Mary MacPherson

"Mary MacPherson (1821-1898) known in Gaelic as Màiri Mhòr nan Òran (Big Mary of the Songs) was a Gaelic Poetess, Bard and Activist whose work focused on the Highland Clearances, and Land Struggles. ... when she returned to Skye she became ‘Bard of the Land League.’ She became actively involved in the Crofters' War and the Highland land struggles, which provided the themes of some of her best known songs. Her personal sense of injustice and empathy with the sufferings of the people inspired her songs and poetry, and she became a leading figure in the battle for Crofters Rights."

This anonymous 18th century poem shows strong opposition to the enclosure movement in the 18th century:

"The law locks up the man or woman

Who steals the goose from off the common,

But lets the greater felon loose

Who steals the common from the goose."

(Part of 18th century poem, in Boyle 2003, pp. 33–74

This process of driving peasants off the land, or enclosure of the Commons so that they could no longer be used by the community, began even earlier as documented on the European continent. by Marx, Silvia Federici, David Kubrin and others.