Scotch-Irish Americans: Difference between revisions

{{distinguish|Irish Americans|Irish Scottish people|Ulster Scots people}}

| group = ScotchScot-Irish Americans<br>Scots-Irish Americans

'''977,075 (0.3%) "ScotchScot-Irish" alone'''<br/>

'''Estimate of ScotsScot-Irish total'''<br />'''27,000,000''' (2004)<ref>''Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America'' (New York: Broadway Books, 2004), front flap: 'More than 27 million Americans today can trace their lineage to the Scots, whose bloodline was stained by centuries of continuous warfare along the border between England and Scotland, and later in the bitter settlements of England's Ulster Plantation in Northern Ireland.' {{ISBN|0-7679-1688-3}}</ref><ref name="Secret">{{cite news|last=Webb|first=James|author-link=Jim Webb|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB109814129391148708|title=Secret GOP Weapon: The Scots Irish Vote|work= [[The Wall Street Journal]]|date=October 23, 2004|access-date=September 7, 2008}}</ref><br />Up to 9.2% of the U.S. population (2004)<ref>{{cite report|publisher=[[United States Census Bureau]]|title=Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2004–2005|date=August 26, 2004|url=https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/2004/compendia/statab/124ed/tables/pop.pdf?#|page=8|access-date=June 6, 2019}}</ref>

| popplace = [[California]], [[Texas]], [[North Carolina]], [[Florida]], and [[Pennsylvania]]<br /> Historic populations in the [[Upper South]], [[Appalachia]], the [[Ozarks]] and Northernnorthern [[New England]]

'''Scotch-Irish''' (or '''Scots-Irish''') '''Americans''' are American descendants of [[Ulster Scots people]] (predominantly [[Ulster Protestants]]) who emigrated from [[Ulster]] (in[[Ireland|Ireland's]] thenorthernmost northeasternprovince) part ofto the islandUnited of Ireland) to AmericaStates during the 18th and 19th centuries. Their ancestors had originally migrated to Ulster mainly from the [[Scottish Lowlands]] and [[Northern England]] in the 17th century.<ref name="Dolan p. x">{{cite book|last=Dolan|first=Jay P.|title=The Irish Americans: A History|page=x|year=2008|isbn=978-1596914193|publisher=[[Bloomsbury Press]]|quote=The term [Scotch-Irish] had been in use during the eighteenth century to designate Ulster Presbyterians who had emigrated to the United States. From the mid-1700s through the early 1800s, however, the term Irish was more widely used to identify both Catholic and Protestant Irish. As long as the Protestants comprised the majority of the emigrants, as they did until the 1830s, they were happy to be known simply as Irish. But as political and religious conflict between Catholics and Protestants both in Ireland and the United States became more frequent, and as Catholic emigrants began to outnumber Protestants, the term Irish became synonymous with Irish Catholics. As a result, Scotch-Irish became the customary term to describe Protestants of Irish descent. By adopting this new identity, Irish Protestants in America dissociated themselves from Irish Catholics... The famine migration of the 1840s and '50s that sent waves of poor Irish Catholics to the United States together with the rise in anti-Catholicism intensified this attitude. In no way did Irish Protestants want to be identified with these ragged newcomers.}}</ref><ref>Scholarly estimates vary, but here are a few: "more than a quarter-million", [[David Hackett Fischer|Fischer, David Hackett]], ''[[Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America]]'' [[Oxford University Press]], USA (March 14, 1989), p. 606; "200,000", Rouse, Parke Jr., ''The Great Wagon Road'', Dietz Press, 2004, p. 32; "...250,000 people left for America between 1717 and 1800...20,000 were Anglo-Irish, 20,000 were Gaelic Irish, and the remainder Ulster-Scots or Scotch-Irish...", Blethen, H.T. & Wood, C.W., ''From Ulster to Carolina'', North Carolina Division of Archives and History, 2005, p. 22; "more than 100,000", Griffin, Patrick, ''The People with No Name'', [[Princeton University Press]], 2001, p. 1; "200,000", Leyburn, James G., ''The Scotch-Irish: A Social History'', [[University of North Carolina Press]], 1962, p. 180; "225,000", Hansen, Marcus L., ''The Atlantic Migration, 1607–1860'', Cambridge, Mass, 1940, p. 41; "250,000", Dunaway, Wayland F. ''The Scotch-Irish of Colonial Pennsylvania'', Genealogical Publishing Co (1944), p. 41; "300,000", Barck, O.T. & Lefler, H.T., ''Colonial America'', New York (1958), p. 285.</ref> In the 2017 [[American Community Survey]], 5.39 million (1.7% of the population) reported Scottish ancestry, an additional 3 million (0.9% of the population) identified more specifically with Scotch-Irish ancestry, and many people who claim "[[American ancestry]]" may actually be of Scotch-Irish ancestry.<ref>[https://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/ACS/17_1YR/B04006 2017 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20200213004654/https://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/ACS/17_1YR/B04006 |date=2020-02-13 }} - United States Census Bureau</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Leyburn|first=James G.|title=The Scotch-Irish: A Social History|url=https://archive.org/details/scotchirishsocia0000leyb|url-access=registration|publisher=[[University of North Carolina Press]]|place=[[Chapel Hill, North Carolina|Chapel Hill, NC]]|year=1962|isbn=978-0807842591|quote=[The Scotch-Irish] were enthusiastic supporters of the American Revolution, and thus were soon thought of as Americans, not as Scotch-Irish; and so they regarded themselves.|page=xi}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Carroll|first=Michael P.|title=American Catholics in the Protestant Imagination: Rethinking the Academic Study of Religion|publisher=[[Johns Hopkins University Press]]|place=[[Baltimore]]|year=2007|isbn=978-0-8018-8683-6|quote=...the character traits associated with "being Irish", in the minds of Protestant Americans, continue to resonate with the rhetoric of the American Revolution and with the emphases of evangelical Christianity. In all three contexts— Scotch-Irishness, the American Revolution, and evangelical Christianity— there is an emphasis on rugged individualism and autonomy, on having the courage to stand up for what you believe, and on opposition to hierarchical authority. The result is that...claiming an Irish identity is a way for contemporary Protestant Americans to associate themselves with the values of the American Revolution, or, if you will, a way of using ethnicity to 'be American.'|pages=25–26}}</ref>

