Scottish Americans or Scots Americans (

Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic ( gd, Gàidhlig ), also known as Scots Gaelic and Gaelic, is a Goidelic language (in the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family) native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a Goidelic language, Scottish Gaelic, as well as ...

: ''Ameireaganaich Albannach''; sco, Scots-American) are

Americans Americans are the Citizenship of the United States, citizens and United States nationality law, nationals of the United States, United States of America.; ; Although direct citizens and nationals make up the majority of Americans, many Multi ...

whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. Scottish Americans are closely related to

Scotch-Irish Americans Scotch-Irish (or Scots-Irish) Americans are American descendants of Ulster Protestants who emigrated from Ulster in northern Ireland to America during the 18th and 19th centuries, whose ancestors had originally migrated to Ireland mainly from t ...

, descendants of Ulster Scots, and communities emphasize and celebrate a common heritage.Celeste Ray, 'Introduction', p. 6, id., 'Scottish Immigration and Ethnic Organization in the United States', pp. 48-9, 62, 81, in id. (ed.), ''The Transatlantic Scots'' (Tuscaloosa, AL:

University of Alabama Press The University of Alabama Press is a university press founded in 1945 and is the scholarly publishing arm of the University of Alabama. An editorial board composed of representatives from all doctoral degree granting public universities within Al ...

, 2005). The majority of Scotch-Irish Americans originally came from Lowland Scotland and Northern England before migrating to the province of

Ulster Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label= Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional Irish provinces. It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United King ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

(see ''

Plantation of Ulster The Plantation of Ulster ( gle, Plandáil Uladh; Ulster-Scots: ''Plantin o Ulstèr'') was the organised colonisation (''plantation'') of Ulstera province of Irelandby people from Great Britain during the reign of King James I. Most of the sett ...

'') and thence, beginning about five

generation A generation refers to all of the people born and living at about the same time, regarded collectively. It can also be described as, "the average period, generally considered to be about 20–⁠30 years, during which children are born and gr ...

s later, to North America in large numbers during the eighteenth century. Today, the number of Scottish Americans is believed to be around 25 million, and celebrations of ‘ Scottishness’ can be seen through major Tartan Day parades and

Burns Night A Burns supper is a celebration of the life and poetry of the poet Robert Burns (25 January 175921 July 1796), the author of many Scots poems. The suppers are normally held on or near the poet's birthday, 25 January, known as Burns Night ( sc ...

celebrations. Significant emigration from Scotland to America began in the 1700s, accelerating after the

Jacobite rising of 1745 The Jacobite rising of 1745, also known as the Forty-five Rebellion or simply the '45 ( gd, Bliadhna Theàrlaich, , ), was an attempt by Charles Edward Stuart to regain the Monarchy of Great Britain, British throne for his father, James Franci ...

, the steady degradation of clan structures, and the

Highland Clearances The Highland Clearances ( gd, Fuadaichean nan Gàidheal , the "eviction of the Gaels") were the evictions of a significant number of tenants in the Scottish Highlands and Islands, mostly in two phases from 1750 to 1860. The first phase resulte ...

. Even higher rates of emigration occurred after these times of social upheaval. In the 1920s, Scotland experienced a reduction in total population of 0.8%, totally absorbing the natural population increase of 7.2%: the USA and Canada were the most common destinations of these emigrants. A common misconception is that most Scottish Americans are descended from Highlanders fleeing persecution or clearance. Instead, by far the commonest Scottish immigrant was an economic migrant from the Lowlands, attracted by the opportunities in North America.

Numbers

The table shows the ethnic Scottish population in the British colonies from 1700 to 1775. In 1700 the total population of the colonies was 250,888, of whom 223,071 (89%) were white and 3.0% were ethnically Scottish.Colonial America To 1763
By Thomas L. Purvis].

