With the increased conversation regarding the creation of a “New Confederacy” - I was amazed yesterday that the article I wrote over three days before posting on that topic managed to precede three different reports on the same exact topic on MSNBC’s Sunday discussion shows - I think it is important to understand that there is a very real Other South that is not the political stew we read about every day, the world of Governor DeSantis taking on Disney for being willing to support the progressive views of its employees and passing legislation attacking the LGBTQ community because they are weak and he can score points with his horrible supporters, or the execrable Governor Greg Abbot of Texas announcing he intends to pardon the murderer of a Black Lives Matter protestor found guilty by a jury of his peers, before the case even goes to appeal.
I would caution against anyone deriving from this that the Scotch-Irish of western Virginia held--in general--a moral opposition to enslavement as a thing to do. The less mountainous south was geographically perfect for plantations, so the institution entrenched itself there for economic reasons. The more hill-based Scotch-Irish, if wealthy enough, were likely to raise cattle, not cotton, so being large-scale slave-holders wasn't practical. But owning a few domestic workers was prestigious. Some of these were my ancestors, and I've discovered black distant cousins who know themselves to be descended from (for example) the "comfort woman" of our mutual g-g-g-grandfather. Similar info turns up in numerous wills. Beyond this observation, I agree with the trends your thesis suggests.
Thank you very much for your addition Emily. Yes, you are right that the upper classes would have been enslavers too (birds of a feather always flock together). The people I am writing about are the ones below that.
Thanks for this great summary, TC. May I be so bold as to recommend Arthur Herman's "How the Scots Invented the Modern World," which outlines the history of the Scots' movement of their values, sensibilities, organizational priorities and most importantly, their viewpoint and downright cussedness to the West, Australia, and Southern Asia in the areas colonized by the Brits. My own ancestors are from areas north of Durham and Newcastle and Tyrone County, Northern Ireland, who moved along due to famine, unemployment and religious differences. I attribute much of their "cussedness" to their lifelong lack of sunlight.
Many of us New Englanders are also feisty independent cusses...descended from the mentally tough holders from the "Borders" (the Scottish/English borderlands north of York & Durham, and the Welsh Border towns of Ludlow, Chester, Penrith, etc.). My own forebears hail from the East Anglia and Northern Yorkshire areas.
Looking at the globe, it appears that northern Ireland would have been 300-400 miles north of the latitude of Seattle, where I lived from conception to 4 and 7-8. There probably was significantly less sunlight in those places than in Seattle, which is known for being quite dreary at least half the year. Also, that 300-400 miles north would have left them with less vitamin D than even Seattleites have. I have several problems that are probably due to having gestated and lived those early years in Seattle, and the dearth of D, including terrible baby teeth (my adult teeth have been much better), and being mildly on the spectrum, both of which may be precipitated or aggravated by insufficient D. (Rule of thumb: if your shadow is longer than you are, the rays that catalyze production of D are being filtered out by the atmosphere.) So that cussedness--a wonderfully expressive word--may well be due ultimately to lack of D.
Seattle is the cloudiest major city in the lower 48, according to the Seattle Times, with 226 cloudy days per year. It is not by any stretch the rainiest, though. Inches of rain, in the high 30s, is very close to Wash. DC (where I lived for 23 years), and is not that much compared to Central Park's 50 inches/year. But Seattle rain comes down as drizzle much of the time, whereas it often pours in DC.
I look forward to another saga, I should say installment of the history giving birth to the causes of today. Enlightening today, TC. It is interesting that multiple sources are making clearer the roots of the New South. HCR's pair of pieces on the surrender of Lee and the forgiveness shown add well to yours written history, family roots included.
Thanks TC! You know so much! It was a joy to live and work in the mountains of West Virginia for 3 years in the late 70's, where the Scots-Irish accents still lilted on the breeze, the Saturday night clogging was always a hoot, and the civil war was still being fought between the east and west sides of Nicholas County. The poverty permeating the 8 counties where I served, though, was heartbreaking. Folks made do, while coal companies made $millions. Same old, same old old.