The term ''Scotch-Irish'' is used primarily in the United States,<ref name=Leyburn327>Leyburn 1962, p. 327.</ref> with people in Great Britain or Ireland who are of a similar ancestry identifying as [[Ulster Scots people]]. Many left for North America, but over 100,000 Scottish Presbyterians still lived in Ulster in 1700.<ref>John Sherry, "Scottish Presbyterian networks in Ulster and the Irish House of Commons, 1692–1714." ''Parliaments, Estates and Representation'' 33.2 (2013): 120-139120−139 at p. 121. </ref> Many English-born settlers of this period were also Presbyterians. When King [[Charles I of England|Charles I]] attempted to force these Presbyterians into the [[Church of England]] in the 1630s, many chose to re-emigrate to North America where religious liberty was greater. Later attempts to force the Church of England's control over dissident Protestants in Ireland led to further waves of emigration to the trans-Atlantictransatlantic colonies.<ref>[http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~varockbr/scotpres.htm ''Scotch-Irish Presbyterians: From Ulster to Rockbridge'', by Angela M. Ruley 3 October 1993. Rootsweb]</ref>

The word "[[Scotch (adjective)|Scotch]]" was the favored adjective for things "''of Scotland''", including people, until the early 19th century, when it was replaced by the word "Scottish". People in [[Scotland]] refer to themselves as Scots, as a noun, or adjectivally/collectively as Scots or [[Scottish people|Scottish]]. The use of "Scotch" as an adjective has been dropped in the UK and Ireland where it is now more commonly regarded as offensive,<ref>{{cite news|title=6 times it's OK to use the word Scotch and why you don't want to get it wrong|work=[[Irish News]]|publisher=[[The Irish News Ltd.]]|date=17 November 2017|url=https://www.irishnews.com/magazine/daily/2017/11/16/news/6-times-it-s-ok-to-use-the-word-scotch-and-why-you-don-t-want-to-get-it-wrong-1189740/}}</ref> but remains in use in the U.S. in place names, names of plants, breeds of dog, a type of tape, a type of [[whiskey]], etc., and in the term Scotch-Irish.

