Scotch-Irish Americans

===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>
Description	What you type	What you get
Italic	''Italic text''	Italic text
Bold	'''Bold text'''	Bold text
Bold & italic	'''''Bold & italic text'''''	*Bold & italic text*
Description	What you type	What you get
Reference	Page text.<ref>[https://www.example.org/ Link text], additional text.</ref>	Page text.^[1]
Named reference	Page text.<ref name="test">[https://www.example.org/ Link text]</ref>	Page text.^[2]
Additional use of the same reference	Page text.<ref name="test" />	Page text.^[2]
Display references	<references />	↑ Link text, additional text. ↑ Link text