What Flora MacDonald says about Scottish independence
Published August 27, 2014
by Doug Clark, Off the Record, Greensboro News-Record, August 27, 2014.
It is my privilege to interview Flora MacDonald, the Scottish heroine who helped Charles Edward Stuart — known as Bonnie Prince Charlie — escape capture after his disastrous defeat at the Battle of Culloden in 1746.
In 1773, she and her husband emigrated to North Carolina, but they later resettled in Scotland.
Ms. MacDonald, thank you for speaking with me.
Ach, call me Flora, lad. I’m no so old we cannae use Christian names.
Thank you, Flora. What is your feeling about Scotland’s independence vote next month?
I’m agin’ it.
Against it?
Aye, agin’ it. Can ye no hear well?
I can. But you’re an icon of the Jacobite rebellion against the English king. You were a supporter of the Scottish prince and his cause.
Aye, that I was. But the prince was no fightin’ for Scottish independence. He hoped to overthrow King George and rule all Britain — Scotland, England and Ireland, too — not divide them.
But after he escaped to France, the English arrested you and locked you in the Tower of London.
Aye, that they did. But they let me walk oot with m’head still on m’shoulders. I’ve no complaint aboot that!
Nevertheless, didn’t you and your family sail to North Carolina because Highlanders were persecuted by the English?
Aye, we were no so welcome to stay. But it was Scot agin’ Scot in those days, too. The Campbells were more treacherous than the English!
Trouble seemed to follow you.
Aye, we found ourselves in the midst of another rebellion in North Carolina.
This time you chose the English side.
We had no choice, lad. We were forced to swear an oath of loyalty to the crown to be allowed to emigrate to the colony and receive a grant of land.
And when the war started?
Aye, my husband Allan took up his sword for king and country. He and a loyalist force were surprised at Moore’s Creek Bridge by a Patriot militia and sent a’runnin’.
Allan was taken prisoner?
Aye, that he was. I couldna help him escape as I had the prince. We were kept apart for years.
Then you left North Carolina and returned to Scotland?
What else could I do? Again I found m’self a defeated enemy among the victors. Most of our North Carolina neighbors were happily rid of us. And, having been loyal to the king, we were welcomed home.
Later, all was forgiven and you are fondly remembered in North Carolina today. Your portrait is in the state’s museum of history. There was a Flora MacDonald College. Books and songs have been written about you.
Lovely, but I do no think I deserve all that.
You have to understand that many North Carolinians claim Scottish ancestry and celebrate our Scottish heritage. We have a Scotland County. We go to Highland Games, we have bagpipe bands, and some of us enjoy a taste of Scottish beverage now and again.
I ne’er could stand the pipes.
Even so, our romantic feelings toward the ancestral homeland compel us to hope the vote for Scottish secession is successful.
Are ye daft?
No, I don’t think so.
I’m no so sure. Would you support secession of North Carolina from the United States?
That didn’t work out so well once before. It wouldn’t make much sense now.
And why would it not?
Well, by ourselves we’d be nothing but an insignificant little country of 10 million people.
And what would Scotland be with our 5 million?
You’d be free.
Ach, did ye hear Mel Gibson say that in a movie? He’s no a Scot! I say we’d be a wee poor country no more of a world power than Portugal, Greece or Ireland.
But the English have ruled over you for 300 years.
Have they? We’ve had Scots prime ministers aplenty, and when the royal family comes to Balmoral, they all wear the tartan. Wills and Kate were educated at St. Andrews. We host the Open Championship most years. I’d say we’re rulin’ them!
Does the present Prince Charles look as good in a kilt as your Bonnie Prince? Legend has it you and he were sweethearts.
Me and the Bonnie Prince? Ach, let me tell you. Ye’ve heard he escaped bein’ captured by dressin’ as a maid?
Yes, I guess it was the only way he could fool the English.
Nay, lad. He liked dressin’ that way. Why do ye think we called him bonnie?