1790 population of Scottish and Scotch-Irish origin by state

Census

The number of Americans of Scottish descent today is estimated to be 20 to 25 million (up to 8.3% of the total US population), and Scotch-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

surname In some cultures, a surname, family name, or last name is the portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family, tribe or community. Practices vary by culture. The family name may be placed at either the start of a person's full name ...

s and heritage. The majority of Scotch-Irish Americans originally came from Lowland Scotland and Northern England before migrating to the province of

(see ''

'') and thence, beginning about five

s later, to North America in large numbers during the eighteenth century. In the 2000 census, 4.8 million Americans self-reported Scottish ancestry, 1.7% of the total US population. Over 4.3 million self-reported Scotch-Irish ancestry, for a total of 9.2 million Americans self-reporting some kind of Scottish descent. 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,Mary C. Walters, ''Ethnic Options: Choosing Identities in America'' (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990), pp. 31-6. and because areas where people reported "American" ancestry were the places where, historically, Scottish and Scotch-Irish

Protestants Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

settled in

America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

(that is: along the North American coast,

Appalachia Appalachia () is a cultural region in the Eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York State to northern Alabama and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Newfoundland and Labrador, Ca ...

, and the Southeastern

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

). Scottish Americans descended from nineteenth-century Scottish emigrants tend to be concentrated in the West, while many in

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

are the descendants of emigrants, often Gaelic-speaking, from the

Maritime Provinces The Maritimes, also called the Maritime provinces, is a region of Eastern Canada consisting of three provinces: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. The Maritimes had a population of 1,899,324 in 2021, which makes up 5.1% of Ca ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, from the 1880s onward. Americans of Scottish descent outnumber the population of Scotland, where 4,459,071 or 88.09% of people identified as ethnic Scottish in the 2001 Census.

Scottish origins by state

The states with the largest populations of either Scottish or Scotch Irish ancestral origin: *

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

- 677,055 (1.7% of state population) *

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

- 628,610 (2.8%) *

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

- 475,322 (4.5%) *

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

- 469,782 (2.3%) *

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

- 325,588 (2.5%) *

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

- 314,214 (2.7%) *

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

- 293,211 (2.8%) *

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

- 289,953 (3.0%) The states with the top percentages of Scottish or Scotch-Irish residents: *

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...

(6.0% of state population) *

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...

(5.5%) *

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

(5.3%) *

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

(5.0%) *

Wyoming Wyoming () is a U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the south ...

and

(4.5% each) *

South Carolina )''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

(4.4%) *

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyom ...

and

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

(4.2% each) *

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

(4.0%) The

metropolitan Metropolitan may refer to: * Metropolitan area, a region consisting of a densely populated urban core and its less-populated surrounding territories * Metropolitan borough, a form of local government district in England * Metropolitan county, a typ ...

and micropolitan areas with the top percentage of Scottish or Scotch-Irish residents: *

Boone, NC Boone is a town in and the county seat of Watauga County, North Carolina, United States. Located in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina, Boone is the home of Appalachian State University and the headquarters for the disaster and ...

(9.1% of micropolitan area population) * Barre, VT and Sevierville, TN (8.3% each) *

Asheville, NC Asheville ( ) is a city in, and the county seat of, Buncombe County, North Carolina. Located at the confluence of the French Broad and Swannanoa rivers, it is the largest city in Western North Carolina, and the state's 11th-most populous cit ...

(8.1%) *

Marion, NC Marion is a city in and the county seat of McDowell County, North Carolina, McDowell County, North Carolina, United States. Founded in 1844, the city was named in honor of Francis Marion, Brigadier General Francis Marion, the American Revolution ...

and Pinehurst-Southern Pines, NC (7.7% each) *

Jackson, WY Jackson is a town in Teton County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 10,760 at the 2020 census, up from 9,577 in 2010. It is the largest town in Teton County and its county seat. Jackson is the principal town of the Jackson, WY-ID Micro ...

and

Lebanon, NH Lebanon is a city in Grafton County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 14,282 at the 2020 census, up from 13,151 at the 2010 census. Lebanon is in western New Hampshire, south of Hanover, near the Connecticut River. It is the hom ...

