:23precisely how these men made their money and how they spent it.
0:08:29 > 0:08:34You can imagine Adam Smith down here at the docks, watching all the frenzied activity.
0:08:34 > 0:08:38This was his first real experience of big business -
0:08:38 > 0:08:41a huge labour force pulling together to unload the ships,
0:08:41 > 0:08:44heaving barrels, hauling on fresh supplies.
0:08:44 > 0:08:50After the secluded cloisters of the university, the atmosphere here must have been overwhelming.
0:08:55 > 0:08:58For Smith, there would have been a resonance to this scene.
0:08:58 > 0:09:03Because it wasn't his first experience of seeing seafaring entrepreneurs.
0:09:06 > 0:09:11Smith had grown up in Kirkcaldy in Fife, where smuggling was rampant.
0:09:11 > 0:09:14His father was the local Customs officer,
0:09:14 > 0:09:17and had fought a losing battle against the smugglers
0:09:17 > 0:09:21who found ever more ingenious ways to evade the law.
0:09:21 > 0:09:24Adam Smith was left with the feeling that his father's interventions
0:09:24 > 0:09:29had been pointless, that nothing can stand in the way of self-interest.
0:09:29 > 0:09:32Making money was man's natural instinct.
0:09:34 > 0:09:38After observing the Glasgow merchants' trading empires at first hand,
0:09:38 > 0:09:42Smith concluded that what drove their ambition to succeed in business
0:09:42 > 0:09:47was an insatiable, stop-at-nothing desire to turn a profit.
0:09:47 > 0:09:49And he admired them for it.
0:09:54 > 0:09:58On the other side of the world, in Jamaica, Scottish entrepreneurs
0:09:58 > 0:10:01were also getting rich, John Wedderburn amongst them.
0:10:05 > 0:10:09It didn't take long for the Jacobite runaway to find his way.
0:10:09 > 0:10:13He settled here in the west of Jamaica near Montego Bay,
0:10:13 > 0:10:19and quickly set about finding the occupation that would make him his fortune - sugar.
0:10:23 > 0:10:27Running a sugar plantation was not a job for the faint-hearted,
0:10:27 > 0:10:31but before long Wedderburn was expanding his estates
0:10:31 > 0:10:34and amassing huge profits.
0:10:51 > 0:10:55John Wedderburn's estate lay just a few miles from the town of Culloden
0:10:55 > 0:10:58so he would regularly have passed this way.
0:10:58 > 0:11:02Within a couple of decades, a name synonymous with defeat and division
0:11:02 > 0:11:06had come to mean something quite different for the Scots in Jamaica.
0:11:06 > 0:11:08Money was beginning to heal the wounds
0:11:08 > 0:11:11for many exiles like Wedderburn.
0:11:11 > 0:11:13Having fled halfway across the globe,
0:11:13 > 0:11:17he was starting to live the life he once hoped to inherit in Scotland.
0:11:17 > 0:11:22John Wedderburn was becoming a comfortable landed gentleman.
0:11:22 > 0:11:25Just what kind of money are we talking about?
0:11:25 > 0:11:27How rich could you get?
0:11:27 > 0:11:32John Wedderburn got to own ten properties,
0:11:32 > 0:11:34um,
0:11:34 > 0:11:39all totalling over 17,000 acres of land.
0:11:39 > 0:11:45Of the 168,000 acres of land which was returned...
0:11:45 > 0:11:48- He had 10%...- He had 10% of the land
0:11:48 > 0:11:51and he was the largest land-holder in that part of the world
0:11:51 > 0:11:56and could be seen as ranking as among the top five land-owners in this country.
0:11:56 > 0:11:58We have his will here,
0:11:58 > 0:12:03his will was probated and we have a copy at the Island Records Office.
0:12:03 > 0:12:12All his entire estate was valued at £300,000, Jamaican currency.
0:12:12 > 0:12:19In today's money, you are talking about £22 million sterling.
0:12:19 > 0:12:23That would be the value of their entire estate.
0:12:23 > 0:12:28- By any stretch of the imagination, he was a top dog.- He was. He was.
0:12:30 > 0:12:34As Scottish settlers were making inroads into the Caribbean,
0:12:34 > 0:12:38Glasgow tobacco merchants were building on their success in America.
0:12:38 > 0:12:41Their transatlantic operation was tightly controlled
0:12:41 > 0:12:46by three mafia-like families - the Glassfords, Spiers and Cunninghames.
0:12:52 > 0:12:54Their fleets of lightweight ships
0:12:54 > 0:12:58could cross the Atlantic faster than any vessel had done before.
0:13:01 > 0:13:06Young William Cunninghame was heir to one of the big Glasgow firms.
0:13:06 > 0:13:11His job was to supervise the speedy turnaround of his father's ships.
0:13:11 > 0:13:16Time was money, so as soon as the cargo was unloaded here in Virginia,
0:13:16 > 0:13:20the ship was sent back to Scotland packed with barrels of tobacco.
0:13:20 > 0:13:25Here in Chesapeake Bay, between 1750 and 1770, The Cunninghame
0:13:25 > 0:13:28docked twice a year, full of goods to sell to the planters.
0:13:28 > 0:13:33It was young William's job to get rid of as many leather-bottomed chairs, golf clubs, silver teapots,
0:13:33 > 0:13:38cream jugs and china plates as he could sell from the company store.
0:13:42 > 0:13:45The purpose of the stores was not just to make more money -
0:13:45 > 0:13:49they were a means to control the supply and price of tobacco.
0:13:49 > 0:13:52Cunninghame was expected to find and persuade
0:13:52 > 0:13:56even the smallest and most far-flung growers to sell their tobacco.
0:13:58 > 0:14:01Demand for tobacco in Europe was outstripping the supply,
0:14:01 > 0:14:07and Scots traders were out to find every last leaf.
0:14:07 > 0:14:11Young men like William were hand-picked by the elders back in Glasgow,
0:14:11 > 0:14:15because they had specific qualities or qualifications.
0:14:15 > 0:14:19They had to be single, so they could devote all of their energies to the business.