An example of the use of the term is found in ''A History of Ulster'': "Ulster Presbyterians – known as the "'Scotch Irish"' – were already accustomed to being on the move, and clearing and defending their land."<ref>{{cite book|first=Jonathan|last=Bardon|title=A History of Ulster|publisher=Blackstaff Press|place=[[Belfast]]|year=1992|page=210}}</ref>

Many have claimed that such a distinction should not be used, and that those called Scotch-Irish are simply Irish.<ref name=Leyburn327/> Other Irish limit the term ''Irish'' to those of native Gaelic stock, and prefer to describe the [[Ulster Protestants]] as ''British'' (a description many Ulster Protestants have preferred themselves to ''Irish'', at least since the [[Irish Free State]] broke free from the United Kingdom, although ''Ulstermen'' has been adopted in order to maintain a distinction from the native Irish Gaels while retaining a claim to the North of Ireland).<ref> James G. Leyburn (1962). [http://www.irishgenealogy.com/surnames/migration-scotch-irish.htm "The Scotch-Irish"]. In ''The Scotch-Irish: A Social History''. University of North Carolina Press.</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Walker|first=Brian M.|title=We all can be Irish, British or both|work=[[Belfast Telegraph]]|publisher=[[Independent News & Media]]|url=http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/news-analysis/we-all-can-be-irish-british-or-both-31290843.html|date=June 10, 2015}}</ref> However, as one scholar observed in 1944, "in this country [the US], where they have been called Scotch-Irish for over two hundred years, it would be absurd to give them a name by which they are not known here.&nbsp;... Here their name is Scotch-Irish; let us call them by it."<ref>Wayland F. Dunaway, ''The Scotch-Irish of Colonial America'', 1944, University of North Carolina Press</ref>

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.<ref name="Jones 1980 p. 904">{{cite book|last=Jones|first=Maldwyn A.|year=1980|chapter=Scotch-Irish|editor-last=Thernstrom|editor-first=Stephan|editor-link=Stephan Thernstrom|editor-last2=Orlov|editor-first2=Ann|editor-last3=Handlin|editor-first3=Oscar|editor-link3=Oscar Handlin|title=Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups|place=[[Cambridge, Massachusetts|Cambridge, MA]]|publisher=[[Harvard University Press]]|pagepages=895-908895–908|isbn=978-0674375123|oclc=1038430174|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/harvardencyclope00ther|url=https://archive.org/details/harvardencyclope00ther/page/895}}</ref>

A separate migration brought many to [[Irish Canadian|Canada]], where they are most numerous in rural [[Ontario]] and [[Nova Scotia]].{{cncitation needed|date=March 2023}}

The first major influx of Scots and English into Ulster had come in 1606 during the settlement of east [[County Down|Down]] onto land cleared of native Irish by private landlords chartered by James.<ref>Philip Robinson, ''The Plantation of Ulster'', St. Martin's Press, 1984, pp. 52–55.</ref> This process was accelerated with James's official plantation in 1609, and further augmented during the subsequent [[Irish Confederate Wars]]. The first of the [[House of Stuart|Stuart]] Kingdoms to collapse into civil war was Ireland where, prompted in part by the anti-Catholic rhetoric of the [[Covenanters]] in Scotland, Irish Catholics launched a [[Irish Rebellion of 1641|rebellion in October]], 1641.<ref name="John Kenyon 1998 p. 278">John Kenyon, Jane Ohlmeyer, John Morrill, eds. (1998). ''The Civil Wars: A Military History of England, Scotland, and Ireland 1638–1660''. Oxford University Press. p. 278.</ref>

