Neo's Corner : Part 1- Giving Birth to a Nation: The Scot-Irish Flame of Freedom

The issue of slavery in the United States predates its conquest by Europeans as the result of the "Discovery," of America. It is a well documented fact that wars between tribal groups resulted in captives being made slaves of the victors. Slavery is not limited to stereotypical racial boundaries.

English nobility considered the Irish little more than white, good for nothing ignorant slaves. Although not bartered, they were treated as slaves by the landed gentry. Prejudice among people groups has always been founded in dehumanizing those of lower class standing. The English press portrayed the Irish as barefoot, ignorant, monkey like people unworthy of the rights of those of more noble blood.

The term Scotch-Irish is first known to have been used to refer to people living in Northeastern Ireland. In a letter of April 14, 1573, in reference to Ulster, Elizabeth I of England stated, "We are given to understand that a nobleman named 'Sorley Boy' [MacDonnel] and others, who be of the Scotch-Irish race”. This term continued in usage for over a century before the earliest known American reference appeared in a Maryland affidavit in 1689/90.

Origins of Scot-Irish

Today, Scotch-Irish is an Americanism almost unknown in England, Ireland or Scotland. The term is somewhat unclear because some of the Scotch-Irish have little or no Scottish ancestry at all, as a large number of dissenter families had also been transplanted to Ulster from northern England. Smaller numbers of migrants also came from Wales and the southeast of England, and others still from Flanders, the German Palatinate, and France (such as the French Huguenot ancestors of Davy Crockett). What united these different national groups was their common Calvinist beliefs, and their separation from the established church (Church of England and Church of Ireland in this case). Nevertheless, a large Scottish element in the Plantation of Ulster gave the settlements a Scottish character.

Upon arrival in America, the Scotch-Irish at first usually referred to themselves simply as Irish, without the qualifier Scotch. It was not until a century later, following the surge in Irish immigration after the Great Irish Famine of the 1840s, that the descendants of the earlier arrivals began to commonly call themselves Scotch-Irish to distinguish them from the newer, largely destitute and predominantly Roman Catholic immigrants. At first, the two groups had little interaction in America, as the Scotch-Irish had become settled years earlier primarily in the Appalachian region, while the new wave of Irish American families settled primarily in port cities such as Boston, New York, Chicago, or New Orleans. However, many Irish migrated to the interior in the 19th century to work on large-scale infrastructure projects such as canals and railroads.

Some arthors suggest the term "Billy," originated in 17th-century Ireland. During the Williamite War, Protestant supporters (Scot-Irish) of King William III were often referred to as "Billy's Boys." During the rule of King William III, many reforms occured on behalf of the Irish. But with the end of King William III reign, Queen "bloody," Mary reversed many of these reforms. Mary I (18 February 1516 – 17 November 1558) was Queen of England and Ireland from July 1553 until her death. Her executions of Protestants caused her opponents to give her the sobriquet "Bloody Mary". Scot-Irish who were almost all Protestants fleed England for the lure of freedom in the Americas.

From 1710 to 1775, over 200,000 people emigrated from Ulster to the original thirteen American colonies. The largest numbers went to Pennsylvania. From that base some went south into Virginia, the Carolinas and across the South, with a large concentration in the Appalachian region; others headed west to western Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and the Midwest.

Many of these Scot-Irish formed what is know historically as the Regulator Society. Regulators of North Carolina, (1764–71), in American colonial history, vigilance society dedicated to fighting exorbitant legal fees and the corruption of appointed officials in the frontier counties of North Carolina. Deep-seated economic and social differences had produced a distinct east-west sectionalism in North Carolina. The colonial government was dominated by the eastern areas, and even county governments were controlled by the royal governor through his power to appoint local officers. Back-country (western) people who suffered from excessive taxes, dishonest officials, and exorbitant fees also became bitter about multiple office holdings. They formed an association called the Regulators, which sought vainly to obtain reforms. They then refused to pay taxes or fees, punished public officials, and interfered with the courts. Finally, the Regulator insurrection was crushed (many Regulators were hung) by Governor William Tryon at the Battle of Alamance (May 16, 1771). Many frontiersmen fled to Tennessee to form the Watauga Association.

The Watauga Association (sometimes referred to as the Republic of Watauga) was a semi-autonomous government created in 1772 by frontier settlers living along the Watauga River in what is now present day Elizabethton, Tennessee. Although it lasted only a few years, the Watauga Association provided a basis for what later developed into the state of Tennessee and likely influenced other western frontier governments in the trans-Appalachian region. North Carolina annexed the Watauga settlement area, by then known as the Washington District, in November 1776. Within a year, the area was placed under a county government, becoming Washington County, North Carolina, in November 1777. (This is the present day Washington County, Carter County and other areas now located in the northeast part of the state of Tennessee.)

Historians have often cited the Association as the earliest attempt by American-born colonists to form an independent democratic government. In 1774, Virginia governor Lord Dunmore called the Watauga Association a "dangerous example" of Americans forming a government "distinct from and independent of his majesty's authority." President Theodore Roosevelt later wrote that the Watauga settlers were the "first men of American birth to establish a free and independent community on the continent."

The Battle of Kings Mountain

It was out of the Watauga Association that the Transylvania land Company was formed. At the treaty of Sycamore Shoals the Cherokee "sold," most of Kentucky and middle Tennessee to those who formed this company. This group of pioneers created a government founded on what is known as the Cumberland Compact. The Cumberland Compact was the first government compact west of the Appalachian Mountains. The Treaty of Sycamore Shoals was the largest private land sale in American history. Out of the sale/treaty the inhabitants of Wagauga settled French Lick which later became Fort Nashboro. It was the inhabitants of Fort Nashboro that petitioned the fledling US government to form the State of Franklin that later became known as the state of Tennessee. Fort Nashboro became Nashville the state capitol

When the Scot-Irish "Billies," settled in the "Hills," of the Appalachian Mountains, they became known as Hillbillies. Hillbilly is a term (often derogatory) for people who dwell in rural, mountainous areas primarily in Appalachia, but also parts of the Ozarks in the United States. Due to its strongly stereotypical connotations, the term can be offensive to those Americans of Appalachian heritage. " As a late arriving group (to the American Colonies), 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 hill country where land could be had cheaply. Here they lived on the frontiers of America. Early frontier life was extremely 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; this word has its origins in Scotland and Ireland.

It is without question that it was the Scot-Irish desire to find freedom from the tyrany, control and injustice of the crown of England, that gave birth to the independence movement in the America's. Without the spark and tensity of the Scot-Irish the spark of independence might not have taken hold in the colonies.

Scotch-Irish (or Scots-Irish) Americans are American descendants of Presbyterian and other Protestant dissenters from the Irish province of Ulster who migrated to North America during the 18th and 19th centuries. Most of the Scotch-Irish were descended from Scottish and Northern English families who colonized Ireland during the Plantation of Ulster in the 17th century. While an estimated 36 million Americans (12% of the total population) reported Irish ancestry in 2006, and 6 million (2% of the population) reported Scottish ancestry, an additional 5.4 million (1.8% of the population) identified more specifically with Scotch-Irish ancestry. People in Great Britain or Ireland that are of a similar ancestry usually refer to themselves as Ulster Scots, with the term Scotch-Irish used only in North America.

Some American's with Scot-Irish roots