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George Rainy (6 June 1790 – 9 June 1863) was a Scottish merchant, slave owner and land owner.
Retrieved 20 March 2019.
In the early 1800s, Rainy became involved in sugar plantations in the Caribbean which were worked by African slaves in Demerara in Guiana. Due to extensive family connections he eventually became a full partner in Sandbach, Tinne & Company, a Scottish-run company which dealt in trade in the same field and was prominent in British Guiana, to the extent that the men who ran it were called the "Rothschilds of Demerara" on account of their wealth and influence.
Retrieved 20 March 2019.
After the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade in the British Empire in the 1830s, Rainy became involved in the Highland Clearances. Using monies from the payout to former slave-owners following the Slavery Abolition Act 1833, he purchased the islands of Raasay, South Rona and Eilean Fladday from Clan MacLeod in 1846: he removed from the land twelve townships of ninety-four Gaels families to make way for sheep farming, causing mass depopulation and displacement on the islands.
Harry Rainy, the noted pathologist and Professor of Forensic Medicine at the University of Glasgow was another brother, making George Rainy the uncle of Robert Rainy a Scottish Presbyterian divine for whom Rainy Hall in New College, Edinburgh is named.
It would become one of the most successful trading companies in the Caribbean, dealing with sugar plantations in the Caribbean which were worked by African slaves. These families created strong connections to each other through marriage. By the time that George Rainy joined the company as a partner in Liverpool it had become Sandbach, Tinne & Company.
Retrieved 20 March 2019.
According to the journal of J.C. Cheveley, who visited in 1821, the estates in Demerara containing the slave-worked sugar plantations, were heavily mortgaged to Sandbach, Tinne & Company. He stated that many estates which were mortgaged out had to rely on the company for shipping out sugar on ships owned by them, through their agents in Guiana and Britain.
According to the Legacies of British Slave-Ownership at the University College London, Rainy was awarded a payment as a slave trader in the aftermath of the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 with the Slave Compensation Act 1837. The British Government took out a £15 million loan (worth £ in ) with interest from Nathan Mayer Rothschild and Moses Montefiore which was subsequently paid off by the British taxpayers (ending in 2015). Rainy had a large number of primary and secondary claims, thirty in total. Rainy owned 2793 slaves in Guiana and received a £146,295 payment at the time (worth £ in ).
Retrieved 20 March 2019.
Some Scottish newspapers, including, The Sunday Post have claimed that Rainy received the largest payout of all the slave owners. Retrieved on 20 March 2019. The largest plantations which Rainy owned in Guiana were Leonora, Zeelandia, La Jalousie & Fellowship, among others.
Retrieved 20 March 2019.
Donald MacLeod (born 1805), a crofter from Torran, Raasay provided testimony to the Napier Commission on 22 May 1883 in regards to abuses under Rainy's tenure at Raasay. He stated that when Rainy came to control the island he enacted a rule that nobody should marry on the island, so that the local natives could not reproduce their population. This has been described as "a measure of control reminiscent of the slave plantations". MacLeod described an incident where a man by the name of John MacLeod decided to marry, contrary to Rainy's ruling and to make an example of him, he was removed from his father's house, then fled to stay in a sheep cot, but that was set on fire as well and none of his friends or anybody else would dare to give him shelter for the night. Rainy cleared twelve townships of their inhabitants in total to set up sheep farming, with ninety-four Highland Scots families forced from the island, causing mass depopulation and displacement.
Scottish poet and Raasay-native Sorley MacLean authored the Scottish Gaelic poem Hallaig about the Rainy years on Raasay.
Retrieved 20 March 2019.
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