In reaction to the proposal by [[Charles I of England|Charles I]] and [[Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford|Thomas Wentworth]] to raise an army manned by Irish Catholics to put down the Covenanter movement in Scotland, the [[Parliament of Scotland]] had threatened to invade Ireland in order to achieve "the extirpation of [[Popery]] out of Ireland" (according to the interpretation of [[Richard Bellings]], a leading Irish politician of the time). The fear this caused in Ireland unleashed a wave of massacres against Protestant English and Scottish settlers, mostly in Ulster, once the rebellion had broken out. All sides displayed extreme cruelty in this phase of the war. Around 4000 settlers were massacred and a further 12,000 may have died of privation after being driven from their homes. This, along with Irish Catholic refugees fleeing, caused Ireland's population to drop by 25%.<ref> name="John Kenyon, Jane Ohlmeyer, John Morrill, eds. (1998). ''The Civil Wars: A Military History of England, Scotland, and Ireland 1638–1660''. Oxford University Press. p. 278.<"/ref>

[[William Petty]]'s figure of 37,000 Protestants massacred is far too high, perhaps by a factor of ten; certainly more recent research suggests that a much more realistic figure is roughly 4,000 deaths.<ref name=BBC-Lough-Kernan>Staff, [https://www.bbc.co.uk/legacies/myths_legends/northern_ireland/ni_6/article_2.shtml Secrets of Lough Kernan] [[BBC]], Legacies UK history local to you, website of the BBC. Accessed 17 December 2007</ref> In one notorious incident, the Protestant inhabitants of [[Portadown Massacre|Portadown]] were taken captive and then massacred on the bridge in the town.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.libraryireland.com/HullHistory/16412.php |title=The Rebellion of 1641-42 |publisher=Libraryireland.com |access-date=2012-06-04}}</ref> The settlers responded in kind, as did the [[Dublin Castle administration]], with attacks on the Irish civilian population. Massacres of native civilians occurred at [[Rathlin Island]] and elsewhere.<ref name=TR-143>{{cite book |surname1=Royle |given1=Trevor |year=2004 |title=Civil War: The Wars of the Three Kingdoms 1638–1660 |location=London |publisher=Abacus |isbn=978-0-349-11564-1 |page=143}}</ref>

During the course of the 17th century, the number of settlers belonging to [[Calvinism|Calvinist]] dissenting sects, including [[Scotland|Scottish]] and [[Northumbria]]n [[Presbyterianism|Presbyterians]], English [[Baptists]], French and Flemish [[Huguenot]]s, and [[German Palatines]], became the majority among the Protestant settlers in the province of Ulster. However, the Presbyterians and other dissenters, along with Catholics, were not members of the [[established church]] and were consequently legally disadvantaged by the [[Penal Laws (Ireland)|Penal Laws]], which gave full rights only to members of the [[Church of England]] or [[Church of Ireland]].{{cncitation needed|date=March 2023}}

Members of the Church of Ireland mostly consisted of the [[Protestant Ascendancy]], Protestant settlers of English descent who formed the [[elite]] of 17th and 18th century Ireland. For this reason, up until the 19th century, and despite their common fear of Irish Catholics, there was considerable disharmony between the [[Presbyterianism|Presbyterians]] and the Protestant Ascendancy in Ulster. As a result of this, many Ulster-Scots, along with Catholic native Irish, ignored religious differences to join the [[Society of United Irishmen|United Irishmen]] and participate in the [[Irish Rebellion of 1798]], in support of [[Age of Enlightenment]]-inspired [[Egalitarianism|egalitarian]] and [[Republicanism|republican]] goals.{{cncitation needed|date=March 2023}}

|caption2 = U.S. states by percentage of population self-identifying [[Irish Americans|Irish]] ancestry according to the U.S. Census Bureau.<ref name="ACS 2013–17 5Y Estimate" /> States where Irish ancestry is statistically overrepresented relative to the United States as a whole are in full green.{{huh?clarify|reason=All of the US is green in this map and "full" is not a standard adverb of colour. Not remotely clear what it's supposed to mean|date=October 2019}}

