Chapter 6, The Music of the Scots-Irish

from Our Most Priceless Heritage, The Legacy of the Scots-Irish in America

by Billy Kennedy

    "The distinctive styles of many modern-day American country, bluegrass and folk music performers can be traced directly back to the 18th century Ulster-Scots or Scots-Irish settlers.  An the dance tradition of the Appalachian region in the south eastern part of the United States has also very strong Ulster-Scots roots. 

     This is music and dance which crossed the Atlantic during the great waves of emigration and in the modern idiom.  It is a rich cultural expression which is being taken back to the homeland.

     The Ulster-Scots sound of drone notes, associated with the pipes and fiddlers, are very pronounced, and the story-telling balladry of the Scots-Irish diaspora remains deeply rooted in what is American country and folk music today.

     These were a people who brought with them to North America the old Scottish, Irish and English folk songs and ballads, and in remote communities in the Appalachian, Cumberland and Great Smoky Mountains, the songs stayed unaltered until the 20th century........"

Chapter 5, The Scots-Irish Presidents

from Our Most Priceless Heritage, The Legacy of the Scots-Irish in America

by Billy Kennedy

President Theodore Roosevelt on the Scotch(sic)-Irish

     "Along the western frontier of the colonies that were so soon to be the United States, among the foothills of the Alleghenies on the slopes of the wooded mountains, and in the long trough-like valleys that lay between the ranges, dwelt a peculiar and characteristically American people.

     The backwoods mountaineers were all cast in the same mould and resembled each other much more than any of them did their immediate neighbours of the plains.  The backwoodsmen of Pennsylvania had little in common with the peaceful population of Quakers and Germans who lived between the Delaware and Susquehanna rivers;  and their near kinsmen of the Blue Ridge and the Great Smoky Mountains were separated by the Blue Ridge and the Great Smoky Mountains were separated by the equally wide gulf from the aristocratic planter communities that flourished in the Tidewater regions of Virginia and the Carolinas.

     The backwoodsmen were American by birth and parentage, and of mixed race;  but the dominate strain in their blood was that of Presbyterian Irish - the Scotch(sic)-Irish as they were often called.  Full credit has been awarded the Roundhead and the Cavalier for their leadership in our history; nor have we been altogether blind to the deeds of the Hollander and the Huguenot;  but i is doubtful if we have wholly realize the importance of the part played by that stern and virile people, the Irish whose preachers taught the creed of Knox and Calvin.  These Irish representatives of the Covenanters were in the West almost what the Puritans were in the North-East, and more than the Cavaliers were in the South.  Mingled with the descendants of many other races, they nevertheless formed the kernel of the distinctively and intensely American stock who were the pioneers of our people in the march Westwards.

     The were a truculent and obstinate people and gloried in the warlike renown of their forefathers, the men who had followed Oliver Cromwell and who had shared the defence of Derry and in the victories of the Boyne and Aughrim.  The West was won by those who have........."

A list of Scots-Irish descendants who became president of the United States:  Andrew Jackson, James Buchanan, James Knox Polk, Andrew Johnson, Ulysses Simpson Grant, Chester A. Arthur, Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Harry Truman, Richard Millhouse Nixon, James Earl Carter, George Bush, William Jefferson Clinton & George W. Bush.

Scots around the world
The Scots-Irish in the Hills of Tennessee

An article excerpted from:

http://www.electricscotland.com/history/world/tennessee.htm

An Irishwoman's Diary

According to the Tennessee census bureau, one in five Tennesseans can trace their roots directly to the Scots-Irish settlers of the 18th century. Most of these settlers are of Ulster Protestant/Presbyterian stock who were forced under British rule to flee their country. So claims Billy Kennedy, who has researched the topic and written about it in his book, The Scots-Irish in the Hills of Tennessee.

The Scots-Irish originated in Lowland Scotland and moved to Ulster throughout the 17th century. At the start things were good, as Ulster was under the rule of King William III who granted them civil and religious liberties.

The Scots, who were originally involved in farming, began to establish industries with the French Huguenots, allies of King William. The two groups came together and established churches and schools for their people.

William's reign ended in 1702 when he was succeeded by his sister-in-law, Anne. She passed a series of acts which were unfavorable to the Scots, placed severe restrictions on their Presbyterian faith and forced many of them out of their jobs.

Along with this, Ulster was experiencing an economic crisis; the textile industry was in a recession, small peasant farmers could not cope with the droughts of those years and landlords were charging exorbitant rents. Faced with this and the embitterment of the discriminatory religious policies, many of the Scots settlers found they had no choice but to leave Ulster and start a new life in America.

The first ship to leave Ulster was The Friends' Goodwill which set sail from Larne, County Antrim for Boston in April 1717.

Emigration continued throughout the century and became so widespread that the British Government was eventually forced to sit up and take notice. A commission was appointed to investigate the cause of emigration, and some of the religious laws were relaxed.

On reaching North America, the Scots-Irish headed for Pennsylvania, the Carolinas and Virginia. They were warmly received and noted for their honesty, independence of spirit and ability to work hard. They tended to stick together and, because they had little money, were driven to the frontier regions, the hills and inland areas where land was cheap.

In June 1796, when Tennessee became a state, the Ulster settlers moved to its hills and set up home. Once established, they began to set up churches and schools and became pioneers of education in the region. Presbyterianism became the first Christian denomination to be established in the state and today accounts for 132,344 members.

Along with religion, the settlers brought with them their traditions of storytelling, singing, dancing and making "moonshine", illicit whisky. To this day, a lot of the country and Western music, as well as Blue Grass music, can be traced back to the Ulster settlers. Dolly Parton is said to be a descendant of the Scots-Irish.

The traditional square dance, clogging to fiddle-backed music, also comes from the settlers. In those days, the fiddler was one of the most respected people in the area.

The practice of distilling illegal whiskey had its origins in 16th-century Scotland, but was brought to Ulster when the Scots moved. Both whiskey and brandy were made from ingredients such as barley, raisins, rye and corn which grew in abundance around the hills of Tennessee. The moonshine, dubbed "white lightning", was very potent and readily available in the area.

After the Revolutionary War, whiskey was taxed and the mountain settlers threatened to take up arms against the government of George Washington. This incident became known as the "Whiskey Revolution" and was eventually settled.

When the alcoholic prohibition was imposed in the 1920s, the distilling of moonshine became widespread throughout the US, although it eventually died out in most states. However, moonshine-making persists in the Appalachia region of Tennessee, a tradition carried on by the distant relatives of the 17th-century settlers.

Although most Scots-Irish made a career of farming, several became involved in politics and went on to great things, including the establishment of great cities.

Of the 56 signatures on the Declaration of Independence, July 4th, 1776, eight were of Scots-Irish descent. Eleven US Presidents, including Jackson, Wilson and Nixon, can trace direct ancestry back to the Ulster settlers. Also, Sam Houston, the man responsible for wresting Texas from Mexican control, was the grandson of an Ulster Presbyterian, as was the frontiersman and later Congressman, Davy Crockett.

So it is with great pride that Tennesseans trace their blood back to Ireland and remember their ancestors who left the hillsides of Antrim and Down to create a civilisation in a wilderness and help to lay the foundations of what today is possibly the greatest nation on the earth.

The Scots-Irish in the Hills of Tennessee by Billy Kennedy. Causeway Press, costs £8.99 paperback, £14.99 hardback.