(7.0%) *

Cullowhee, NC Cullowhee
, from the North Carolina Collection website at the

(6.8%) * Craig, CO (6.5% each) *

Morehead City, NC Morehead City is a port town in Carteret County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 8,661 at the 2010 census. Morehead City celebrated the 150th anniversary of its founding on May 5, 2007. It forms part of the Crystal Coast. His ...

Morristown, TN Morristown is a city in and the county seat of Hamblen County, Tennessee, United States. Morristown also extends into Jefferson County on the western and southern ends. The city's population was recorded to be 30,431 at the 2020 United States cen ...

and

Sandpoint, ID Sandpoint (Kutenai language: kamanqukuⱡ) is the largest city in, and the county seat of, Bonner County, Idaho. Its population was 8,639 at the 2020 census. Sandpoint's major economic contributors include forest products, light manufacturing, ...

(6.4% each)

2020 population of Scottish ancestry by state

As of 2020, the distribution of Scottish Americans across the 50 states and DC is as presented in the following table:

Historical contributions

Explorers

The first Scots in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

came with the

Viking Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

s. A Christian

bard In Celtic cultures, a bard is a professional story teller, verse-maker, music composer, oral historian and genealogist, employed by a patron (such as a monarch or chieftain) to commemorate one or more of the patron's ancestors and to praise t ...

from the

Hebrides The Hebrides (; gd, Innse Gall, ; non, Suðreyjar, "southern isles") are an archipelago off the west coast of the Scottish mainland. The islands fall into two main groups, based on their proximity to the mainland: the Inner and Outer Hebrid ...

accompanied Bjarni Herjolfsson on his voyage around

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...

in 985/6 which sighted the mainland to the west.Michael Fry, ''How the Scots Made America'' (New York: Thomas Dunne, 2005), p. 7. The first Scots recorded as having set foot in the

New World The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 3 ...

were a man named Haki and a woman named Hekja, slaves owned by

Leif Eiriksson Leif Erikson, Leiv Eiriksson, or Leif Ericson, ; Modern Icelandic: ; Norwegian language, Norwegian: ''Leiv Eiriksson'' also known as Leif the Lucky (), was a Norsemen, Norse explorer who is thought to have been the first European to have s ...

. The Scottish couple were runners who scouted for

Thorfinn Karlsefni Thorfinn Karlsefni Thórdarson was an Icelandic explorer. Around the year 1010, he followed Leif Eriksson's route to Vinland in a short-lived attempt to establish a permanent settlement there with his wife Gudrid Thorbjarnardóttir and their fol ...

's expedition in c. 1010, gathering

wheat Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologi ...

and the

grapes A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus ''Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters. The cultivation of grapes began perhaps 8,000 years ago ...

for which

Vinland Vinland, Vineland, or Winland ( non, Vínland ᚠᛁᚾᛚᛅᚾᛏ) was an area of coastal North America explored by Vikings. Leif Erikson landed there around 1000 AD, nearly five centuries before the voyages of Christopher Columbus and John ...

was named.Fry, ''How the Scots Made America'', pp. 8-9. The controversial Zeno letters have been cited in support of a claim that

Henry Sinclair, earl of Orkney Henry I Sinclair, Earl of Orkney, Lord of Roslin () was a Scottish nobility, Scottish and a Norwegian nobility, Norwegian nobleman. Sinclair held the title Earl of Orkney (which refers to Norðreyjar rather than just the islands of Orkney) and w ...

, visited

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

in 1398.Fry, ''How the Scots Made America'', p. 10. In the early years of

Spanish colonization of the Americas Spain began colonizing the Americas under the Crown of Castile and was spearheaded by the Spanish . The Americas were invaded and incorporated into the Spanish Empire, with the exception of Brazil, British America, and some small regions ...