Great history lesson….when my late husband was alive we purchased large amount of land in Scotland to never be developed like our national and state parks
And we’re given title Laird and Lady …
Mike spoke Gaelic also and he wrote out
The Anam Cara and recited what it means during our marriage ceremony…..
We need Critical Race Theory taught in colleges and AP History courses in HS
other books that cover this situation and I can highly recommend are "American Nations" by Colin Woodard (I know I keep mentioning this book, but it just makes incredible sense) and "Albion's Seed" by David Hackett Fischer (which covers this stuff on a really "granular" level and is due for a re-reading on my end very, very soon). Fischer is one of my favorite living historians...he's published quite a few important books, the most (very) recent one being "African Founders."
Thanks, Tom. The Scotch-Irish were the source of a lot of my DNA, and you've described the migration patterns of some ancestors I've been able to trace, so this is extra interesting to me. Looking forward to more.
There was a real streak of Unionism in Texas in the 1850s. After the Republic was annexed into the United States, one-time Republic of Texas President Sam Houston became one of the new state's Senators. He voted for the Oregon Bill to settle Oregon as a free territory, and voted against the Kansas-Nebraska act. After he ran for governor of Texas and won. When the Texas legislature voted to secede from the Union, Houston refused to swear an oath to the Confederacy, writing:
"Fellow-Citizens, in the name of your rights and liberties, which I believe have been trampled upon, I refuse to take this oath. In the name of the nationality of Texas, which has been betrayed by the Convention, I refuse to take this oath. In the name of the Constitution of Texas, I refuse to take this oath. In the name of my own conscience and manhood, which this Convention would degrade by dragging me before it, to pander to the malice of my enemies, I refuse to take this oath. I deny the power of this Convention to speak for Texas. ... I protest. ... against all the acts and doings of this convention and I declare them null and void."
He advocated Texas not joining the Confederacy and said they should go back to being a republic. He retired to his home in Huntsville--now a state museum--and died in 1863.
Yeah, Houston was about the only really honorable guy among the collection of cashiered army officers, failed politicians, back alley assassins, slave catchers, rustlers, bank robbers and hooligans who were the Founding Fathers of Texas.
Thank you, TC, for a very interesting treatise today, which intertwines with my own and my husband's ancestral history. My ancestors were border English & Welsh, though they went south, rather than west and ended up in Australia, as free people, not convicted of any of the stuff and nonsense which were considered "transportation crimes". There are a bunch of histories about all of what you have written today and, perhaps tomorrow, out there. My husband's dad was from Brittany, so today's gift from you has touched both of us deeply. Thank you!
Effective summary. A lot of our national struggles have deep roots. A book along a similar vein is “The Cousins’ Wars” by Kevin Phillips (also author of Nixon’s Southern Strategy, similarly based on an understanding of the ancient roots of American demography--I’m not sure if he ever truly grappled with the harm his strategy caused, or his misunderstanding of the forces he was unleashing.)
Nixon was a complicated and difficult personality. Lost two brothers in childhood. Could never get his father to respect him. Thought (possibly rightly) that the 1960 election was stolen from him, which I think hurt him personally because at least while they were both senators he and Kennedy were friends, and if you watch the debates between the two, there was no animosity. And he turned around and stole the '68 election. And, where did I read this, just today, it was shameful what he did to the Supreme Court. I read it in the Hartmann Report, not the WaPo.
Actually, I was wondering if Kevin Phillips had grappled with the legacy of the Southern Strategy. I know that he was very disgusted with the Bush family, and wrote a book detailing the family’s role in financing the Nazis. Phillips seemed to have been a Main Street Republican, and was deeply suspicious of Walk Street, the financial sector, and the “awl bidness.” I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t be a MAGA type but he did certainly set in motion the conditions for Trumpism to exist.
I would caution against anyone deriving from this that the Scotch-Irish of western Virginia held--in general--a moral opposition to enslavement as a thing to do. The less mountainous south was geographically perfect for plantations, so the institution entrenched itself there for economic reasons. The more hill-based Scotch-Irish, if wealthy enough, were likely to raise cattle, not cotton, so being large-scale slave-holders wasn't practical. But owning a few domestic workers was prestigious. Some of these were my ancestors, and I've discovered black distant cousins who know themselves to be descended from (for example) the "comfort woman" of our mutual g-g-g-grandfather. Similar info turns up in numerous wills. Beyond this observation, I agree with the trends your thesis suggests.
