Martyrs

"In the 1830s and 1840s, the district of Glendale on the island of Skye was swamped by immigrants cleared from other Skye estates. The resultant overcrowding and over-use of land caused simmering discontent - not against the intruders, but against the landowners, who regarded their tenants as no more than chattels. This book is [an] account of what happened when the powder keg erupted and a full-scale land war ensued. Pitched battles with police, factors and bailiffs, military intervention, arrests, trials, imprisonment and the personal intervention of the Prime Minister were to have consequences for crofters all over the Highlands, who, ultimately were the victors. At the heart of the rising was a man named John MacPherson of Lower Milovaig in Glendale, a courageous, charismatic and articulate crofter who was twice imprisoned for leading a rebellion against a system which kept all but the wealthiest in a state of bitter servitude."--Book flap.