Scotch-Irish Americans

==American settlement==
{{multiple image
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 |image1   = Scotch Irish or American ancestry by county.png
 |caption1 = U.S. counties by percentage of population self-identifying Scotch-Irish and [[American ancestry]] according to the [[United States Census Bureau|U.S. Census Bureau]] [[American Community Survey]] 2013–2017 5-Year Estimates.<ref name="ACS 2013–17 5Y Estimate">{{cite web|url=http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_13_5YR_DP03&prodType=table|archive-url=https://archive.today/20150117113227/http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_13_5YR_DP03&prodType=table|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 17, 2015|title=B04006 – PEOPLE REPORTING SINGLE ANCESTRY 2013-2017 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates|publisher=[[United States Census Bureau|U.S. Census Bureau]]|access-date=June 3, 2019}}</ref> Counties where Scotch-Irish and American ancestry are statistically overrepresented relative to the United States as a whole are in dark orange.
 |image2   = Irish ancestry by state.png
 |caption2 = U.S. states by percentage of population self-identifying [[Irish Americans|Irish]] ancestry according to the U.S. Census Bureau.<ref name="ACS 2013–17 5Y Estimate" /> States where Irish ancestry is statistically overrepresented relative to the United States as a whole are in full green.{{clarify|reason=All of the US is green in this map and "full" is not a standard adverb of colour. Not remotely clear what it's supposed to mean|date=October 2019}}
 |image3   = Irish Catholics by state.png
 |caption3 = U.S. states where self-identified Irish Americans are overrepresented by self-identified [[Catholic Church in the United States|Catholics]] according to the [[Pew Research Center]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Catholics - Religion in America: U.S. Religious Data, Demographics and Statistics|publisher=[[Pew Research Center]]|url=https://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/religious-tradition/catholic/|access-date=June 3, 2019}}</ref> States where Catholics are statistically overrepresented relative to the United States as a whole are in vivid red.
 |image4   = Irish Protestants by state.png
 |caption4 = U.S. states where self-identified Irish Americans are overrepresented by self-identified [[Protestantism in the United States|Protestants]] according to the Pew Research Center.<ref>{{cite web|title=Evangelical Protestants - Religion in America: U.S. Religious Data, Demographics and Statistics|publisher=[[Pew Research Center]]|url=https://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/religious-tradition/evangelical-protestant/|access-date=June 3, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Mainline Protestants - Religion in America: U.S. Religious Data, Demographics and Statistics|publisher=[[Pew Research Center]]|url=https://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/religious-tradition/mainline-protestant/|access-date=June 3, 2019}}</ref> States where Protestants are statistically overrepresented relative to the United States as a whole are in vivid blue.
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[[File:Portrait of Scotch-Irish-American boy 1909.jpg|thumb|Scotch-Irish-American boy in [[Hawaii]], 1909]]
Scholarly estimate is that over 200,000 Scotch-Irish migrated to the Americas between 1717 and 1775.<ref>"...summer of 1717...", Fischer, David Hackett, ''Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America'', Oxford University Press, USA (March 14, 1989), p. 606; "...early immigration was small,...but it began to surge in 1717.", Blethen, H.T. & Wood, C.W., ''From Ulster to Carolina'', North Carolina Division of Archives and History, 2005, p. 22; "Between 1718 and 1775", Griffin, Patrick, ''The People with No Name'', Princeton University Press, 2001, p. 1; etc.</ref> As a late-arriving group, they found that land in the coastal areas of the British colonies was either already owned or too expensive, so they quickly left for the more mountainous interior where land could be obtained less expensively. Here they lived on the first frontier of America. Early frontier life was challenging, but poverty and hardship were familiar to them. The term [[hillbilly]] has often been applied to their descendants in the mountains, carrying connotations of poverty, backwardness and violence.