Thank you very much for your addition Emily. Yes, you are right that the upper classes would have been enslavers too (birds of a feather always flock together). The people I am writing about are the ones below that.
Thanks for your insightful addition to this thread, Emily.
Me too.
Thanks for this great summary, TC. May I be so bold as to recommend Arthur Herman's "How the Scots Invented the Modern World," which outlines the history of the Scots' movement of their values, sensibilities, organizational priorities and most importantly, their viewpoint and downright cussedness to the West, Australia, and Southern Asia in the areas colonized by the Brits. My own ancestors are from areas north of Durham and Newcastle and Tyrone County, Northern Ireland, who moved along due to famine, unemployment and religious differences. I attribute much of their "cussedness" to their lifelong lack of sunlight.
Yes, I have read that book. The influence of the Scots and the Irish across the world is really remarkable.
Many of us New Englanders are also feisty independent cusses...descended from the mentally tough holders from the "Borders" (the Scottish/English borderlands north of York & Durham, and the Welsh Border towns of Ludlow, Chester, Penrith, etc.). My own forebears hail from the East Anglia and Northern Yorkshire areas.
Yes, the Borderers are part of this. They also moved to Ulster Plantation and then on to America.
Maybe part of the cussedness of some New Englanders is due to some pretty cussed weather in large parts of the region.
Looking at the globe, it appears that northern Ireland would have been 300-400 miles north of the latitude of Seattle, where I lived from conception to 4 and 7-8. There probably was significantly less sunlight in those places than in Seattle, which is known for being quite dreary at least half the year. Also, that 300-400 miles north would have left them with less vitamin D than even Seattleites have. I have several problems that are probably due to having gestated and lived those early years in Seattle, and the dearth of D, including terrible baby teeth (my adult teeth have been much better), and being mildly on the spectrum, both of which may be precipitated or aggravated by insufficient D. (Rule of thumb: if your shadow is longer than you are, the rays that catalyze production of D are being filtered out by the atmosphere.) So that cussedness--a wonderfully expressive word--may well be due ultimately to lack of D.
And they also get a lot of cloudiness and rain from the Gulf Stream.
Seattle is the cloudiest major city in the lower 48, according to the Seattle Times, with 226 cloudy days per year. It is not by any stretch the rainiest, though. Inches of rain, in the high 30s, is very close to Wash. DC (where I lived for 23 years), and is not that much compared to Central Park's 50 inches/year. But Seattle rain comes down as drizzle much of the time, whereas it often pours in DC.
I look forward to another saga, I should say installment of the history giving birth to the causes of today. Enlightening today, TC. It is interesting that multiple sources are making clearer the roots of the New South. HCR's pair of pieces on the surrender of Lee and the forgiveness shown add well to yours written history, family roots included.
Thanks TC! You know so much! It was a joy to live and work in the mountains of West Virginia for 3 years in the late 70's, where the Scots-Irish accents still lilted on the breeze, the Saturday night clogging was always a hoot, and the civil war was still being fought between the east and west sides of Nicholas County. The poverty permeating the 8 counties where I served, though, was heartbreaking. Folks made do, while coal companies made $millions. Same old, same old old.
Great history lesson….when my late husband was alive we purchased large amount of land in Scotland to never be developed like our national and state parks
And we’re given title Laird and Lady …
Mike spoke Gaelic also and he wrote out
The Anam Cara and recited what it means during our marriage ceremony…..
We need Critical Race Theory taught in colleges and AP History courses in HS
We need to know the good and horrible
History of our country… please keep
Educating ME ..appreciate you, Marsha
You’re really and intellectually
Thoughtful writer and educator
Ty bless your evening, Marsha 🌹
Many Scots came here as indentured servants and were
treated as badly as the Blacks
for a period of time. Arkansas has
its own enclave of Scots, primarily up in the northern mountain areas. They're not to be
messed with.
