Scots Irish Migration To The Bahamas In The Eighteenth Century

Beginning in the mid-16th century and down through the 18th century, thousands of immigrants of Scots-Irish origin migrated to the Bahamas, which included the Turks and Caicos Islands. The first, and smaller wave of immigrants came via Bermuda in the mid to late 1600s in the wake of the mass migration of pro-Presbyterians from northern Ireland to the Americas seeking refuge from religious persecution. Later, in the 18th century, as a consequence of the American Revolution, thousands of so-called Loyalists were exiled from the union of the original 13 rebellious colonies. Many of those exiled were of Scots-Irish origin. Thousands migrated to the islands of the Bahamas, where they eventually emerged as some of the leaders of society in all facets of administration and culture.

In the seventeenth century, thousands of lowland Scots crossed the channel to the northern part of Ireland to participate in a colonization effort established by James I. Many years later, political and economic events inspired the descendants of these sturdy adventurers to depart for yet another shore. Except for the English, the Scotch-Irish constituted the largest group of immigrants to eighteenth century America. The story of the Scotch-Irish in America begins long before James I's settlers set foot on Irish shores. Author Ron Chepesiuk traces the history from the British Isles' early Christian period to the time, hundreds of years later, when numerous American presidents would proudly trace their lineage to Scotch-Irish immigrants. Along the way Chepesiuk discusses the life of lowland Scots in Ireland, their reasons for emigration to America, their movement westward across their new land, and life on the colonial frontier. An appendix features sites of Scotch-Irish interest in the north of Ireland.

Publisher Description

Beginning with the origins of their population in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the author traces the Scotch-Irish development from Lowland Scotland to Northern Ireland to the American colonies.

Barbados is a small Caribbean island better known as a tourist destination rather than for its culture. The island was first claimed in 1627 for the English King and remained a British colony until independence was gained in 1966. This firmly entrenched British culture in the Barbadian way of life, although most of the population are descended from enslaved Africans taken to Barbados to work on the sugar plantations. After independence, an official desire to promulgate the country’s African heritage led to the revival and recontextualisation of cultural traditions. Barbadian tuk music, a type of fife and drum music, has been transformed in the post-independence period from a working class music associated with plantations and rum shops to a signifier of national culture, played at official functions and showcased to tourists. Based on ethnographic and archival research, Sharon Meredith considers the social, political and cultural developments in Barbados that led to the evolution, development and revival of tuk as well as cultural traditions associated with it. She places tuk in the context of other music in the country, and examines similar musics elsewhere that, whilst sharing some elements with tuk, have their own individual identities.

The stories behind the mass exodus from Great Brittan from 1600 to modern times

What was the course and consequence of the British Empire? The rights and wrongs, strengths and weaknesses of empire are a major topic in global history, and deservedly so. Focusing on the most prominent and wide-ranging empire in world history, the British empire, Jeremy Black provides not only a history of that empire, but also a perspective from which to consider the issues of its strengths and weaknesses, and rights and wrongs. In short, this is history both of the past, and of the present-day discussion of the past, that recognises that discussion over historical empires is in part a reflection of the consideration of contemporary states. In this book Professor Black weaves together an overview of the British Empire across the centuries, with a considered commentary on both the public historiography of empire and the politically-charged character of much discussion of it. There is a coverage here of social as well as political and economic dimensions of empire, and both the British perspective and that of the colonies is considered. The chronological dimension is set by the need to consider not only imperial expansion by the British state, but also the history of Britain within an imperial context. As such, this is a story of empires within the British Isles, Europe, and, later, world-wide. The book addresses global decline, decolonisation, and the complex nature of post-colonialism and different imperial activity in modern and contemporary history. Taking a revisionist approach, there is no automatic assumption that imperialism, empire and colonialism were ’bad’ things. Instead, there is a dispassionate and evidence-based evaluation of the British empire as a form of government, an economic system, and a method of engagement with the world, one with both faults and benefits for the metropole and the colony.

"This book is designed as an aid to family historians researching their origins in Ayrshire"--P. v.