Isabelle Maclean

The Oath and the Covenant: the 'killing Times' in Scotland Isabelle Maclean

The latter part of the 1600's in Scotland has become known in the annals of time as the 'Killing times'. The Oath and The Covenant is a story based on the lives of these brave Scottish Presbyterian Covenanters, their object being to release their beloved Scotland from the strangling grasp of an English king, who claimed he had a 'Divine Right' to rule both church and state. The Covenanters never relinquished their determination to gain what they viewed as a God given right to worship freely. They endured inhumane treatment leveled upon them by King Charles II's armies in his attempt to subjugate them. John Whitelaw, the Martyr of Monkland, was one of many who was torn from the bosom of his family and finally gave his life to gain religious freedom. The story continues based upon the many accounts of those who were banished to the Americas. It was in America that they found friends among the Abeniki tribe of Indians, who taught the Scots needed skills to survive in this new land and drew them into their culture. They also found precious religious freedom to worship according to the dictates of their hearts-and not that of a king.