The first trickle of Scotch-Irish settlers arrived in New England. Valued for their fighting prowess as well as for their Protestant dogma, they were invited by [[Cotton Mather]] and other leaders to come over to help settle and secure the frontier. In this capacity, many of the first permanent settlements in [[Maine]] and [[New Hampshire]], especially after 1718, were Scotch-Irish and many place names as well as the character of Northern New Englanders reflect this fact. The Scotch-Irish brought the potato with them from Ireland (although the potato originated in South America, it was not known in North America until brought over from Europe). In Maine it became a staple crop as well as an economic base.<ref>Rev. A. L. Perry, Scotch-Irish in New England:Taken from The Scotch-Irish in America: Proceedings and Addresses of the Second Congress at Pittsburgh,1890.</ref>

From 1717 for the next thirty or so years, the primary points of entry for the Ulster immigrants were Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and New Castle, Delaware.{{citation needed|date=December 2010}} The Scotch-Irish radiated westward across the [[Allegheny Mountains|Alleghenies]], as well as into [[Virginia]], [[North Carolina]], [[South Carolina]], [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]], [[Kentucky]], and [[Tennessee]].<ref>Crozier 1984; Montgomery 1989, 2001</ref>  The typical migration involved small networks of related families who settled together, worshipped together, and intermarried, avoiding outsiders.<ref>Russell M. Reid, "Church Membership, Consanguineous Marriage, and Migration In a Scotch-Irish Frontier Population", ''Journal of Family History,'' 1988 13(4): 397–414,</ref>

===Pennsylvania and Virginia===
Most Scotch-Irish landed in Philadelphia. Without much cash, they moved to free lands on the frontier, becoming the typical western "squatters", the frontier guard of the colony, and what the historian [[Frederick Jackson Turner]] described as "the cutting-edge of the frontier".<ref>quoted in Carl Wittke, ''We Who Built America: The Saga of the Immigrant'' (1939) p. 51.</ref>

The Scotch-Irish moved up the [[Delaware River]] to [[Bucks County]], and then up the [[Susquehanna Valley|Susquehanna]] and [[Cumberland Valley|Cumberland]] valleys, finding flat lands along the rivers and creeks to set up their [[log cabin]]s, their [[grist mill]]s, and their Presbyterian churches.{{citation needed|date=December 2010}} Chester, Lancaster, and Dauphin counties became their strongholds, and they built towns such as Chambersburg, Gettysburg, Carlisle, and York; the next generation moved into western Pennsylvania.<ref>Dunaway, ''The Scotch-Irish of Colonial Pennsylvania'' (1944)</ref>

With large numbers of children who needed their own inexpensive farms, the Scotch-Irish avoided areas already settled by Germans and Quakers and moved south, through the [[Shenandoah Valley]], and through the Blue Ridge Mountains into Virginia.{{citation needed|date=December 2010}}  These migrants followed the [[Great Wagon Road]] from Lancaster, through Gettysburg, and down through Staunton, Virginia, to Big Lick (now Roanoke), Virginia. Here the pathway split, with the [[Wilderness Road]] taking settlers west into Tennessee and Kentucky, while the main road continued south into the Carolinas.<ref name=LeyburnNoPage/><ref>Rouse, Parke Jr., ''The Great Wagon Road'', Dietz Press, 2004</ref>

===Conflict with Native Americans===
Because the Scotch-Irish settled the frontier of Pennsylvania and western Virginia, they were greatly affected by the [[French and Indian War]] and [[Pontiac's War]].<ref>Edwin Thomas Schock, Jr., "Historiography of the Conestoga Massacre through Three Centuries of Scholarship", ''Journal of the Lancaster County Historical Society'' 1994 96(3): 99–112</ref> The Scotch-Irish were frequently in conflict with indigenous tribes, and did most of the fighting on the frontier from New Hampshire to the Carolinas.<ref name=Leyburn228>Leyburn 1962, p. 228</ref><ref>Ray Allen Billington, ''Westward Expansion'' (1972) pp 90-109; Toby Joyce, "'The Only Good Indian Is a Dead Indian': Sheridan, Irish-America and the Indians", ''History Ireland'' 2005 13(6): 26–29</ref> The Scots-Irish also became the middlemen who handled trade and negotiations between indigenous tribes and the colonial governments.<ref>James E. Doan, "How the Irish and Scots Became Indians: Colonial Traders and Agents and the Southeastern Tribes", ''New Hibernia Review'' 1999 3(3): 9–19</ref>