0:14:19 > 0:14:25They had to be likeable and trustworthy so they could ingratiate themselves with the local community.
0:14:25 > 0:14:30They were under constant pressure to expand the business and to raise profits.
0:14:30 > 0:14:34So above all else, they had to be ruthless.
0:14:42 > 0:14:47On the same day every year, the local price of tobacco was decided,
0:14:47 > 0:14:50usually at the county courthouse.
0:14:51 > 0:14:53It was the most important day of the year.
0:15:00 > 0:15:03All the local growers turned up, and a heated exchange ensued.
0:15:06 > 0:15:10A market price was set depending on how good the harvest had been
0:15:10 > 0:15:12and what the demand was from Europe.
0:15:13 > 0:15:16It was a gentleman's agreement
0:15:16 > 0:15:20that everyone should stick to this price, no matter what.
0:15:20 > 0:15:26But William Cunninghame's company didn't get get rich playing by the rules. They played dirty.
0:15:39 > 0:15:44Cunninghame was instructed to ignore the market price and deal with the farmers directly.
0:15:44 > 0:15:48The firm back in Glasgow encouraged him to offer credit to farmers
0:15:48 > 0:15:52who were otherwise paid only once a year, at harvest time.
0:15:52 > 0:15:57The credit could take the form of a loan, or it could be a choice of the goods just brought in from Scotland.
0:15:57 > 0:15:59But it was a deal with the devil.
0:15:59 > 0:16:03Having taken the loan or the goods, the farmers were shackled to the merchants,
0:16:03 > 0:16:08and at harvest time those merchants could demand whatever price they wanted for the tobacco.
0:16:08 > 0:16:11It was commerce without conscience.
0:16:13 > 0:16:15Cunninghame and Company did well -
0:16:15 > 0:16:21they managed to beat the farmers down to 20% less than the market price, using the lure of credit.
0:16:21 > 0:16:25But there would be a price to pay in the long run.
0:16:25 > 0:16:28The local economy began to falter as the tobacco growers
0:16:28 > 0:16:32sank further and further into unsustainable levels of debt.
0:16:32 > 0:16:37By the 1770s, the farmers of Virginia and Maryland
0:16:37 > 0:16:39owed Scottish merchants over £1 million.
0:16:42 > 0:16:47Scottish business was booming, but it was sucking America dry.
0:16:47 > 0:16:52The Scots traders were described by one American farmer as "vile weeds,
0:16:52 > 0:16:55"which if cut down grow more fiercely".
0:16:55 > 0:17:01In truth they were clannish, mafia-like, and they put profit before ethics.
0:17:01 > 0:17:03Adam Smith considered them perfect examples
0:17:03 > 0:17:06of the kind of self-interested capitalists
0:17:06 > 0:17:10he believed were vital to bring forth wealth and progress.
0:17:10 > 0:17:16Smith thought greed was good, and these men were nothing if not very, very greedy.
0:17:23 > 0:17:29By the 1760s, Glasgow was beginning to look very different...for some.
0:17:29 > 0:17:33Adam Smith watched as the merchants ploughed fortunes into great houses,
0:17:33 > 0:17:37and the Merchant Quarter became an exclusive community
0:17:37 > 0:17:38on the edge of the city.
0:17:52 > 0:17:56Not content that their mansions were the most expensive houses
0:17:56 > 0:17:59ever to be built in the city, they went further.
0:18:00 > 0:18:04They helped the local burgh to build this church, St Andrew's,
0:18:04 > 0:18:08which was modelled on St Martin in the Field in London.
0:18:15 > 0:18:20It perfectly sums up their showiness, their conspicuous wealth,
0:18:20 > 0:18:22and their self-serving aspirations.
0:18:28 > 0:18:33The balconies were mahogany, imported from Honduras on one of their ships.
0:18:44 > 0:18:46After just six years in Virginia,
0:18:46 > 0:18:49William Cunninghame returned from the New World to the Old.
0:18:49 > 0:18:54In his short time overseas, he had been promoted to running the entire Virginia operation.
0:18:54 > 0:18:57He had proved himself in that ruthless world
0:18:57 > 0:19:01and now he returned to Glasgow to join the ranks of older merchants
0:19:01 > 0:19:05and to oversee the family firm in considerably more comfort -
0:19:05 > 0:19:07from home.
0:19:21 > 0:19:24As Scotland's trading empire grew,
0:19:24 > 0:19:27so did the reputation of the Scottish Enlightenment.
0:19:27 > 0:19:31The control of the harsh and repressive Scottish Kirk was waning
0:19:31 > 0:19:35and now a generation of intellectuals made the study of
0:19:35 > 0:19:38human nature, not God, their new religion.
0:19:38 > 0:19:42They made waves which rippled all the way across the Atlantic to America.
0:19:42 > 0:19:46One of the Colonies' leading lights, Benjamin Franklin,
0:19:46 > 0:19:49was keen to meet these radical young thinkers.
0:19:49 > 0:19:52During a trip to Scotland, he got the chance.
0:19:54 > 0:19:58Franklin's father was English and he had lived on both sides of the Atlantic,
0:19:58 > 0:20:01so he was familiar with the politics and the culture
0:20:01 > 0:20:03of both Britain and America.
0:20:03 > 0:20:07He had a brilliant mind, he could turn his hand to anything.
0:20:07 > 0:20:12He was a publisher, a musician, a scientist, a writer,
0:20:12 > 0:20:15and he was in Scotland to collect an honorary degree
0:20:15 > 0:20:18in law from the University of St Andrews.
0:20:18 > 0:20:21As both an agent and representative of the Colonies,
0:20:21 > 0:20:26Franklin was keen to discover how the Anglo-Scottish Union worked,
0:20:26 > 0:20:29what unity and strength it brought this emerging superpower.
0:20:29 > 0:20:31But after touring Scotland,
0:20:31 > 0:20:35Franklin gained quite a different impression of Great Britain.
0:20:35 > 0:20:39He told Scotland's finest minds one evening in 1759
0:20:39 > 0:20:42how all he'd seen was inequality and poverty.
