Transcript Emigration to the Colonies - Western Carolina University

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-Irish
The 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 thousandIrish 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 America
The 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 Settlement
The 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.
Settlements
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 1015 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.
In Search of New Opportunities
It 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 Road
There 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 Heritage
WNC is filled with people
that can trace their
ancestry to the ScotchIrish.
Map of Scotch-Irish
Descendants Today
Grandfather Mountain~
Highland Games