Especially in Pennsylvania, whose pacifist [[Quaker]] leaders had made no provision for a militia, Scotch-Irish settlements were frequently destroyed and the settlers killed, captured or forced to flee after attacks by the [[Lenape]] (Delaware), [[Shawnee]], [[Seneca people|Seneca]], and others tribes of western Pennsylvania and the [[Ohio Country]].<ref>Kevin Kenny, ''Peaceable Kingdom Lost: The Paxton Boys and the Destruction of William Penn's Holy Experiment'', Oxford University Press, 2009, pp. 119–126.</ref> Indigenous attacks occurred within 60 miles of Philadelphia, and in July 1763 the Pennsylvania Assembly authorized the raising of a 700-strong militia to be used only for defense. Formed into two units of rangers, the Cumberland Boys and the [[Paxton Boys]], the militia soon exceeded their mandate and began offensive forays against Lenape villages.<ref>Kenny, ''Peaceable Kingdom Lost'', pp. 69–75.</ref>

The Paxton Boys' leaders received information, which they believed credible, that "hostile" tribes were receiving information and support from the "friendly" tribe of Susquehannock (Conestoga) settled in Lancaster County, who were under the protection of the Pennsylvania government. On December 14, 1763, about fifty Paxton Boys rode to Conestoga Town, near Millersville, Pennsylvania, and murdered six Conestogas. Pennsylvanian authorities placed the remaining fourteen Conestogas in protective custody in the [[Lancaster, Pennsylvania|Lancaster]] workhouse, but the Paxton Boys broke in, killing and mutilating all fourteen on December 27, 1763.<ref>Kenny, ''Peaceable Kingdom Lost'', pp. 130–146.</ref>

In February 1764, the Paxton Boys with a few hundred backcountry settlers, primarily Scotch-Irish, marched on Philadelphia with the intent of killing the [[Moravian Indians]] who had been given shelter there. [[Benjamin Franklin]] led a delegation that met the marchers at [[Germantown, Philadelphia]]. Following negotiations the Paxton Boys agreed to disperse and submit their grievances in writing.<ref>Kenny, ''Peaceable Kingdom Lost'', pp. 161−171.</ref>

===American Revolution===
The [[United States Declaration of Independence]] contained 56 delegate signatures. Of the signers, eight were of Irish descent.{{Citation needed|date=March 2011}}   Two signers, [[George Taylor (Pennsylvania politician)|George Taylor]] and [[James Smith (delegate)|James Smith]], were born in Ulster. The remaining five Irish-Americans, [[George Read (U.S. statesman)|George Read]], [[Thomas McKean]], [[Thomas Lynch, Jr.]], [[Edward Rutledge]] and [[Charles Carroll of Carrollton|Charles Carroll]], were the sons or grandsons of Irish immigrants, and at least McKean had Ulster heritage.{{Citation needed|date=March 2011}}

In contrast to the Scottish Highlanders, the Scotch-Irish were generally ardent supporters of American independence from Britain in the 1770s. In Pennsylvania, Virginia, and most of the Carolinas, support for the revolution was "practically unanimous".<ref name=LeyburnNoPage/> One Hessian officer said, "Call this war by whatever name you may, only call it not an American rebellion; it is nothing more or less than a Scotch Irish Presbyterian rebellion."<ref name=LeyburnNoPage>Leyburn 1962, p. 305</ref>  A British major general testified to the House of Commons that "half the rebel Continental Army were from Ireland".<ref>Philip H. Bagenal, ''The American Irish and their Influence on Irish Politics'', London, 1882, pp 12-13.</ref>  Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, with its large Scotch-Irish population, was to make the first declaration for independence from Britain in the [[Mecklenburg Declaration]] of 1775.{{Disputed inline|Mecklenburg claim unverified|date=December 2016}}

