BBC Radio Shetland

Time Travels

Factual: History

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Susan Morrison explores the rich and sometimes murky depths of Scotland's past.

Time Travels: Series 2

Time Travels: Episode 7: Silver and Slavery

Episode 7

Episode 7: Silver and Slavery

Silver and Slavery

BBC Radio Scotland - Time Travels, Silver and Slavery

Susan Morrison mines the rich depths of Scotland's past.

Susan Morrison hears about Charlotte Stirling, illegitimate daughter of a Scottish slave owner, and finds out how the Romans used silver to bribe tribes on the Scottish frontier.

Susan Morrison follows the fortunes of Charlotte Stirling, illegitimate daughter of a Scottish slave owner, finds out how the Romans used silver to bribe local tribes on the Scottish frontier, and comes face to face with the skeleton of one of the first women to have a caesarean in Scotland.

Charlotte Stirling was born in Kingston Jamaica in 1759, the illegitimate daughter of slave owner Robert Stirling Esquire and a free mixed race woman. By 1801 she's married to a haberdasher in Edinburgh. With the help of Marenka Thompson-Odlum, Susan pieces together details of her struggle to claim her inheritance. In the studio, Susan welcomes Fraser Hunter, curator of the Scotland's Early Silver exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland, and asks him why Romans hacked beautiful crafted ornaments to pieces and gave it to local frontier tribes as bribes and pay offs. Then Susan returns to the Surgeons' Hall Museums to examine the skeleton of Janet Hyslop, who had a caesarean in the days before anaesthesia and antibiotics. And in this week's WW1 at Home Cathy MacDonald celebrates a gaelic song An Eala Bhan, "The White Swan" composed during the Battle of the Somme by Red Donald of Corruna.

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