Abstract
Based on newly-identified documents, reexamines Burns's plan in 1786 to emigrate to Jamaica to take a job on a Scottish-owned slave plantation, and the timing and circumstances of his eventual decision to stay in Scotland, concluding that Burns "kept his options open to the last moment," and that the new documents might mean Burns "sought to prosper from chattel slavery," and "only dropped the opportunity because a better offer came along, not because of any moral scruples."
Recommended Citation
McGinn, Clark
(2017)
"The Scotch Bard and 'The Planting Line': New Documents on Burns and Jamaica,"
Studies in Scottish Literature:
Vol. 43:
Iss.
2, 255–266.
Available at:
https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/ssl/vol43/iss2/23