0:20:42 > 0:20:45Among the guests was Adam Smith.
0:20:45 > 0:20:48Later, he put his thoughts in a letter to a friend.
0:20:50 > 0:20:53"I have lately made a tour through Ireland and Scotland.
0:20:53 > 0:20:59"In these countries a small part of the society are landlords, great noblemen and gentlemen,
0:20:59 > 0:21:03"extremely opulent, living in the highest affluence and magnificence.
0:21:03 > 0:21:09"The bulk of the people, tenants, extremely poor, living in the most sordid wretchedness
0:21:09 > 0:21:13"in dirty hovels of mud and straw, and clothed only in rags.
0:21:13 > 0:21:17"And the effect of this kind of civil society seems only to be,
0:21:17 > 0:21:23"the depressing multitudes below the savage state that a few may be raised above it."
0:21:24 > 0:21:28This trip was to have a profound effect on Franklin.
0:21:28 > 0:21:31He was disillusioned by what he saw in Scotland.
0:21:31 > 0:21:35Its union with England had not made it a thriving country.
0:21:35 > 0:21:37Men had no chance of being equal.
0:21:37 > 0:21:42At least America was a place where a man could succeed through his own efforts.
0:21:42 > 0:21:47America was unfettered by centuries of class division and corruption.
0:21:47 > 0:21:49It was a place of new beginnings,
0:21:49 > 0:21:54where there was real potential to create a civilized and fair society.
0:22:02 > 0:22:04Scotland was becoming more polarised than ever.
0:22:04 > 0:22:07Tobacco Lords like William Cunninghame were getting rich,
0:22:07 > 0:22:10but ordinary working people were not.
0:22:11 > 0:22:15Dr John Witherspoon was the minister of a church in Paisley
0:22:15 > 0:22:17and he worried that Scotland was now a place
0:22:17 > 0:22:21where his congregation struggled both materially and spiritually.
0:22:21 > 0:22:24COUGHING
0:22:26 > 0:22:29As their moral guide, he was hard-pressed to show them
0:22:29 > 0:22:33anything that was good or fair about the society they lived in.
0:22:36 > 0:22:38But he was more than just a minister.
0:22:38 > 0:22:41Witherspoon was also one of the leaders of the Popular party,
0:22:41 > 0:22:48a movement within the church opposed to the imperious influence of Scotland's elite classes.
0:22:48 > 0:22:50Although he was an educated man,
0:22:50 > 0:22:55he hated what he regarded as the louche, soft world of the Edinburgh intellectuals,
0:22:55 > 0:23:01who were handpicked by the same rich patrons who controlled the country with an unseen hand.
0:23:07 > 0:23:10He had become well-known for writing a satire
0:23:10 > 0:23:14lampooning the system of patronage amongst intellectuals.
0:23:14 > 0:23:19For Witherspoon, the ideas of Adam Smith and other leading lights of the Enlightenment
0:23:19 > 0:23:22were the ideas of the privileged few.
0:23:22 > 0:23:28They could afford to intellectual game-play and debate concepts as profound as the significance of God.
0:23:28 > 0:23:32In writing it, Witherspoon raised an uncomfortable question.
0:23:34 > 0:23:37What kind of society will we have
0:23:37 > 0:23:41if our responsibilities are set by man, and not by God?
0:24:02 > 0:24:06Out in Jamaica, just such a society had put down roots.
0:24:06 > 0:24:11Not only had it lost God, but it was fast descending into hell.
0:24:11 > 0:24:15This was the dark side of Scotland's progress to the modern age,
0:24:15 > 0:24:20because the engine driving both the tobacco and sugar industries was slavery.
0:24:32 > 0:24:35John Wedderburn, although a Christian man,
0:24:35 > 0:24:39knew that he could not plant, weed and tend his sugar canes
0:24:39 > 0:24:42and manage his acres of plantation without slaves.
0:24:46 > 0:24:49Every port in Jamaica in the 18th century
0:24:49 > 0:24:51had something called a "scramble".
0:24:51 > 0:24:55When ships docked bringing the newly enslaved from Africa,
0:24:55 > 0:25:00there was a rush to inspect them and pick the best and strongest for your plantation.
0:25:00 > 0:25:05It was much like farmers sizing up the best animals at an agricultural auction.
0:25:13 > 0:25:16John Wedderburn found such scrambles hard to face.
0:25:16 > 0:25:19Human beings were on display like cattle.
0:25:19 > 0:25:23Half had already died during the journey and many others,
0:25:23 > 0:25:26in the tight confines of the ship, had contracted diseases.
0:25:26 > 0:25:28But all of that was as nothing compared to
0:25:28 > 0:25:30the lives they were about to face,
0:25:30 > 0:25:34of back-breaking physical labour, and soul-destroying confinement.
0:25:46 > 0:25:50For all of his career as a sugar planter, Wedderburn had tried to turn a blind eye.
0:25:51 > 0:25:55But he did attend one scramble, in the spring of 1762.
0:25:55 > 0:25:57And in amongst the sorry crowd,
0:25:57 > 0:26:03he saw a young boy, only 12 or 13, that he found he couldn't ignore.
0:26:07 > 0:26:10He was called Joseph Knight, after the captain of the ship
0:26:10 > 0:26:14that had been his prison on the three-month journey from Guinea.
0:26:14 > 0:26:18He was now a commodity, for sale to the highest bidder.
0:26:28 > 0:26:31Joseph became Wedderburn's personal servant.
0:26:31 > 0:26:34Something about him appealed to Wedderburn.
0:26:34 > 0:26:37So he spared Joseph the hard labour in the fields,
0:26:37 > 0:26:40and had him brought inside instead to be trained up as a house boy.
0:26:40 > 0:26:44He learned to speak English, to read and write -
0:26:44 > 0:26:47Wedderburn even allowed him to be baptised.
0:26:48 > 0:26:53Knight became the focus for Wedderburn's personal struggle with slavery.
0:26:53 > 0:26:57Perhaps having one indoors that he treated well, almost humanly,
0:26:57 > 0:27:00allowed Wedderburn to ignore the hundreds
0:27:00 > 0:27:05that were no better than animals, whipped and chained in his cane fields.
