Scotch-Irish Immigration

The Irish were the largest group to enter the United States. Today, there are over 43 million that claim Irish descent. The Irish didn’t all come over at one time, but can be considered to be in three waves. The first wave was the missionary effort of the early medieval Christian church. The second was the fight of the Roman Catholic nobility. Finally, the third was the mass emigration since the great potato famine of the mid-19th Century.

The First Wave of Scotch-IrishThe people from Northern Ireland (Ulster), were called Scotch-Irish. After 1600, they had settled in Ulster, because they were encouraged by the English to plant a Protestant Presence in Catholic Ireland. For several generations, Scotch-Irish belonged to Presbyterian churches, and farmed land obtained from the English.

The first and second waves of immigration were mostly caused by conditions after 1717 that began to grow uneasy. There were periodic crop failures. Not only was farming their jobs, but it was the only food that they had to eat. Rents on their properties started to rise. Without being able to farm, the Irish had no way to pay off the rent. What little amount of women who had jobs, lost them due to a failing linen industry. Not a single Irish could live without a religious conflict. They all stood up for what they believed in. They believed that no one could possibly take away their freedom of religion. This led to fighting and killing of Irish against Irish. All of these conflicts combined is what led to a migration of over two hundred thousand-Irish over a sixty year period.

Those factors listed were what pushed Scotch-Irish from Ulster. They began their great migration to America. The Scotch-Irish mostly landed at Philadelphia, the colonies’ main port for immigrants in the first and second migration waves of the Irish. Most of the Scotch-Irish came to America as indentured servants. That was almost the only work that the unskilled Irish could do.

The Voyage to AmericaThe ship "Sully" set sail for PA on the 31st of May and at first was blown off course northward. By the 10th of Aug. the weather had turned very warm and their rations were down to 1 1/2# of bread per passenger per week. 2 weeks later, the ration was cut even further. In the next 12 days, they were reduced to 2 biscuits per week. Hunger and thirst reduced them to shadows. Many killed themselves by drinking salt water or their own urine. They were saved only by a providential rain. On Sept. 2, they finally saw land. Their journey had lasted 14 weeks or 3 1/2 months.

First the ones who could pay full price were allowed to pay and get off the boat. Next the healthy ones were sold to their new masters for the full fee. Then unhealthy ones were sold at auction. This process often took several weeks. If one of the family died, the rest of the family members were held accountable for passage fees of the deceased. However, like the Germans, the Ulstermen thought they had found the promised land.

The SettlementThe Scots/Irish occupied the hills around the settlements in PA, and later they did the same in Maryland. They chose that which most closely resembled the areas from which they'd come. Those Irish who had indentured themselves to reach the US, set out for the frontier immediately on fulfilling their Indenture. The "frontier" was 40-50 mi. west of Philadelphia, and south in the foothills of the mountains in Western Maryland.

They marked their property by cutting their initials in trees on the boundary of what they considered to be theirs, then cut circles in the bark to kill the tree. They refused to pay for the land, since God owned it. Immigrant Irish wives spun flax, milled the corn, worked in the fields and bore 10-15 children. They also educated their own children. The Irish fell trees and cleared 'round the stumps, rather than clearing the land properly, as the German immigrants had learned to do. Home made whiskey was important for trade and made a harsh life more tolerable.

Settlements

In Search of New OpportunitiesIt must have appeared to those people fresh off of the boat that this land was truly a land flowing with milk and honey. But it filled rapidly. Land became expensive. The most important reason why the Germans and Scots-Irish put what little they owned on their backs and took the southbound road was the cost of land in Pennsylvania. A fifty- acre farm in Lancaster County, PA would have cost 7 pounds 10 shillings in 1750. In the Granville District of North Carolina, which comprised the upper half of the state, five shillings would buy 100 acres. 

The Great Wagon RoadThere were only trails cut through the forest which spread from New Hampshire to Georgia. The Appalachian Mountains were a stern barrier between the Atlantic and the unknown interior of the continent. The settlers moved inland, and followed paths of the which the Indians had hunted and traded, many of these trails were worn down by the buffalo which once roamed the uplands in search for food. These paths followed valleys and river shores, extended southward to the Carolinas.

Progression of the Trail

WNC Mountain HeritageWNC is filled with people

that can trace their ancestry to the Scotch-Irish.

Map of Scotch-Irish Descendants Today

Grandfather Mountain~ Highland Games