Scotch-Irish Americans

==Religion==
The Scotch-Irish immigrants to North America in the 18th century were initially defined in part by their [[Presbyterianism]].<ref name=Leyburn273>Leyburn 1962, p. 273</ref>  Many of the settlers in the Plantation of Ulster had been from dissenting and non-conformist religious groups which professed [[Calvinism|Calvinist]] thought. These included mainly Lowland Scot Presbyterians, but also English [[Puritan]]s and [[Quaker]]s, French [[Huguenot]]s and [[German Palatines]]. These Calvinist groups mingled freely in church matters, and religious belief was more important than nationality, as these groups aligned themselves against both their [[Catholic]] Irish and [[Anglican]] English neighbors.<ref>Hanna, Charles A., ''The Scotch-Irish: or the Scot in North Britain, North Ireland, and North America'', G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1902, p. 163</ref>

After their arrival in the New World, the predominantly Presbyterian Scotch-Irish began to move further into the mountainous back-country of Virginia and the Carolinas. The establishment of many settlements in the remote back-country put a strain on the ability of the Presbyterian Church to meet the new demand for qualified, college-educated clergy. Religious groups such as the [[Baptists]] and [[Methodist]]s had no higher education requirement for their clergy to be ordained, and these groups readily provided ministers to meet the demand of the growing Scotch-Irish settlements.<ref>Griffin, Patrick, ''The People with No Name:  Ireland's Ulster Scots, America's Scots Irish, and the Creation of a British Atlantic World'', Princeton University Press, 2001, pp. 164–165.</ref>  By about 1810, Baptist and Methodist churches were in the majority, and the descendants of the Scotch-Irish today remain predominantly Baptist or Methodist.<ref name=Leyburn295>Leyburn 1962, p. 295</ref>  Vann (2007) shows the Scotch-Irish played a major role in defining the [[Bible Belt]] in the Upper South in the 18th century. He emphasizes the high educational standards they sought, their "geotheological thought worlds" brought from the old country, and their political independence that was transferred to frontier religion.<ref>Barry Vann, "Irish Protestants and the Creation of the Bible Belt", ''Journal of Transatlantic Studies,'' 2007 5(1): 87–106</ref>

===Princeton===
In 1746, the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians created the College of New Jersey, later renamed [[Princeton University]]. The mission was training [[Old Side–New Side Controversy|New Light]] Presbyterian ministers. The college became the educational as well as religious capital of Scotch-Irish America. By 1808, loss of confidence in the college within the Presbyterian Church led to the establishment of the separate [[Princeton Theological Seminary]], but for many decades Presbyterian control over Princeton College continued. Meanwhile, Princeton Seminary, under the leadership of [[Charles Hodge]], originated a conservative theology that in large part shaped Fundamentalist Protestantism in the 20th century.<ref>Thomas Jefferson Wertenbaker,  "The College of New Jersey and the Presbyterians", ''Journal of the Presbyterian Historical Society,''  1958 36(4): 209–216</ref>

===Associate Reformed Church===
While the larger Presbyterian Church was a mix of Scotch-Irish and Yankees from New England, several smaller Presbyterian groups were composed almost entirely of Scotch-Irish, and they display the process of assimilation into the broader American religious culture. Fisk (1968) traces the history of the Associate Reformed Church in the Old Northwest from its formation by a union of Associate and Reformed Presbyterians in 1782 to the merger of this body with the Seceder Scotch-Irish bodies to form the [[United Presbyterian Church of North America|United Presbyterian Church]] in 1858. It became the Associate Reformed Synod of the West and remains centered in the Midwest. It withdrew from the parent body in 1820 because of the drift of the eastern churches toward assimilation into the larger Presbyterian Church with its Yankee traits. The Associate Reformed Synod of the West maintained the characteristics of an immigrant church with Scotch-Irish roots, emphasized the Westminster standards, used only the psalms in public worship, was Sabbatarian, and was strongly abolitionist and anti-Catholic. In the 1850s it exhibited many evidences of assimilation. It showed greater ecumenical interest, greater interest in evangelization of the West and of the cities, and a declining interest in maintaining the unique characteristics of its Scotch-Irish past.<ref>William L. Fisk, "The Associate Reformed Church in the Old Northwest: A Chapter in the Acculturation of the Immigrant", ''Journal of Presbyterian History,'' 1968 46(3): 157–174</ref>
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