0:27:10 > 0:27:15When Wedderburn was finally rich enough to return to his beloved Scotland, he took Joseph with him.
0:27:15 > 0:27:19He'd grown into a fine-looking man, and was a Christian by then as well,
0:27:19 > 0:27:21equal to any man in the eyes of God.
0:27:21 > 0:27:24But he was still Wedderburn's slave.
0:27:57 > 0:28:02Although John Wedderburn had returned to a country he had never stopped loving,
0:28:02 > 0:28:05Joseph Knight was arriving in yet another place
0:28:05 > 0:28:08that reminded him how far he was from home.
0:28:25 > 0:28:30In Wedderburn's Perthshire mansion, Knight did odd jobs around the house.
0:28:30 > 0:28:34He took his meals and slept below stairs along with the domestic staff.
0:28:34 > 0:28:38But apart from his colour, there was one other crucial difference
0:28:38 > 0:28:42that separated him from the rest of the servants. They were paid.
0:29:07 > 0:29:09Knight felt lost.
0:29:09 > 0:29:13He drew some comfort from a friendship with a housemaid called Annie Thomson,
0:29:13 > 0:29:15but it was his only consolation.
0:29:15 > 0:29:19He was now 24, educated, and restless.
0:29:23 > 0:29:26He asked his master if he could learn a trade,
0:29:26 > 0:29:30perhaps shaving and cutting hair, and Wedderburn agreed.
0:29:30 > 0:29:34Knight was released for a few hours a week for training in the local town.
0:29:34 > 0:29:38It was probably on one of those trips that he came across a newspaper
0:29:38 > 0:29:41headlining a fascinating drama that was the talk of London.
0:29:41 > 0:29:45An African slave named Somerset had taken his master to court
0:29:45 > 0:29:47in a bid to gain his freedom.
0:29:47 > 0:29:51He argued that anyone living in England was British,
0:29:51 > 0:29:54and that all British citizens should be free men.
0:29:54 > 0:29:57The Lords of the King's Bench were up in arms.
0:29:57 > 0:30:01And Knight, reading carefully as he'd been taught to by his master,
0:30:01 > 0:30:04would have been amazed to discover that Somerset had won.
0:30:19 > 0:30:22As Knight dreamt of a new life as a free man,
0:30:22 > 0:30:26the Reverend John Witherspoon gave up his old life in Scotland.
0:30:26 > 0:30:31He'd been offered a fresh start in America, teaching at Princeton College, New Jersey.
0:30:33 > 0:30:36But his wife thought he'd lost his mind.
0:30:36 > 0:30:38For her, this wasn't a new life.
0:30:38 > 0:30:4211 weeks at sea was more like a death sentence.
0:30:45 > 0:30:48But Witherspoon knew it was time to go.
0:30:48 > 0:30:50Scotland had gone soft on religion.
0:30:50 > 0:30:53The influence of the church was waning here,
0:30:53 > 0:30:56and Scotland was going to hell in a handcart.
0:30:56 > 0:31:01It was becoming a country where commerce seemed to matter more than Christianity.
0:31:01 > 0:31:03The place had lost its moral compass.
0:31:03 > 0:31:05He had a point.
0:31:13 > 0:31:15Witherspoon wasn't alone in starting a new life.
0:31:15 > 0:31:19Scotland's rural communities were leaving en masse,
0:31:19 > 0:31:21after years of hardship and poverty.
0:31:21 > 0:31:27The famous literary figures Boswell and Johnson wrote a diary of their Highland travels.
0:31:27 > 0:31:30They remarked on seeing a whole village celebrating
0:31:30 > 0:31:33on the eve of their emigration, dancing a jig they called "America".
0:31:38 > 0:31:43Johnson was later to describe the empty villages and broken communities
0:31:43 > 0:31:45as "an epidemical fury of migration".
0:31:50 > 0:31:53While the Colonies represented a new beginning for Witherspoon
0:31:53 > 0:31:55and thousands of other rural Scots,
0:31:55 > 0:31:59the bonds that tied America to Britain were beginning to look like shackles.
0:32:01 > 0:32:05America viewed her British master with growing frustration.
0:32:05 > 0:32:11Lack of representation at Westminster, coupled with increasing taxes on tobacco and imported goods,
0:32:11 > 0:32:14fuelled resentment and talk of rebellion.
0:32:14 > 0:32:17As Witherspoon would soon find out.
0:32:28 > 0:32:31In spite of the darkening mood across America,
0:32:31 > 0:32:36in the hallowed community of Princeton, Dr Witherspoon could not have received a warmer welcome.
0:32:38 > 0:32:41All the students turned out to light up Nassau Hall,
0:32:41 > 0:32:43the college's central building.
0:32:43 > 0:32:46It was a glorious beginning to his career.
0:32:46 > 0:32:51In that moment, he fell in love with the place, with its seriousness,
0:32:51 > 0:32:54its sense of community, and its beauty.
0:32:54 > 0:32:59It was a place where the new world could be shaped.
0:33:01 > 0:33:04If there was one thing Witherspoon could be relied on to do,
0:33:04 > 0:33:08it was to bring his boundless energy and enthusiasm to the job.
0:33:08 > 0:33:11He lived up to his magnificent welcome, and straight away set about
0:33:11 > 0:33:17spring cleaning the place, airing it and opening it up to new ideas.
0:33:19 > 0:33:22His big obstacle was money.
0:33:22 > 0:33:24When he arrived the college was in debt,
0:33:24 > 0:33:29and, keen to keep the place independent and away from the meddling of patrons,
0:33:29 > 0:33:33he set out as a one-man band to raise the funds himself.
0:33:35 > 0:33:39Using all the charismatic charms he could muster,
0:33:39 > 0:33:41he set out on an open-air preaching tour.
0:33:41 > 0:33:44Witherspoon's style was unusual -
0:33:44 > 0:33:48he spoke from the heart rather than the page and he drew people in
0:33:48 > 0:33:53with a rare mix of emotion, common sense and great oratory.