From 1717 for the next thirty or so years, the primary points of entry for the Ulster immigrants were Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and New Castle, Delaware.{{citation needed|date=December 2010}} The Scotch-Irish radiated westward across the [[Allegheny Mountains|Alleghenies]], as well as into [[Virginia]], [[North Carolina]], [[South Carolina]], [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]], [[Kentucky]], and [[Tennessee]].<ref>Crozier 1984; Montgomery 1989, 2001</ref> The typical migration involved small networks of related families who settled together, worshipped together, and intermarried, avoiding outsiders.<ref>Russell M. Reid, "Church Membership, Consanguineous Marriage, and Migration In a Scotch-Irish Frontier Population", ''Journal of Family History,'' 1988 13(4): 397-414397–414,</ref>

The Scotch-Irish moved up the [[Delaware River]] to [[Bucks County]], and then up the [[Susquehanna Valley|Susquehanna]] and [[Cumberland Valley|Cumberland]] valleys, finding flat lands along the rivers and creeks to set up their [[log cabin]]s, their [[grist mill]]s, and their Presbyterian churches.{{citation needed|date=December 2010}} Chester, Lancaster, and Dauphin counties became their strongholds, and they built towns such as Chambersburg, Gettysburg, Carlisle, and York; the next generation moved into western Pennsylvania.<ref>Dunaway, ''The Scotch-Irish of Colonial Pennsylvania'' (1944)</ref>

Because the Scotch-Irish settled the frontier of Pennsylvania and western Virginia, they were greatly affected by the [[French and Indian War]] and [[Pontiac's War]].<ref>Edwin Thomas Schock, Jr., "Historiography of the Conestoga Massacre through Three Centuries of Scholarship", ''Journal of the Lancaster County Historical Society'' 1994 96(3): 99-11299–112</ref> The Scotch-Irish were frequently in conflict with indigenous tribes, and did most of the fighting on the frontier from New Hampshire to the Carolinas.<ref name=Leyburn228>Leyburn 1962, p. 228</ref><ref>Ray Allen Billington, ''Westward Expansion'' (1972) pp 90-109; Toby Joyce, "'The Only Good Indian Is a Dead Indian': Sheridan, Irish-America and the Indians", ''History Ireland'' 2005 13(6): 26-2926–29</ref> The Scots-Irish also became the middlemen who handled trade and negotiations between indigenous tribes and the colonial governments.<ref>James E. Doan, "How the Irish and Scots Became Indians: Colonial Traders and Agents and the Southeastern Tribes", ''New Hibernia Review'' 1999 3(3): 9-199–19</ref>

Especially in Pennsylvania, whose pacifist [[Quaker]] leaders had made no provision for a militia, Scotch-Irish settlements were frequently destroyed and the settlers killed, captured or forced to flee after attacks by the [[Lenape]] (Delaware), [[Shawnee]], [[Seneca people|Seneca]], and others tribes of western Pennsylvania and the [[Ohio Country]].<ref>Kevin Kenny, ''Peaceable Kingdom Lost: The Paxton Boys and the Destruction of William Penn's Holy Experiment'', Oxford University Press, 2009, pp. 119-126119–126.</ref> Indigenous attacks occurred within 60 miles of Philadelphia, and in July 1763 the Pennsylvania Assembly authorized the raising of a 700-strong militia to be used only for defense. Formed into two units of rangers, the Cumberland Boys and the [[Paxton Boys]], the militia soon exceeded their mandate and began offensive forays against Lenape villages.<ref>Kenny, ''Peaceable Kingdom Lost'', pp. 69-7569–75.</ref>

The Paxton Boys' leaders received information, which they believed credible, that "hostile" tribes were receiving information and support from the "friendly" tribe of Susquehannock (Conestoga) settled in Lancaster County, who were under the protection of the Pennsylvania government. On December 14, 1763, about fifty Paxton Boys rode to Conestoga Town, near Millersville, Pennsylvania, and murdered six Conestogas. Pennsylvanian authorities placed the remaining fourteen Conestogas in protective custody in the [[Lancaster, Pennsylvania|Lancaster]] workhouse, but the Paxton Boys broke in, killing and mutilating all fourteen on December 27, 1763.<ref>Kenny, ''Peaceable Kingdom Lost'', pp. 130-146130–146.</ref>

