Scottish Jamaicans are Jamaican people of Scottish descent. Scottish Jamaicans include those of European and mixed Asian and African ancestry with Scottish ancestors, and date back to the earliest period of post-Spanish, European colonisation. Jamaica was a focal point of Scotland’s involvement in the slave trade and a campaign group, launched last year, are determined to bring that issue to the fore.

Scotland Jamaica appeared before the Holyrood petition committee on Tuesday, to call for Scotland to acknowledge its heritage of slavery and begin building new economic and development bonds with the island.

Visiting in September, Prime Minister David Cameron put to bed any suggestion of the UK paying reparations for its role in the enslavement and exploitation of Jamaica. Flag Up isn’t asking for reparations however, it wants the Scottish Government to make Jamaica a priority in terms of trade and development – similar to the bonds that exist between Scotland and Malawi.

NATIONAL AMNESIA? 

While textbooks in Scotland focus on the role of Scottish abolitionists such as William Dickson, Scotland’s own involvement in the slave trade has been largely forgotten.

Professor Tom Devine, right, who edited a 2015 collection of essays entitled Recovering Scotland’s Slavery Past: The Caribbean Connection, argues that it is a huge area of Scottish history that has been marginalised.

“There has been a collective national amnesia about slavery,” he said.

According to the professor, Scotland’s disproportionate role in the slave trade has only started coming to light in the last 10-15 years.

In their petition, Flag Up Scotland Jamaica have detailed the complex historical links between the two countries.

The first Scots to appear on the island were not seeking fortune, they were exiles.

Scottish prisoners of war arrived in Jamaica in 1656 to begin new lives as indentured servants on sugar plantations.

In 1655 Jamaica had been captured from the Spanish and the new colony was seen by Cromwell as a convenient place to ship Scottish prisoners seized during the battles at Dunbar in 1650 and Worcester in 1651.