0:33:55 > 0:33:56In Williamsburg, Virginia,
0:33:56 > 0:34:01Witherspoon raised the equivalent of £5,500 with just one sermon.
0:34:01 > 0:34:04He quickly secured Princeton's future by expanding the library
0:34:04 > 0:34:08and by funding new places for increasing numbers of students.
0:34:08 > 0:34:13As well as raising money, he also unintentionally raised his own profile.
0:34:13 > 0:34:17Beyond Princeton his reputation grew, both as a man of the people
0:34:17 > 0:34:19and as an eloquent future leader.
0:34:26 > 0:34:29Witherspoon had two ambitions for Princeton.
0:34:29 > 0:34:33The first was to be a cutting-edge centre of learning.
0:34:39 > 0:34:44He brought with him the Scottish Enlightenment's thirst for knowledge and understanding,
0:34:44 > 0:34:48and he created a curriculum where students would read widely
0:34:48 > 0:34:51and open their minds to all points of view.
0:34:51 > 0:34:55The second was to rid his students of any false sense of entitlement.
0:34:55 > 0:34:59Once a week he opened the place up for meetings,
0:34:59 > 0:35:02inviting townsfolk to mix with students for lively debating sessions
0:35:02 > 0:35:08that inspired camaraderie and democracy, and blew away the cobwebs of elitism.
0:35:08 > 0:35:11In Witherspoon's new America, it would be education,
0:35:11 > 0:35:16not social standing, that elevated men to great things.
0:35:17 > 0:35:23In Perthshire, John Wedderburn's only ambition was to live the life of an aristocrat.
0:35:23 > 0:35:27His sugar fortune had brought him Ballindean House,
0:35:27 > 0:35:30and had ensured him a comfortable retirement.
0:35:30 > 0:35:35Of all his staff, he was particularly pleased with Joseph Knight.
0:35:35 > 0:35:40He felt that it had been an act of charity to rescue the boy.
0:35:43 > 0:35:47But below stairs, all was not well.
0:35:58 > 0:36:00Joseph Knight could not settle.
0:36:00 > 0:36:03He didn't want to spend the rest of his life in domestic service.
0:36:03 > 0:36:08In fact, he had already staked his claim to a different future.
0:36:08 > 0:36:12Annie Thomson was pregnant with his child.
0:36:12 > 0:36:16He wanted to be free to marry her, and have a family.
0:36:16 > 0:36:19Knight broke the news to his master.
0:36:19 > 0:36:24Uppermost in his mind was the case of Somerset, another African slave.
0:36:24 > 0:36:27He was hopeful that Wedderburn would at least consider his liberty,
0:36:27 > 0:36:32perhaps even give him his freedom. But Wedderburn was horrified.
0:36:32 > 0:36:35Despite all the privileges and help he'd given Knight over the years,
0:36:35 > 0:36:39all the skills that had endowed him with his independence of mind and spirit,
0:36:39 > 0:36:42Wedderburn refused to let him go.
0:36:44 > 0:36:47Somerset had been freed in London,
0:36:47 > 0:36:50but Knight didn't know that the law was different in Scotland.
0:36:50 > 0:36:52No slave had ever been freed here.
0:36:52 > 0:36:55But he was so enraged by Wedderburn's refusal
0:36:55 > 0:36:58that he made his mind up to leave.
0:36:58 > 0:37:02He would elope with Annie Thompson the housemaid,
0:37:02 > 0:37:06who had already been dismissed over her relationship with Knight.
0:37:09 > 0:37:13Wedderburn found Knight packing his bags and summoned the magistrate.
0:37:13 > 0:37:15He was arrested and taken to Perth gaol.
0:37:15 > 0:37:20No doubt the chains and confinement reminded Knight of the earliest days of his slavery.
0:37:20 > 0:37:24John Wedderburn, when pushed, had proved to be the kind of man
0:37:24 > 0:37:27who was more interested in enjoying his own wealth and liberty
0:37:27 > 0:37:29than offering it to others.
0:37:29 > 0:37:34He had his limits, and Joseph Knight had pushed him to the very edge.
0:37:40 > 0:37:45Joseph Knight had no money, no influence, nothing to win him his freedom.
0:37:45 > 0:37:47Or so he thought.
0:37:47 > 0:37:50But the Lord Advocate of Scotland, Henry Dundas,
0:37:50 > 0:37:53was outraged by his case and offered to represent him.
0:37:53 > 0:37:56The case went to the Court of Session in Edinburgh,
0:37:56 > 0:37:58the highest court in Scotland.
0:38:00 > 0:38:04For Dundas, it was the case of the century.
0:38:04 > 0:38:09The rights and liberties of the British subject - it was the most controversial issue of the day.
0:38:09 > 0:38:12England had just freed her first slave.
0:38:12 > 0:38:15The Colonies were agitating for release from their British master.
0:38:15 > 0:38:20Increasingly in Scotland, fundamental human rights were being acknowledged.
0:38:20 > 0:38:24But what haunted liberal philosophers and thinkers was the knowledge
0:38:24 > 0:38:28that Scotland's success and wealth depended on slavery.
0:38:38 > 0:38:41The documents of the case have survived.
0:38:41 > 0:38:45Both John Wedderburn and Joseph Knight recorded lengthy memorials,
0:38:45 > 0:38:47stating their grievances in their own words,
0:38:47 > 0:38:51to be used by the advocates and judges as evidence in court.
0:38:51 > 0:38:55What details, what insights come out of this record?
0:38:55 > 0:38:59A great amount of detail about the facts of the case.
0:38:59 > 0:39:01Not only that, but the feelings involved.
0:39:01 > 0:39:05John Wedderburn's hurt feelings.
0:39:05 > 0:39:08He sees himself as a good master
0:39:08 > 0:39:13and that Joseph Knight is somehow betraying the good treatment that he was given.
0:39:13 > 0:39:19But on the other hand, Knight's own strong feelings of wanting to be emancipated from his status.
