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Scottish American
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Scottish Americans or Scots Americans (Gaelic: Ameireaganaich Albannach) are citizens of the United States whose ancestry originates in Scotland. Scottish Americans are closely related to Ulster-Scots Americans, descendants of Ulster Scots, who in the US are part the same ethnic group. The majority of Ulster-Scots originally came from the lowlands and border country of Scotland before migrating to Ulster Province in Ireland (see Plantation of Ulster) and thence, beginning about five generations later, to North America in large numbers during the eighteenth century.
number of Americans of Scottish descent is estimated to be 20 to 25 million (up to 8.3% of the total US population), and Scots-Irish, 27 to 30 million (up to 10% of the total US population), the subgroups overlapping and not always distinguishable because of their shared ancestral surnames.
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Encyclopedia
Scottish Americans or Scots Americans (Gaelic: Ameireaganaich Albannach) are citizens of the United States whose ancestry originates in Scotland. Scottish Americans are closely related to Ulster-Scots Americans, descendants of Ulster Scots, who in the US are part the same ethnic group. The majority of Ulster-Scots originally came from the lowlands and border country of Scotland before migrating to Ulster Province in Ireland (see Plantation of Ulster) and thence, beginning about five generations later, to North America in large numbers during the eighteenth century.
Number of Scottish Americans
The number of Americans of Scottish descent is estimated to be 20 to 25 million (up to 8.3% of the total US population), and Scots-Irish, 27 to 30 million (up to 10% of the total US population), the subgroups overlapping and not always distinguishable because of their shared ancestral surnames. In the 2000 Census, self-reported Scottish ancestry, 1.7% of the total US population. Another 4.3 million self-reported Scots-Irish ancestry, for a total of 9.2 million Americans self-reporting some kind of Scottish descent. These self-reported numbers are regarded by demographers as massive under-counts, because Scottish ancestry is known to be disproportionately under-reported among the majority of mixed ancestry, and because areas where people reported "American" ancestry were the places where, historically, Scottish and Scots-Irish Protestants settled in America (that is: along the North American coast and the Southeastern United States). Scottish Americans descended from nineteenth-century Scottish immigrants tend to be concentrated in the West, while others in New England are the descendants of immigrants from the Maritime Provinces of Canada, especially in the 1920s. Given Scotland's population (just over 5 million), there are almost as many self-identified Scottish Americans as there are native Scots living in their home country.
Scottish Americans and African Americans
There has been a long tradition of influences between Scottish and the African American community. The great influx of Scots Presbyterians into the Carolinas introduced the African slaves to Christianity and their way of worship and singing. Even today, psalm singing and gospel music are the backbone of African American churchgoers. It has been long thought by the wider African American community that American Gospel music originated in Africa and was brought to the Americas by slaves. However recent studies by Professor Willie Ruff, a Black American ethno-musicologist at Yale University, concludes that African American Gospel singing was in fact was introduced and encouraged by Scottish Gaelic speaking settlers from North Uist. His study also concludes that the first foreign tongue spoken by slaves in America was not English but Scottish Gaelic taught to them by Gaelic speakers who left the Western Isles because of religious persecution. Traditional Scottish Gaelic psalm singing, or "precenting the line" as it is correctly known, in which the psalms are called out and the congregation sings a response, was the earliest form of congregational singing adopted by Africans in America. Professor Ruff focuses on Scottish settler influences that pre-date all other congregational singing by African Americans in America and found, in a North Carolina newspaper dated about 1740, an advertisement offering a generous reward for the capture and return of a runaway African slave who is described as being easy to identify because he only spoke Gaelic. Such cultural influences have remained until modern times, even a church in Alabama where the African American congregation worshipped in Gaelic as late as 1918, giving a clue to the extent to which the Gaels spread their culture - from North Carolina to Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi.
2006 American Community Survey
- Scottish 6,006,955 Americans
- Scots-Irish 5,393,554 Americans
Scottish Americans by state
The states with the most Scottish & Scots-Irish populations:
Scottish
Scots-Irish
The states with the top percentages of Scottish:
Scottish
Scots-Irish
US presidents of Scottish and Scots-Irish descent
At least twenty three presidents of the United States have some Scottish or Scots-Irish ancestry, although the extent of this varies. For example, Ronald Reagan's great grandfather was a Scot and Woodrow Wilson’s grandparents were both Scottish. To a lesser degree Bill Clinton, James K. Polk and Richard Nixon have less direct Scottish, Scots-Irish ancestry.
- George Washington 1st President.
- Thomas Jefferson 3rd President
- James Monroe 5th President
- Andrew Jackson, 7th President 1829-37
- William Henry Harrison, 9th President
- James Knox Polk, 11th President 1845-49
- James Buchanan, 15th President 1857-61
- Andrew Johnson, 17th president 1865-69
- Ulysses S. Grant, 18th President 1869-77
- Chester Alan Arthur, 21st President 1881-85
- Grover Cleveland, 22nd and 24th President 1885-89, 1893-97
- Benjamin Harrison, 23rd President 1889-93
- William McKinley, 25th President 1897-1901
- Theodore Roosevelt, 26th president 1901-09
- Woodrow Wilson, 28th President 1913-21
- Harry S. Truman, 33rd President 1945-53
- Lyndon B. Johnson, 36th President 1963-69
- Ronald Reagan, 40th President 1981-89
- George H. W. Bush, 41st President 1989-93
- Bill Clinton, 42nd President 1993-2001 (his fathers surname was Blythe)
- George W. Bush, 43rd President 2001-2009
- Barack Obama, 44th President 2009-present
Other American presidents of Scottish descent
- Sam Houston, President of Texas 1836-38 and 1841-44
Culture
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Some of the following aspects of Scottish culture can still be found in some parts of the USA.
National Tartan Day
National Tartan Day, held each year on April 6 in the United States and Canada, celebrates the historical links between Scotland and North America and the contributions Scottish Americans and Canadians have made to US and Canadian history and society. "Scottish Heritage Month" is quickly being adopted around the United States and Canada.
Highland Games
Scottish culture, food, and athletics are celebrated at Highland Games and Scottish Festivals throughout North America. One of the largest of these occurs yearly at Grandfather Mountain, North Carolina. However, in recent years, the games at Pleasanton, California have surpassed them in size. In addition to traditional Scottish sports such as the Caber toss and the Hammer throw, there are Whisky tastings, traditional foods such as Haggis, and traditional Scottish dance.
Scottish placenames
Some Scottish placenames in USA include:
- California
- Florida
- Dunedin, from Dun Eideann, Scottish Gaelic for Edinburgh
- Texas
- Washington State
- Massachusetts
See also
External links
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