In February 1764, the Paxton Boys with a few hundred backcountry settlers, primarily Scotch-Irish, marched on Philadelphia with the intent of killing the [[Moravian Indians]] who had been given shelter there. [[Benjamin Franklin]] led a delegation that met the marchers at [[Germantown, Philadelphia]]. Following negotiations the Paxton Boys agreed to disperse and submit their grievances in writing. <ref>Kenny, ''Peaceable Kingdom Lost'', pp. 161-171161−171.</ref>

In the 1790s, the new American government assumed the debts the individual states had amassed during the [[American Revolutionary War]], and the Congress placed a tax on whiskey (among other things) to help repay those debts. Large producers were assessed a tax of six cents a gallon. Smaller producers, many of whom were Scottish (often Scotch-Irish) descent and located in the more remote areas, were taxed at a higher rate of nine cents a gallon. These rural settlers were short of cash to begin with, and lacked any practical means to get their grain to market, other than fermenting and distilling it into relatively potable spirits.<ref name="Washington">{{cite book |last1=Chernow |first1=Ron |title=Washington |date=2010 |publisher=Penguin Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0-14-311996-8 |pages=721–725}}</ref>

From [[Pennsylvania]] to [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]], the western counties engaged in a campaign of harassment of the federal tax collectors. "Whiskey Boys" also conducted violent protests in Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina, and Georgia. This civil disobedience eventually culminated in armed conflict in the [[Whiskey Rebellion]]. President [[George Washington]] accompanied 13,000 soldiers from Carlisle to Bedford, Pennsylvania, where plans were completed to suppress the western Pennsylvania insurrection, and he returned to Philadelphia in his carriage.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Chernow |first1=Ron |titlename="Washington |date=2010 |publisher=Penguin Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0-14-311996-8 |pages=721–725}}<"/ref>

Archeologists and folklorists have examined the folk culture of the Scotch-Irish in terms of material goods, such as housing, as well as speech patterns and folk songs. Much of the research has been done in [[Appalachia]].<ref>Audrey J. Horning, "Myth, Migration, and Material Culture: Archeology and the Ulster Influence on Appalachia", ''Historical Archaeology'' 2002 36(4): 129-149129–149</ref>

The border origin of the Scotch-Irish is supported by study of the traditional music and folklore of the [[Appalachia|Appalachian Mountains]], settled primarily by the Scotch-Irish in the 18th century. Musicologist [[Cecil Sharp]] collected hundreds of folk songs in the region, and observed that the musical tradition of the people "seems to point to the North of England, or to the Lowlands, rather than the Highlands, of Scotland, as the country from which they originally migrated. For the Appalachian tunes...have far more affinity with the normal English folk-tune than with that of the Gaelic-speaking Highlander."<ref>Olive Dame Campbell & Cecil J. Sharp, ''English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, Comprising 122 Songs and Ballads, and 323 Tunes'', G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1917, p. xviii.</ref>

In terms of the stone houses they built, the [[hall and parlor house|"hall-parlor" floor plan]] (two rooms per floor with chimneys on both ends) was common among the gentry in Ulster. Scotch-Irish immigrants brought it over in the 18th century and it became a common floor plan in Tennessee, Kentucky, and elsewhere. Stone houses were difficult to build, and most pioneers relied on simpler log cabins.<ref>Carolyn Murray-Wooley, "Stone Houses of Central Kentucky: Dwellings of Ulster Gentry, 1780-1830", ''Journal of East Tennessee History,'' 2006 77 (Supplement): 50-5850–58</ref>

Montgomery (2006) analyzes the pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammatical distinctions of today's residents of the mountain South and traces patterns back to their Scotch-Irish ancestors.<ref>Michael Montgomery, "How Scotch-Irish Is Your English?" ''Journal of East Tennessee History'' 2006 77 (Supplement): 65-9165–91</ref> However, Crozier (1984) suggests that only a few lexical characteristics survived Scotch-Irish assimilation into American culture.<ref>Alan Crozier, "The Scotch-Irish Influence on American English", ''American Speech'' 1984 59(4): 310-331310–331</ref>

According to ''The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy'', by Kory L. Meyerink and Loretto Dennis Szucs, the following were the countries of origin for new arrivals coming to the United States before 1790. The regions marked * were part of, or ruled by, the Kingdom of Great Britain (the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland after 1801). The ancestry of the 3,929,326 population in 1790 has been estimated by various sources by sampling last names in the 1790 census and assigning them a country of origin.

