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Scottish Americans

Scottish Americans or Scots Americans (Scottish Gaelic: Ameireaganaich Albannach; Scots: Scots-American) are Americans whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in Scotland. Scottish Americans are closely related to Scotch-Irish Americans, descendants of Ulster Scots, and communities emphasize and celebrate a common heritage.[8] The majority of Scotch-Irish Americans originally came from Lowland Scotland and Northern England before migrating to the province of Ulster in Ireland (see Plantation of Ulster) and thence, beginning about five generations later, to North America in large numbers during the eighteenth century. The number of Scottish Americans is believed to be around 25 million, and celebrations of 'Scottishness' can be seen through Tartan Day parades, Burns Night celebrations, and Tartan Kirking ceremonies.

Significant emigration from Scotland to America began in the 1700s, accelerating after the Jacobite rising of 1745, the steady degradation of clan structures, and the Highland Clearances. Even higher rates of emigration occurred after these times of social upheaval.[a] In the 1920s, Scotland experienced a reduction in total population of 0.8%, totally absorbing the natural population increase of 7.2%: the U.S. and Canada were the most common destinations of these emigrants.[b][11]: 6  A common misconception is that most Scottish Americans are descended from Highlanders fleeing persecution or clearance. Instead, by far the commonest Scottish immigrant was an economic migrant from the Lowlands, attracted by the opportunities in North America.[9]: 11 

- 677,055 (1.7% of state population)

California

- 628,610 (2.8%)

Texas

- 475,322 (4.5%)

North Carolina

- 469,782 (2.3%)

Florida

- 325,588 (2.5%)

Pennsylvania

- 314,214 (2.7%)

Ohio

- 293,211 (2.8%)

Georgia

- 289,953 (3.0%)

Washington

Historical contributions[edit]

Explorers[edit]

The first Scots in North America came with the Vikings. A Christian bard from the Hebrides accompanied Bjarni Herjolfsson on his voyage around Greenland in 985/6 which sighted the mainland to the west.[29][30]


The first Scots recorded as having set foot in the New World were a man named Haki and a woman named Hekja, slaves owned by Leif Eiriksson. The Scottish couple were runners who scouted for Thorfinn Karlsefni's expedition in c. 1010, gathering wheat and the grapes for which Vinland was named.[31][32]


The controversial Zeno letters have been cited in support of a claim that Henry Sinclair, earl of Orkney, visited Nova Scotia in 1398.[33]


In the early years of Spanish colonization of the Americas, a Scot named Tam Blake spent 20 years in Colombia and Mexico. He took part in the conquest of New Granada in 1532 with Alonso de Heredia. He arrived in Mexico in 1534–5, and joined Coronado's 1540 expedition to the American Southwest.[34][35]


Scottish-American naturalist John Muir is perhaps best known for his exploration of California's Sierra Nevada mountains during the 19th century.

and pipe bands

Bagpiping

[82]

Burns Supper

Ceilidhs

the Scottish New Year

Hogmanay

festivities

St. Andrew's Day

- some places in the U.S. have their own tartan, and Scottish dress is worn by some Americans to celebrate their ancestral heritage.

Tartan

Albion

Montrose

Scotland

Glasgow

Paisley

Dundee

Perth

Dundee

Glasgow

Gretna

Argyle

Aberdeen

Melrose

Aberdeen

Glasgow

Perth Amboy

Albany

Aberdeen

Perth

Glencoe

Albany

Elgin

Argyle

Argyle

Dumfries

Aberdeen

Argyle

Some place names of Scottish origin (either named after Scottish places or Scottish immigrants) in the U.S. include:

Scottish diaspora

British American

Celtic music in the United States

Scots-Quebecer

Bell, Whitfield J. “Scottish Emigration to America: A Letter of Dr. Charles Nisbet to Dr. John Witherspoon, 1784.” William and Mary Quarterly 11#2 1954, pp. 276–289. , a primary source

online

Berthoff, Rowland Tappan. British Immigrants in Industrial America, 1790-1950. (Harvard University Press, 1953).

Bumsted, Jack M. "The Scottish Diaspora: Emigration to British North America, 1763–1815." in Ned C. Landsman, ed., Nation and Province in the First British Empire: Scotland and the Americas, 1600–1800 (2001) pp 127–50

online

Bueltmann, Tanja, Andrew Hinson, and Graeme Morton. The Scottish Diaspora. Edinburgh, Scotland: Edinburgh University Press, 2013.

Calder, Jenni. Lost in the Backwoods: Scots and the North American Wilderness Edinburgh, Scotland: Edinburgh University Press, 2013.

Calder, Jenni. Scots in the USA. Luath Press Ltd, 2014.

Dobson, David. Scottish emigration to colonial America, 1607-1785. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2011.

Dziennik, Matthew P. The Fatal Land: War, Empire, and the Highland Soldier in British America. (Yale University Press, 2015).

Erickson, Charlotte. Invisible Immigrants: the Adaptation of English and Scottish Immigrants in 19th Century America (Weidenfeld and Nicolson; 1972)

Hess, Mary A. "Scottish Americans." in Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America, edited by Thomas Riggs, *3rd ed., vol. 4, Gale, 2014), pp. 101–112.

Online

Hunter, James. Scottish exodus: travels among a worldwide clan (Random House, 2011); interviews with Clan MacLeod members

Landsman, Ned C. Scotland and Its First American Colony, 1683-1765. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2014.

McCarthy, James, and Euan Hague. "Race, nation, and nature: The cultural politics of 'Celtic' identification in the American West." Annals of the Association of American Geographers 94#2 (2004): 387–408.

McWhiney, Grady, and Forrest McDonald. "Celtic origins of southern herding practices." Journal of Southern History (1985): 165–182.

in JSTOR

Newton, Michael. “We’re Indians Sure Enough”: The Legacy of the Scottish Highlanders in the United States. Richmond: Saorsa Media, 2001.

Parker, Anthony W. Scottish Highlanders in Colonial Georgia: The Recruitment, Emigration, and Settlement at Darien, 1735-1748. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2002.

Ray, R. Celeste. Highland Heritage: Scottish Americans in the American South. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2001.

Szasz, Ferenc Morton. Scots in the North American West, 1790-1917. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2000.

Thernstrom, Stephan, ed. Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups. New Haven, CT: Harvard University Press, 1980.

Scottish Americans