0:39:19 > 0:39:23That is an amazing irony from our 21st-century perspective,
0:39:23 > 0:39:28that the slave owner would be indignant about his behaviour being questioned.
0:39:28 > 0:39:32Yes, that's right. He obviously felt he had strong rights in the case
0:39:32 > 0:39:35and that he had done the decent thing.
0:39:35 > 0:39:40What aspects of that could you show me in the paperwork?
0:39:40 > 0:39:45One thing we can pick out is where Wedderburn talks about
0:39:45 > 0:39:48the time when Joseph Knight had read in the newspapers
0:39:48 > 0:39:52about the famous case decided by Lord Mansfield in England in 1772,
0:39:52 > 0:39:55which had appeared in the newspapers.
0:39:55 > 0:39:58That gave him an idea that he was now free.
0:39:58 > 0:40:02Wedderburn claims that after this time Knight becomes discontented and sullen,
0:40:02 > 0:40:06- and is wishing to pack up and leave. - Discontented and sullen?
0:40:06 > 0:40:08That's right. Presumably not speaking.
0:40:08 > 0:40:10Taking the huff, if you like.
0:40:10 > 0:40:14- For having the temerity to want to be free.- That's right, exactly.
0:40:14 > 0:40:16There are other parts we can perhaps pick out here.
0:40:16 > 0:40:22This is Wedderburn referring to Knight's claim about his clothing.
0:40:22 > 0:40:26"He was clothed as well as the rest of Sir John's servants,
0:40:26 > 0:40:31"but his stockings were generally coarse, except four pairs,
0:40:31 > 0:40:33"and that he got no regular pocket money."
0:40:33 > 0:40:36- Pocket money! For a grown man.- Yes.
0:40:36 > 0:40:38Nothing for wages.
0:40:38 > 0:40:41It's quite interesting in a way,
0:40:41 > 0:40:47that given that it was a society that accepted slavery at that time,
0:40:47 > 0:40:52and yet his words are recorded in just as much detail
0:40:52 > 0:40:54as Wedderburn's.
0:40:54 > 0:41:00There's a demonstration that the court was recognising him already.
0:41:00 > 0:41:05Yes, as an individual with perfect rights to come before the court and make a claim.
0:41:33 > 0:41:36This is where the drama unfolded.
0:41:36 > 0:41:38The case was called from that little window.
0:41:38 > 0:41:40The judges sat in the alcoves.
0:41:40 > 0:41:46The advocates took the floor and everyone else stood and watched, including Wedderburn and Knight.
0:41:52 > 0:41:56The case, as predicted, provoked passionate debate.
0:41:56 > 0:42:01Counsel for Knight argued that he did not consent to give up his liberty in the first place,
0:42:01 > 0:42:06and that stepping on to British soil should give him the constitutional right to liberty
0:42:06 > 0:42:11that is offered to every man in any free country.
0:42:12 > 0:42:16Pandering to the pockets of Scotland's elite, Wedderburn's lawyers made an argument
0:42:16 > 0:42:18they believed few could reject.
0:42:18 > 0:42:23"Make a choice," they said. "Choose between liberty and money."
0:42:23 > 0:42:27They asserted that Scotland was "the first commercial nation in the world"
0:42:27 > 0:42:32and that we had "interwoven our interests with those of our settlements in the new world".
0:42:32 > 0:42:37And that therefore "the institution of slavery is absolutely necessary".
0:42:37 > 0:42:41But the judges' decision took everyone by surprise.
0:42:41 > 0:42:44In spite of Wedderburn's appeal to collective greed,
0:42:44 > 0:42:47Scotland's top judges ruled for freedom.
0:42:56 > 0:43:00The Knight case sent a strong message across the Atlantic.
0:43:00 > 0:43:03Britain had ruled to free a lowly slave,
0:43:03 > 0:43:05yet it continued to deny America
0:43:05 > 0:43:08an equal relationship with its colonial master.
0:43:08 > 0:43:12Benjamin Franklin described the storm that was coming
0:43:12 > 0:43:14if America's grievances weren't recognised.
0:43:16 > 0:43:21He wrote, "every act of oppression will sour their tempers,
0:43:21 > 0:43:26"lessen if not annihilate the profits of your commerce with them, and hasten their final revolt.
0:43:26 > 0:43:33"For the seeds of liberty are universally sown there, and nothing can eradicate them."
0:43:35 > 0:43:38This was the warning bell.
0:43:38 > 0:43:40America had had enough.
0:43:47 > 0:43:53In Princeton, Dr Witherspoon couldn't help himself but get involved in the increasing unrest.
0:43:53 > 0:43:57He saw the matter as a deeply moral and religious one, and was convinced
0:43:57 > 0:44:00that it was in God's plan to free America from Britain.
0:44:00 > 0:44:06He wrote a public letter to all the Presbyterian churches in the colonies urging ordinary people
0:44:06 > 0:44:12to come together to reject Britain's shackles, with its crippling regime of taxation and control.
0:44:14 > 0:44:17Every parishioner from Georgia to Maine
0:44:17 > 0:44:20would have heard it read out in church.
0:44:20 > 0:44:25He urged all of Christian America to listen carefully.
0:44:25 > 0:44:30"We must think of America as a nation," he said, "and assert our rights as such."
0:44:30 > 0:44:33He knew that this wouldn't happen without a fight,
0:44:33 > 0:44:38but he argued that he preferred "war with all its horrors, even extermination,
0:44:38 > 0:44:44"to slavery, riveted on us and on our posterity."
0:44:45 > 0:44:51In April 1775, British troops marched in to Lexington, Massachusetts
0:44:51 > 0:44:54to control crowds demonstrating against British rule.
0:44:54 > 0:44:58Shots were fired and eight men were killed.
0:44:58 > 0:45:02It was the start of the American Revolution.
0:45:02 > 0:45:04Witherspoon had got the war he wanted.
0:45:08 > 0:45:12And so had William Cunninghame.
0:45:12 > 0:45:15Back in Glasgow, many Scottish merchants would never recover the debts
0:45:15 > 0:45:18owed to them by the American tobacco planters,
0:45:18 > 0:45:23but war with the colonies just made Cunninghame wealthier.