Yes, same with northern Louisiana.
other books that cover this situation and I can highly recommend are "American Nations" by Colin Woodard (I know I keep mentioning this book, but it just makes incredible sense) and "Albion's Seed" by David Hackett Fischer (which covers this stuff on a really "granular" level and is due for a re-reading on my end very, very soon). Fischer is one of my favorite living historians...he's published quite a few important books, the most (very) recent one being "African Founders."
"American Nations" is an excellent book, as is "American Character" by the same author. I highly recommend them both.
yes...he's an interesting historian, whose take on things isn't quite like anybody else's.
Thanks, Tom. The Scotch-Irish were the source of a lot of my DNA, and you've described the migration patterns of some ancestors I've been able to trace, so this is extra interesting to me. Looking forward to more.
It's good to know history as it was, and not the polished fantasy version(s).
Looking forward to the next installment, Tom.
Thanks for this fascinating history, TC.
There was a real streak of Unionism in Texas in the 1850s. After the Republic was annexed into the United States, one-time Republic of Texas President Sam Houston became one of the new state's Senators. He voted for the Oregon Bill to settle Oregon as a free territory, and voted against the Kansas-Nebraska act. After he ran for governor of Texas and won. When the Texas legislature voted to secede from the Union, Houston refused to swear an oath to the Confederacy, writing:
"Fellow-Citizens, in the name of your rights and liberties, which I believe have been trampled upon, I refuse to take this oath. In the name of the nationality of Texas, which has been betrayed by the Convention, I refuse to take this oath. In the name of the Constitution of Texas, I refuse to take this oath. In the name of my own conscience and manhood, which this Convention would degrade by dragging me before it, to pander to the malice of my enemies, I refuse to take this oath. I deny the power of this Convention to speak for Texas. ... I protest. ... against all the acts and doings of this convention and I declare them null and void."
He advocated Texas not joining the Confederacy and said they should go back to being a republic. He retired to his home in Huntsville--now a state museum--and died in 1863.
Yeah, Houston was about the only really honorable guy among the collection of cashiered army officers, failed politicians, back alley assassins, slave catchers, rustlers, bank robbers and hooligans who were the Founding Fathers of Texas.
An incredibly better iteration of this chapter of world history than I have gotten elsewhere.
Thank you, TC, for a very interesting treatise today, which intertwines with my own and my husband's ancestral history. My ancestors were border English & Welsh, though they went south, rather than west and ended up in Australia, as free people, not convicted of any of the stuff and nonsense which were considered "transportation crimes". There are a bunch of histories about all of what you have written today and, perhaps tomorrow, out there. My husband's dad was from Brittany, so today's gift from you has touched both of us deeply. Thank you!
Effective summary. A lot of our national struggles have deep roots. A book along a similar vein is “The Cousins’ Wars” by Kevin Phillips (also author of Nixon’s Southern Strategy, similarly based on an understanding of the ancient roots of American demography--I’m not sure if he ever truly grappled with the harm his strategy caused, or his misunderstanding of the forces he was unleashing.)
Nixon was a complicated and difficult personality. Lost two brothers in childhood. Could never get his father to respect him. Thought (possibly rightly) that the 1960 election was stolen from him, which I think hurt him personally because at least while they were both senators he and Kennedy were friends, and if you watch the debates between the two, there was no animosity. And he turned around and stole the '68 election. And, where did I read this, just today, it was shameful what he did to the Supreme Court. I read it in the Hartmann Report, not the WaPo.
https://hartmannreport.com/p/what-do-pornography-ginny-thomas
https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/01/26/abe-fortas-ginni-thomas/
Actually, I was wondering if Kevin Phillips had grappled with the legacy of the Southern Strategy. I know that he was very disgusted with the Bush family, and wrote a book detailing the family’s role in financing the Nazis. Phillips seemed to have been a Main Street Republican, and was deeply suspicious of Walk Street, the financial sector, and the “awl bidness.” I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t be a MAGA type but he did certainly set in motion the conditions for Trumpism to exist.
Phillips did finally decry the Southern Strategy.
I wouldn't be surprised if Phillips has stopped referring to himself as a Republican...I'll check.
I did...he's been registered as an Independent for DECADES.
I need to find that.
Geez O’Pete and Mary. This Scotch Irish stuff is complicated
And fascinating
Thank you