Hard Neighbors: The Scotch-Irish Invasion of Native America and the Making of an American Identity, Gallloway - B

            In the 17th century, England invited Presbyterian Scots to settle in Ulster to act as a buffer between the English and the 'wild' Irish. A century later, many moved to the American frontier. "They were recurrent colonizers and they perpetually opened new killing grounds." Their identity "had roots in Northern Ireland  but was made largely in America."  Battling Indians was central to their frontier experience. 

           The people from the English-Scotch borderlands went to Ireland to claim the lands the monarchy had confiscated. It was a violent place where they lived on the cusp of famine.  Between 150,000 and 200,000 went to America. They were "a double-distilled selection of some of the most disorderly inhabitants of a deeply disordered land." "Unlike 19th century immigration, pre-industrial immigration was not primarily an urban phenomenon; the newcomers gravitated to the frontier." They replaced the indigenous peoples from Maine to Georgia. The Indians they encountered were part of a fluid constantly moving society. 

            The racial hatred that dominated the interactions did not erupt until the French and Indian War. Most of the regular French forces were defending Canada, leaving the frontier fighting to the frontiersmen and the natives. Released from any need to collaborate or cooperate, each side flung itself at the other with a ferocity and violence unseen previously. The die was cast on the side of vicious personal animosity. The coastal legislatures were content to leave the Scotch-Irish on their own on the borders. Thus, the war shaped "their identity as a people in conflict with Indians and at odds with government." Relations between the adversaries worsened when the war was over. Near Paxton, Pennsylvania, locals slaughtered twenty Conestoga Indians under government protection. When the public labeled this an outrage, the Scotch-Irish threatened to march on Philadelphia. "The Paxton Boys' brutality that was anomalous and shocking in 1763 would soon become the normal." The conflict continued when the Revolution began. Both the central and state governments promised soldiers land in lieu of pay, pushing more whites to the frontier. The British encouraged the Indians to wage war on the settlers, who willingly pushed back. Each side committed atrocities and massacred the other mercilessly. Although the war in the east stopped in 1781, the fighting continued in the west, particularly in the Ohio Valley, because America wanted as much expansion as possible before a treaty was negotiated. Although the Scotch-Irish continued to be known for the troublesome nature, now at least they were identified as Americans patriots.

           In the postwar era, fighting Indians continued, alongside the Scotch-Irish belief that they had earned the land and did not have to pay either taxes or rent. Ulster immigrants continued to pour into the borderlands, reenforcing those who were opposed to a strong federal government.  The frontiersmen were central players in the 1791 Whiskey Rebellion that required President Washington to send troops to western Pennsylvania. The arrival of  Jacksonian democracy in the 19th century ended the government's policy of trying to suppress conflicts between the settlers and the natives. Trespass and expulsion became the name of the game. Andrew Jackson was the embodiment of the Scotch-Irish frontiersman. "He was the driving force behind Indian removal." His presidency featured the removal of 46,000 Indians from 100 million acres. Congress authorized his removing all Indians east of the Mississippi. "The national identity that Jackson formed and that shaped American politics for the next generation was grounded in western expansion and Indian removal, and ultimately, in violence."

         Even before the US acquired Louisiana, settlers were flooding across the Mississippi, where intrusion once again led to Indian dispossession. The Scotch-Irish made significant contributions in Texas fighting for decades. (For the record, Lonesome Dove identifies Woodrow Call as born in Scotland, and Augustus McCrae born in Tennessee - clearly both are Scotch-Irish and clearly represent the clan well).

          Of course, the Scotch-Irish blended into the mainstream of American culture. They became the "heart and soul" of American "nation building." They loathed the Catholic Irish who came in a torrent after them, and made efforts to make certain other Americans understood they were Scotch Presbyterians, who only spent a passing generation or so in Ireland. Emphatically, they were not Irish. The frontier has been mythologized in America, and per famed historian Frederick Jackson Turner, was the defining experience in the development of the US. And many historians credit the Scotch-Irish as the leaders on the frontier. The author points out that today's Scotch-Irish folks are Trump's people. Long before Trump, noted historian David Hackett Fischer identified the Scotch-Irish as the people from Appalachia to Texas who  fought most of America's wars and highlighted Sgt. York and John McCain's family. Fischer identified the Puritan, Quaker, Cavalier and Scotch-Irish folkways as the principal definers of early America in his brilliant book, Albion's Seed. However, at 899 pages it weighs in rather heavily. A better option is American Nations by Woodward, a journalist who brings in more groups and does so in only 314 pps. I gave his book an A on this blog in January, 2019.