The Scotch-Irish "[[Overmountain Men]]" of Virginia and North Carolina formed a militia which won the [[Battle of Kings Mountain]] in 1780, resulting in the British abandonment of a southern campaign, and for some historians "marked the turning point of the American Revolution".<ref>John C. Campbell, ''The Southern Highlander and his Homeland,'' (1921)</ref><ref>Theodore Roosevelt, ''The Winning of the West,'' (1906).</ref>

====Loyalists====
One exception to the high level of patriotism was the Waxhaw settlement on the lower Catawba River along the North Carolina-South Carolina boundary, where [[Loyalist (American Revolution)|Loyalism]] was strong. The area experienced two main settlement periods of Scotch-Irish. During the 1750s–1760s, second- and third-generation Scotch-Irish Americans moved from Pennsylvania, Virginia, and North Carolina. This particular group had large families, and as a group they produced goods for themselves and for others. They generally were [[Patriot (American Revolution)|Patriots]].

Just prior to the Revolution, a second stream of immigrants came directly from Ireland via Charleston. This group was forced to move into an underdeveloped area because they could not afford expensive land. Most of this group remained loyal to the Crown or neutral when the war began. Prior to [[Charles Cornwallis]]'s march into the backcountry in 1780, two-thirds of the men among the Waxhaw settlement had declined to serve in the army. The British massacre of American prisoners at the [[Battle of Waxhaws]] resulted in anti-British sentiment in a bitterly divided region. While many individuals chose to take up arms against the British, the British themselves forced the people to choose sides.<ref>Peter N. Moore (2006), "The Local Origins of Allegiance in Revolutionary South Carolina: The Waxhaws as a Case Study", ''South Carolina Historical Magazine'' 107(1): 26–41</ref>

===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"/>

===Influence on American culture and identity===
Author and U.S. Senator [[Jim Webb]] puts forth a thesis in his book ''[[Born Fighting]]'' (2004) to suggest that the character traits he ascribes to the Scotch-Irish such as loyalty to [[Kinship|kin]], extreme mistrust of governmental authority and legal strictures, and a propensity to [[Right to arms|bear arms]] and to use them, helped shape the American identity. In the same year that Webb's book was released, [[Barry A. Vann]] published his second book, entitled ''Rediscovering the South's Celtic Heritage''. As in his earlier book, ''From Whence They Came'' (1998), Vann argues that these traits have left their imprint on the Upland South. In 2008, Vann followed up his earlier work with a book entitled ''In Search of Ulster Scots Land: The Birth and Geotheological Imagings of a Transatlantic People'', which professes how these traits may manifest themselves in conservative voting patterns and religious affiliation that characterizes the Bible Belt.

===Iron and steel industry===
The iron and steel industry developed rapidly after 1830 and became one of the dominant factors in industrial America by the 1860s. Ingham (1978) examined the leadership of the industry in its most important center, Pittsburgh, as well as smaller cities. He concludes that the leadership of the iron and steel industry nationwide was "largely Scotch-Irish". Ingham finds that the Scotch-Irish held together cohesively throughout the 19th century and "developed their own sense of uniqueness".<ref>John Ingham, ''The Iron Barons'' (1978) quotes pp 7 and 228</ref>

New immigrants after 1800 made Pittsburgh a major Scotch-Irish stronghold. For example, [[Thomas Mellon]] (b. Ulster; 1813–1908) left Ireland in 1823 and became the founder of the famous Mellon clan, which played a central role in banking and industries such as aluminum and oil. As Barnhisel (2005) finds, industrialists such as [[James H. Laughlin]] (b. Ulster; 1806–1882) of [[Jones and Laughlin Steel Company]] constituted the "Scots-Irish Presbyterian ruling stratum of Pittsburgh society".<ref>Gregory Barnhisel (2005), ''James Laughlin, New Directions, and the Remaking of Ezra Pound'' p. 48</ref>