Scotch-Irish Americans

===Whiskey Rebellion===
In the 1790s, the new American government assumed the debts the individual states had amassed during the [[American Revolutionary War]], and the Congress placed a tax on whiskey (among other things) to help repay those debts. Large producers were assessed a tax of six cents a gallon. Smaller producers, many of whom were Scottish (often Scotch-Irish) descent and located in the more remote areas, were taxed at a higher rate of nine cents a gallon. These rural settlers were short of cash to begin with, and lacked any practical means to get their grain to market, other than fermenting and distilling it into relatively potable spirits.<ref name="Washington">{{cite book |last1=Chernow |first1=Ron |title=Washington |date=2010 |publisher=Penguin Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0-14-311996-8 |pages=721–725}}</ref>

From [[Pennsylvania]] to [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]], the western counties engaged in a campaign of harassment of the federal tax collectors. "Whiskey Boys" also conducted violent protests in Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina, and Georgia. This civil disobedience eventually culminated in armed conflict in the [[Whiskey Rebellion]]. President [[George Washington]] accompanied 13,000 soldiers from Carlisle to Bedford, Pennsylvania, where plans were completed to suppress the western Pennsylvania insurrection, and he returned to Philadelphia in his carriage.<ref name="Washington"/>