0:45:26 > 0:45:28In the build-up to the conflict,
0:45:28 > 0:45:32Cunninghame had stockpiled as much tobacco as he could lay his hands on.
0:45:36 > 0:45:38Now fighting had cut off the supply,
0:45:38 > 0:45:41he started selling it at an astronomical price.
0:45:45 > 0:45:49Cunninghame might have been the talk of the merchant gentleman's club,
0:45:49 > 0:45:53but to Adam Smith, this was shameless war-profiteering.
0:46:01 > 0:46:05As the American Revolution broke out, Smith was working on a book about commerce.
0:46:08 > 0:46:11It was the sum of all his observations
0:46:11 > 0:46:13on Scotland's trade with America.
0:46:13 > 0:46:15But the war proved to be a turning point for him.
0:46:19 > 0:46:23The merchants' greed and William Cunninghame's profiteering
0:46:23 > 0:46:27began to sow doubts in Smith's mind.
0:46:31 > 0:46:33Cunninghame's behaviour appalled Smith.
0:46:33 > 0:46:39Despite his friendship with them, he began to paint an unflattering picture of the Glasgow merchants
0:46:39 > 0:46:42and their questionable moral practices.
0:46:42 > 0:46:46He attacked their monopolizing spirit and went so far as to say
0:46:46 > 0:46:49that if the government were composed entirely of merchants,
0:46:49 > 0:46:53"it would be the worst of all governments for any country whatsoever."
0:46:54 > 0:46:58The rest of society had not benefited as much as Smith had hoped.
0:46:58 > 0:47:02The money had gone into the bricks and mortar of great houses.
0:47:02 > 0:47:05Greed and vanity had blinded the merchants
0:47:05 > 0:47:08to any real self-regulation or social responsibility.
0:47:08 > 0:47:14Maybe it was more than just government taxation that provoked the American War of Independence.
0:47:14 > 0:47:18If the merchants hadn't displayed such a rapacious greed for profit,
0:47:18 > 0:47:23if they hadn't pushed the tobacco growers into such huge debt,
0:47:23 > 0:47:27then perhaps America wouldn't have felt aggrieved enough to go to war.
0:47:31 > 0:47:36In Princeton, John Witherspoon believed that America was waging not only a just war,
0:47:36 > 0:47:39but a war that had God's providence.
0:47:39 > 0:47:43His stirring views and increasingly popular sermons
0:47:43 > 0:47:45drew the attention of the British.
0:47:45 > 0:47:49The college became known as "the seedbed of revolution"
0:47:49 > 0:47:52and British forces stormed Princeton,
0:47:52 > 0:47:54destroying everything in their path.
0:47:58 > 0:48:03Witherspoon evacuated the university just in time, and no-one was hurt.
0:48:03 > 0:48:06Cannon-fire wrecked many of the buildings.
0:48:06 > 0:48:11But to his horror, British troops damaged the one thing he cared most about - his library.
0:48:14 > 0:48:19But this setback only served to strengthen Witherspoon's religious faith
0:48:19 > 0:48:24and his resolve to fight for liberty and bring democracy to America.
0:48:25 > 0:48:28Everything Witherspoon had been working for
0:48:28 > 0:48:31was to culminate in one tightly worded document
0:48:31 > 0:48:35that declared a new set of liberties for this new nation.
0:48:35 > 0:48:39It was called the Declaration of Independence.
0:48:44 > 0:48:47The wording was argued over to the finest detail.
0:48:47 > 0:48:53This was going to be a country whose very beginning was based on democracy and equality.
0:48:53 > 0:48:58Not everyone involved could agree to the revolutionary ideas held in it.
0:48:58 > 0:49:03But Witherspoon was there, behind the scenes, urging the process along.
0:49:03 > 0:49:08Witherspoon didn't just argue for independence and democratic freedom,
0:49:08 > 0:49:11he brought the pulpit on to the floor of Congress.
0:49:11 > 0:49:15The only clergyman present, Witherspoon argued that many Americans
0:49:15 > 0:49:17would hesitate to join the revolution
0:49:17 > 0:49:21unless their cause was seen to be just in the eyes of God.
0:49:21 > 0:49:24God must bless America.
0:49:25 > 0:49:29It was almost certainly Witherspoon who championed the line that forms
0:49:29 > 0:49:34the very last sentence in the document, which states,
0:49:34 > 0:49:39"And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence,
0:49:39 > 0:49:45"we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honour."
0:49:48 > 0:49:51Now the Declaration not only proclaimed independence,
0:49:51 > 0:49:54it was a visible demonstration to the American people
0:49:54 > 0:50:00that it was God's plan to back their revolution and free America from British tyranny.
0:50:09 > 0:50:13Witherspoon persuaded any remaining doubters to sign the Declaration,
0:50:13 > 0:50:18saying, "There is a tide in the affairs of men, a nick of time.
0:50:18 > 0:50:21"We perceive it now before us.
0:50:21 > 0:50:24"To hesitate is to consent to our own slavery."
0:50:29 > 0:50:32The fighting continued for another seven years,
0:50:32 > 0:50:35but in the end, the British conceded defeat.
0:50:43 > 0:50:45To Witherspoon, it seemed that
0:50:45 > 0:50:48divine providence had turned the tide.
0:50:52 > 0:50:58In 1783, a peace treaty was signed and America secured her independence.
0:51:08 > 0:51:11The ideas of John Witherspoon and Adam Smith
0:51:11 > 0:51:13had lit the fires of revolution.
0:51:13 > 0:51:17Both men were products of the Scottish Enlightenment
0:51:17 > 0:51:23and both had given the world a new moral philosophy by which to live.
0:51:23 > 0:51:26John Witherspoon had combined religion and politics
0:51:26 > 0:51:31to help bring intellectual and constitutional freedom to America.
0:51:31 > 0:51:33In his tenure at Princeton,
0:51:33 > 0:51:37he had introduced to his campus native American and black students.
0:51:37 > 0:51:42He educated many of the next generation of American leaders.
