The Highland Clearances play a crucial role in Clear, as John Ferguson is sent to clear Ivar from the island to allow Henry Lowrie, the wealthy landowner, to use the island to raise sheep. The first wave of Highland Clearances took place in the 1750s, after the Battle of Culloden. The Battle of Culloden was fought on April 16, 1746, and ended the Jacobite uprising of 1745.

The Jacobite rising of 1745 was the last of the Jacobite uprisings, which were a series of efforts to put a Stuart monarch on the throne of Scotland. The term “Jacobite” comes from the Latin “Jacobe,” which translates to James, the name of many Stuart monarchs (“The Battle of Culloden.” BBC History). The Stuart line ruled England for a century, from the coronation of James I in 1603 until the death of Queen Anne in 1714. Queen Anne left no heirs, so the throne passed to George I, Queen Anne’s German second cousin (“George I.” BBC History). Upon George I’s death, his son George II ascended the throne. In 1745, Charles Edward Stuart, colloquially known as “Bonnie Prince Charlie,” led a Jacobite army in support of his father James Francis Edward Stuart against the British military forces loyal to King George II. Bonnie Prince Charlie’s army was outnumbered, and they lost to the British troops led by the Duke of Cumberland, George II’s youngest son.

After the defeat, life in Scotland changed in devastating ways. The defeated soldiers were rounded up by British dragoons and executed, the clan system was abolished, and Highlanders were forbidden from bearing weapons (McMillan, Gill. “What Happened at the Battle of Culloden?” Wilderness Scotland, 17 Oct. 2024). The clan system dated to the medieval period, in which a clan chief offered protection and land in return for rent via money, food, or military service. The clans were self-governing, but after the Battle of Culloden, the clan system was banned. The trust people previously placed in their clan and their chief was gone (Steel, Rhona. “Scottish History: The Highland Clearances.” Wilderness Scotland, 17 Oct. 2024). This left the land in control of wealthy landowners, who had absolute power over their property.

The landowners realized that their land could turn a greater profit if they evicted their tenants and turned the land into large farms or grazing areas for sheep. The evicted tenants were pushed toward the coast or given “crofts” for farming on land that was either too small or poor quality, making it difficult for them to survive without also fishing and kelping to pay rent. The clearances began in the lowlands before progressing into the highlands and surrounding islands by the mid-19th century. The people who were cleared either moved south or even left Scotland altogether, contributing to the growing Scottish diaspora, especially during the 1846 potato blight famine that led to starvation and destitution in Scotland.

During the mid-19th century, another large shift began occurring in religious practice in Scotland. The Church of Scotland began in the mid-16th century, when the Scottish Reformation swept the nation. In 1560, John Knox and other ministers drafted a new confession of faith that was subsequently accepted by the Scottish Parliament. In 1592, the Church of Scotland formally adopted a Presbyterian system (“History.” The Church of Scotland). However, over 250 years later, change rocked the church. According to Davies’s Author’s Note, in 1843, the Great Disruption occurred, an event in which “474 ministers (roughly one-third of the total number) rebelled against the system of patronage, whereby Scotland’s landowners had the power to install ministers of their choice in parishes on their estates” (187).

The ministers sought to create the Free Church of Scotland, in which ministers could create their own churches without approval of wealthy landowners (“History, Roots & Heritage.” Free Church of Scotland, 18 May 2025). The Free Church of Scotland had another schism in 1900, when many ministers and churches joined the United Presbyterian Church, but a court case in 1905 decreed that the 27 ministers and 100 congregations that didn’t join the United church were the true Free Church of Scotland, which still exists in the 21st century (“History, Roots & Heritage”).