{{small|{{flagicon|Northern Ireland|saltire}}Estimated Scotch-Irish American population in the [[Contiguous United States|Continental United States]] as of the [[1790 United States census|1790 Census]]{{flagicon|USA|1777-Ross}}}}<ref name="ACLS1929">{{cite book|author=American Council of Learned Societies. Committee on Linguistic and National Stocks in the Population of the United States|date=1932|title=Report of the Committee on Linguistic and National Stocks in the Population of the United States|publisher=[[U.S. Government Printing Office]]|location=Washington, D.C.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DVA42JB6IYsC&pg=PA101|author-link=American Council of Learned Societies|oclc=1086749050}}</ref>

! style="text-align:center;"| Population 1790-11790–1

[[File:Census Bureau Scotch-Irish Ancestry in the United irish1346States.gif|thumb|upright=1.15|Areas with greatest proportion of reported Scotch-Irish ancestry]]

The states with the most [[Ulster Scots people|Scotch-Irish]] populations as of 2020:<ref>{{cite web|url=http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_10_1YR_DP02&prodType=table|archive-url=https://archive.today/20200212212624/http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_10_1YR_DP02&prodType=table|url-status=dead|archive-date=2020-02-12|title=American FactFinder - Results|author=Data Access and Dissemination Systems (DADS)}}</ref>

|+ {{small|{{flagicon|Northern Ireland|saltire}}Estimated Scotch-Irish American population by state{{flagicon|USA}}}}<ref name="ACS2020states">{{cite web|url=https://data.census.gov/cedsci/table?g=0100000US%240400000&tid=ACSDT5Y2020.B04006|title=Table B04006 - People Reporting Ancestry - 2020 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates, All States|publisher=[[United States Census Bureau]]|access-date=October 30, 2022|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220717015112/https://data.census.gov/cedsci/table?g=0100000US%240400000&tid=ACSDT5Y2020.B04006|archive-date=July 17, 2022}}</ref><ref name="ACS2020">{{cite web|url=https://data.census.gov/cedsci/table?t=Ancestry&tid=ACSDT5Y2020.B04006|title=Table B04006 - People Reporting Ancestry - 2020 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates|publisher=[[United States Census Bureau]]|access-date=October 30, 2022|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220713211542/https://data.census.gov/cedsci/table?t=Ancestry&tid=ACSDT5Y2020.B04006|archive-date= July 13, 2022}}</ref>

After their arrival in the New World, the predominantly Presbyterian Scotch-Irish began to move further into the mountainous back-country of Virginia and the Carolinas. The establishment of many settlements in the remote back-country put a strain on the ability of the Presbyterian Church to meet the new demand for qualified, college-educated clergy. Religious groups such as the [[Baptists]] and [[Methodist]]s had no higher education requirement for their clergy to be ordained, and these groups readily provided ministers to meet the demand of the growing Scotch-Irish settlements.<ref>Griffin, Patrick, ''The People with No Name: Ireland's Ulster Scots, America's Scots Irish, and the Creation of a British Atlantic World'', Princeton University Press, 2001, pp. 164-165164–165.</ref> By about 1810, Baptist and Methodist churches were in the majority, and the descendants of the Scotch-Irish today remain predominantly Baptist or Methodist.<ref name=Leyburn295>Leyburn 1962, p. 295</ref> Vann (2007) shows the Scotch-Irish played a major role in defining the [[Bible Belt]] in the Upper South in the 18th century. He emphasizes the high educational standards they sought, their "geotheological thought worlds" brought from the old country, and their political independence that was transferred to frontier religion.<ref>Barry Vann, "Irish Protestants and the Creation of the Bible Belt", ''Journal of Transatlantic Studies,'' 2007 5(1): 87-10687–106</ref>