0:51:42 > 0:51:45They included one future president,
0:51:45 > 0:51:50one vice president, 39 congressmen and three supreme court judges.
0:51:53 > 0:51:57And here lies the man who chose Princeton over Paisley.
0:51:57 > 0:52:02He decided on America as the place to fight for the principles of liberty and democracy,
0:52:02 > 0:52:06backing the country he believed had the best chance of delivering them.
0:52:06 > 0:52:10He continued as head of the college for another decade after independence,
0:52:10 > 0:52:14and he's buried here, in the cemetery at Princeton.
0:52:21 > 0:52:24John Wedderburn was a bundle of contradictions.
0:52:24 > 0:52:28A Christian man, whose past had taught him to look at the world
0:52:28 > 0:52:30from the position of the underdog,
0:52:30 > 0:52:35and yet he could not find it in his heart to give Knight his freedom.
0:52:37 > 0:52:40Wedderburn spent the rest of his life in Perthshire,
0:52:40 > 0:52:43living on the fortune he built on the exploitation of others.
0:52:43 > 0:52:48He also achieved the long-held ambition of laying his Jacobite past to rest
0:52:48 > 0:52:52and restoring the good name of the Wedderburn family.
0:52:52 > 0:52:56He re-instated himself as the sixth baronet of Blackness.
0:52:56 > 0:53:00But it's a title that serves only to remind us of a more shameful past,
0:53:00 > 0:53:03namely the blackness of Wedderburn's slaves
0:53:03 > 0:53:07and one slave boy in particular - Joseph Knight.
0:53:09 > 0:53:11Knight never saw Wedderburn again.
0:53:11 > 0:53:16As a free man, he married his sweetheart, Annie Thomson,
0:53:16 > 0:53:18and then simply disappeared.
0:53:20 > 0:53:23There's no record of him after the trial.
0:53:23 > 0:53:26There's some speculation that he became a miner,
0:53:26 > 0:53:29where, amidst the coal dust that clung to everything,
0:53:29 > 0:53:33the colour of his skin no longer marked him out as different.
0:53:35 > 0:53:40In 1778, William Cunninghame got to build the house of his dreams,
0:53:40 > 0:53:43the ultimate symbol of his wealth and vanity,
0:53:43 > 0:53:47and paid for with the spoils of war and slavery.
0:53:47 > 0:53:51At £10,000, this was the most expensive house ever built in Glasgow,
0:53:51 > 0:53:57and now lives on as Glasgow's Gallery of Modern Art.
0:53:58 > 0:54:01In the same year as American independence,
0:54:01 > 0:54:03Adam Smith finally finished his book.
0:54:03 > 0:54:09In writing it, his theories about self-interest as a force of good had fallen apart.
0:54:09 > 0:54:11William Cunninghame's profiteering
0:54:11 > 0:54:15taught Smith that economics isn't just about making money,
0:54:15 > 0:54:19it's about the social responsibility that comes with it.
0:54:19 > 0:54:23In The Wealth of Nations, Smith gave the world its first study
0:54:23 > 0:54:27of the moral and political dimensions of a country's economy.
0:54:27 > 0:54:30Its success was to mark Adam Smith
0:54:30 > 0:54:33as one of the Enlightenment's most influential thinkers,
0:54:33 > 0:54:35and the father of modern economics.
0:54:37 > 0:54:39On the last page of the book, he wrote,
0:54:39 > 0:54:43"It is surely time that Great Britain should free herself
0:54:43 > 0:54:46"from the expense of defending those provinces in time of war
0:54:46 > 0:54:50"and of supporting any part of their establishments in time of peace."
0:54:50 > 0:54:54He was right, of course. It was time to let America go.
0:54:54 > 0:54:58It reads like a diary of the build-up to the American Revolution,
0:54:58 > 0:55:01and it's every bit as much about a country's struggle
0:55:01 > 0:55:04for self-determination as it is about economics.
0:55:09 > 0:55:12In the end, there were no winners or losers.
0:55:12 > 0:55:17The new American Constitution made good its promises of rights and freedom for all,
0:55:17 > 0:55:22but it never occurred to the founding fathers to extend those same freedoms to slaves.
0:55:22 > 0:55:25It took a Civil War to rid America of slavery,
0:55:25 > 0:55:29and it's struggled with the legacy ever since.
0:55:30 > 0:55:35And while Britain's vision of liberty remained bereft of democratic principle
0:55:35 > 0:55:38for decades to come, it abolished slavery
0:55:38 > 0:55:42and paved the way for other European nations to follow.
0:55:47 > 0:55:50And what of Scotland?
0:55:50 > 0:55:52In the wake of American Independence,
0:55:52 > 0:55:56there was a feeling in the air of anti-climax, of dissatisfaction.
0:55:56 > 0:56:00Parallels were drawn between America and Scotland.
0:56:00 > 0:56:04It seemed as though all the best intellectual efforts of the Scottish Enlightenment
0:56:04 > 0:56:08had gone to providing America with the blueprint for liberty.
0:56:08 > 0:56:11But while Scotland thought and talked,
0:56:11 > 0:56:15it was America that had put those ideas into action.
0:56:25 > 0:56:29In truth, America had changed everything for Scotland.
0:56:29 > 0:56:32She had helped to lay the foundation stones for one of the first
0:56:32 > 0:56:35and most influential democracies in the world.
0:56:35 > 0:56:40As part of Great Britain, she had taken her first faltering steps on to the world stage.
0:56:40 > 0:56:43And she would never look back.
0:56:47 > 0:56:50Has Scotland faced up to her past as a slave trader?
0:56:50 > 0:56:57Go to bbc.co.uk/scotlandshistory and join our online debate.
0:56:57 > 0:57:00The Open University has also produced a booklet about
0:57:00 > 0:57:05Scottish history and an audiowalk about tonight's programme.
0:57:05 > 0:57:07If you haven't claimed your free copy yet,
0:57:07 > 0:57:09or want to download the walk,
0:57:09 > 0:57:15visit the website or call 0845 3008850.
0:57:32 > 0:57:35Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:57:35 > 0:57:38E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk