Highland Scots Of North Carolina

Meyer addresses himself principally to two questions. Why did many thousands of Scottish Highlanders emigrate to America in the eighteenth century, and why did the majority of them rally to the defense of the Crown. . . . Offers the most complete and intelligent analysis of them that has so far appeared.--William and Mary Quarterly Using a variety of original sources -- official papers, travel documents, diaries, and newspapers -- Duane Meyer presents an impressively complete reconstruction of the settlement of the Highlanders in North Carolina. He examines their motives for migration, their life in America, and their curious political allegiance to George III.

Examines the causes of the Scottish migration to the Cape Fear Area of North Carolina and their loyalty to the crown during the American Revolution.

Excerpt from The Highland Scots of North Carolina The hostile response of the English and Scottish peoples to these political and religious policies produced some of the most important events in their history. The actions of James I and Charles I stirred up a storm of protest in both England and Scotland. Civil War finally erupted during the reign of Charles 1. Charles was executed by the Puritan victors who then ruled England from 1649 to 1660. In 1660 the crown was restored to Charles II. His Catholic brother, james II, ascended the throne at Charles' death in 1685. James II was a blunt, relentless man who pursued his political and religious policies with such harshness that he soon alienated the members of the English and Scottish Parliaments, the Anglicans, and the Calvinists. In view of his advancing age and the Protestantism of the grown daughters who would succeed him, no attempt was made to depose James II until his bride gave birth to a son in 1688. This brought forth the threat of another Catholic king and triggered the Glorious Revolution of 1688. A coalition of political leaders advised James to leave the country and in vited James's daughter Mary and her husband William to become the joint monarchs of England and Scotland. Un willing to lose his head to the executioner's ax as his father had, James fled to France. After the reigns of William and Mary, and Queen Anne, their German nephew, the Elector of Hanover, became King George I of Great Britain in 1714. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Duncan Patterson I immigrated from Scotland to land near Fayetteville, North Carolina during or before 1745, later moving to land in what is now Harnett County, North Carolina. Descendants lived in North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas and elsewhere.

Each year, tens of thousands of people flock to Grandfather Mountain, North Carolina, and to more than two hundred other locations across the country to attend Scottish Highland Games and Gatherings. There, kilt-wearing participants compete in athletics, Highland dancing, and bagpiping, while others join clan societies in celebration of a Scottish heritage. As Celeste Ray notes, however, the Scottish affiliation that Americans claim today is a Highland Gaelic identity that did not come to characterize that nation until long after the ancestors of many Scottish Americans had left Scotland. Ray explores how Highland Scottish themes and lore merge with southern regional myths and identities to produce a unique style of commemoration and a complex sense of identity for Scottish Americans in the South. Blending the objectivity of the anthropologist with respect for the people she studies, she asks how and why we use memories of our ancestral pasts to provide a sense of identity and community in the present. In so doing, she offers an original and insightful examination of what it means to be Scottish in America.