In 1746, the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians created the College of New Jersey, later renamed [[Princeton University]]. The mission was training [[Old Side–New Side Controversy|New Light]] Presbyterian ministers. The college became the educational as well as religious capital of Scotch-Irish America. By 1808, loss of confidence in the college within the Presbyterian Church led to the establishment of the separate [[Princeton Theological Seminary]], but for many decades Presbyterian control over Princeton College continued. Meanwhile, Princeton Seminary, under the leadership of [[Charles Hodge]], originated a conservative theology that in large part shaped Fundamentalist Protestantism in the 20th century.<ref>Thomas Jefferson Wertenbaker, "The College of New Jersey and the Presbyterians", ''Journal of the Presbyterian Historical Society,'' 1958 36(4): 209-216209–216</ref>

While the larger Presbyterian Church was a mix of Scotch-Irish and Yankees from New England, several smaller Presbyterian groups were composed almost entirely of Scotch-Irish, and they display the process of assimilation into the broader American religious culture. Fisk (1968) traces the history of the Associate Reformed Church in the Old Northwest from its formation by a union of Associate and Reformed Presbyterians in 1782 to the merger of this body with the Seceder Scotch-Irish bodies to form the [[United Presbyterian Church of North America|United Presbyterian Church]] in 1858. It became the Associate Reformed Synod of the West and remains centered in the Midwest. It withdrew from the parent body in 1820 because of the drift of the eastern churches toward assimilation into the larger Presbyterian Church with its Yankee traits. The Associate Reformed Synod of the West maintained the characteristics of an immigrant church with Scotch-Irish roots, emphasized the Westminster standards, used only the psalms in public worship, was Sabbatarian, and was strongly abolitionist and anti-Catholic. In the 1850s it exhibited many evidences of assimilation. It showed greater ecumenical interest, greater interest in evangelization of the West and of the cities, and a declining interest in maintaining the unique characteristics of its Scotch-Irish past.<ref>William L. Fisk, "The Associate Reformed Church in the Old Northwest: A Chapter in the Acculturation of the Immigrant", ''Journal of Presbyterian History,'' 1968 46(3): 157-174157–174</ref>

{{refimprovesectionmore citations needed section|date=September 2020}}

* {{cite book|editor-last1=Bailyn|editor-first1=Bernard|editor1-link=Bernard Bailyn|editor-last2=Morgan|editor-first2=Philip D.|editor2-link=Philip D. Morgan|title=Strangers Within the Realm: Cultural Margins of the First British Empire|year=2012|publisher=[[University of North Carolina Press]]}} Scholars analyze colonial migrations. [https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=TKXqCQAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=Strangers+Within+the+Realm&otspg=6aXLQCuzFD&sig=CBgi01zcKIAfkfLVgIIZQCf-pygPP1 online]

* Esbenshade, Richard. "Scotch-Irish Americans." in ''Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America'', edited by Thomas Riggs, (3rd ed., vol. 4, Gale, 2014), pp. 87-100&nbsp;87–100. [https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX3273300156/GPS?u=wikipedia&sid=GPS&xid=27347afb Online free]

* Jones, Maldwyn A. "Scotch-Irish." ''Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups'' (1980): 895-908895–908. [https://archive.org/details/harvardencyclope0000unse_z1f1 online]

* Keller, Kenneth W. "The Origins of Ulster Scots Emigration to America: A Survey of Recent Research." ''American Presbyterians'' 70.2 (1992): 71-8071–80. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/23332623 online]

** [[Rowland Berthoff|Berthoff, Rowland]]. "Celtic Mist over the South", ''Journal of Southern History'' 52 (1986): 523-46523–46 is a strong attack; rejoinder on 547-50547−50

[[Category:European-American societydiaspora in the United States]]

[[Category:Scotch-Irish Americandiaspora in the United States| ]]