This thesis investigates the influence and social impact of slaves in eighteenth century Scotland. It connects slave runaway advertisements, portraiture, court cases, enlightened thoughts, legal precedents, and anti- and pro-slavery sentiments which formed social discourse in eighteenth century Scottish society. Making the connections between these social elements present an alternative investigation of Scotlands history within the Atlantic Slave Trade and involvement in human bondage. Such investigation sheds light on the importance of shifting the current understanding of Scotlands slavery past from the Atlantic or Caribbean perspective of Scottish plantation owners and other Scots who participated in slaving communities throughout the Atlantic to social affairs within Scotland which influenced the entirety of the Scottish population, and later the entire world.