Why Do So Many Scottish People Live in America?
Channel: Celtic History Decoded
Date: 2021-08-15

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Why Do So Many Scottish People Live in America? - Many people of Scottish descent live in America, but why is this the case? There are obviously various reasons why many Scottish people live in America, with around 20 million Americans (around 8% percent of the population) estimated to have some sort of Scottish descent. 

There are also many nods to Scotland in the US, including a village in Illinois called Bannockburn. The US and Canada even celebrate National Tartan Day on the 6th of April each year, with this date an homage to the 1320 Declaration of Arbroath, a crucially important document in Scottish history.

In this video, I am going to focus on the reasons why many people of Scottish descent specifically live in America, and leave those with Scotch-Irish descent for another video. 

Early Scottish emigration took place in the 1700s, particularly after the Jacobite rebellion of 1745 was defeated by the British army at the Battle of Culloden. Simply put, the Jacobites sought to restore the House of Stuart to the British throne, with Charles Edward Stuart, or Bonnie Prince Charlie, being an important Jacobite figure.  

In the aftermath of the Battle of Culloden, the Highland clan structure and Gaelic culture in general came under repeated attacks, with many Highlanders outright killed during this period. In 1747, the Act of Proscription was passed by the British government, which banned men and boys from wearing Highland dress, including tartan kilts and tartan coats. This resulted in many Scottish people sailing across the Atlantic Ocean to North America looking for a better life. South Carolina and Virginia were popular initial destinations. 

Some Scots also initially ended up in America as prisoners. For example, over 1,000 Jacobite prisoners were sent to Cape Fear in North Carolina by the British following the Jacobite rebellions of 1715 and 1745. Over the subsequent decades, many more thousands of Scots arrived in Cape Fear, with this settlement eventually being known as the Argyll Colony. Other Scots ended up in America as indentured servants, with around nine percent of Scots in New York at one point being indentured servants.

The Highland Clearances are another major factor why many Scottish people left their homeland. During the Highland clearances of the 18th and 19th centuries, many Highland tenants were forcibly evicted from their lands and homes in the name of making room for profitable sheep farming, and later, deer hunting. Many tenants were burned out of their homes. Whether coincidental or not, the Highland Clearances resulted in the further fracturing of what was left of the clan structure and the Highland way of life, with thousands-upon-thousands of Scots setting sail for North America.  

Sources:

Scotsman - The Highlander immigrants who helped build America https://www.scotsman.com/whats-on/arts-and-entertainment/highlander-immigrants-who-helped-build-america-1468631 

Wikipedia - Scottish Americans https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_Americans 

Wikipedia - Scottish Diaspora - 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_diaspora 

Scots and Emigration 1800 – 1950 handling collection -  https://www.nms.ac.uk/media/59284/scots-emigration-handling.pdf 

Encyclopaedia Britannica, Highland Clearances -  https://www.britannica.com/event/Highland-Clearances 

Encyclopedia.com - Immigration And Immigrants: Scots And Scots-Irish https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/immigration-and-immigrants-scots-and-scots-irish
 
BBC - Scottish emigration 1830s-1939 https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z4h39j6/revision/2 

Wikipedia - Highland Clearances https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highland_Clearances 

Scotland History Tours - Highland Stories: Clearances and The Duke of Sutherland https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUfgQv8QCtc 

Tacksman (Wikipedia) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacksman 

Emigrants from England to the American Colonies, 1773-1776 https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/49141/ 

Scotsman. Myth buster: Was tartan really banned after Culloden? https://www.scotsman.com/whats-on/arts-and-entertainment/myth-buster-was-tartan-really-banned-after-culloden-597252 

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Scottish People America