Black Morrow

[1] In the tradition, the outlaw is described as a Romani or Scottish Traveller, Moor, a Saracen or, more commonly, an Irishman or from Ireland.

[2][3][4][5] The folklorist David MacRitchie took a strong interest in the ethnicity of the outlaw because of his dark skin, and the story is commonly quoted in modern Afrocentrist literature.

[6] According however to Scott, the ballad or dancing song "appears to have been composed about the reign of James V", while the story itself takes place during the late 15th century.

A different story related to the ballad[8] is found in Crawford's The Peerage of Scotland (1716) who mentions George Mackenzie, as having written down an oral tradition in 1680.

It is clear that the "Blackamoor" of both versions, stated in each to have been killed by young Maclellan, is the same as the chief of the "Moors" or "Saracens" whom Sir George Mackenzie speaks of as remembered in tradition as far back as 1680.

Walter Scott describes the Outlaw Murray of the ballad: "as a man of prodigious strength, possessing a batton or club, with which he laid lee (i.e. waste) the country for many miles round".