, a Scot named Tam Blake spent 20 years in

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

and

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. He took part in the conquest of

New Granada New Granada may refer to various former national denominations for the present-day country of Colombia. *New Kingdom of Granada, from 1538 to 1717 *Viceroyalty of New Granada, from 1717 to 1810, re-established from 1816 to 1819 *United Provinces of ...

in 1532 with

Alonso de Heredia Alonso is a Spanish name of Germanic origin that is a Castilian variant of ''Adalfuns''. Geographical distribution As of 2014, 36.6% of all known bearers of the surname ''Alonso'' were residents of Spain (frequency 1:222), 26.1% of Mexico (1:83 ...

. He arrived in Mexico in 1534–5, and joined

Coronado Coronado may refer to: People * Coronado (surname) * Francisco Vázquez de Coronado (1510–1554), Spanish explorer often referred to simply as "Coronado" * Coronado Chávez (1807–1881), President of Honduras from 1845 to 1847 Places United ...

's 1540 expedition to the

American Southwest The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural region of the United States that generally includes Arizona, New Mexico, and adjacent portions of California, Colorado, N ...

.Jim Hewitson, ''Tam Blake & Co.: The Story of the Scots in America'' (Edinburgh: Orion, 1993), pp. 12-13.Fry, ''How the Scots Made America'', p. 11. Scottish-American naturalist

John Muir John Muir ( ; April 21, 1838December 24, 1914), also known as "John of the Mountains" and "Father of the National Parks", was an influential Scottish-American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher, botanist, zoologist, glaciologist, a ...

is perhaps best known for his exploration of California's Sierra Nevada mountains during the 19th century.

Traders

After the

Union of the Crowns The Union of the Crowns ( gd, Aonadh nan Crùintean; sco, Union o the Crouns) was the accession of James VI of Scotland to the throne of the Kingdom of England as James I and the practical unification of some functions (such as overseas dip ...

and

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

in 1603,

King James VI James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until ...

, a Scot, promoted joint expeditions overseas, and became the founder of

British America British America comprised the colonial territories of the English Empire, which became the British Empire after the 1707 union of the Kingdom of England with the Kingdom of Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain, in the Americas from 16 ...

.Fry, ''How the Scots Made America'', p. 12. The first permanent English settlement in the Americas, Jamestown, was thus named for a Scot. The earliest Scottish communities in America were formed by traders and

planters Planters Nut & Chocolate Company is an American snack food company now owned by Hormel Foods. Planters is best known for its processed nuts and for the Mr. Peanut icon that symbolizes them. Mr. Peanut was created by grade schooler Antonio Gentil ...

rather than farmer settlers.Fry, ''How the Scots Made America'', p. 19. The hub of Scottish commercial activity in the colonial period was

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

. Regular contacts began with the

transportation Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land (rail and road), water, cable, pipeline, ...

indentured servants Indentured servitude is a form of labor in which a person is contracted to work without salary for a specific number of years. The contract, called an "indenture", may be entered "voluntarily" for purported eventual compensation or debt repayment, ...

to the colony from Scotland, including prisoners taken in the

Wars of the Three Kingdoms The Wars of the Three Kingdoms were a series of related conflicts fought between 1639 and 1653 in the kingdoms of Kingdom of England, England, Kingdom of Scotland, Scotland and Kingdom of Ireland, Ireland, then separate entities united in a pers ...

.Alex Murdoch, "USA", Michael Lynch (ed), ''The Oxford Companion to Scottish History'' (Oxford University Press, 2001), pp. 629-633. By the 1670s

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

was the main outlet for Virginian

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

, in open defiance of English restrictions on colonial trade; in return the colony received Scottish manufactured goods, emigrants and ideas.Fry, ''How the Scots Made America'', pp. 18, 19. In the 1670s and 1680s

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

Dissenter A dissenter (from the Latin ''dissentire'', "to disagree") is one who dissents (disagrees) in matters of opinion, belief, etc. Usage in Christianity Dissent from the Anglican church In the social and religious history of England and Wales, and ...

s fled persecution by the

Royalist A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of governme ...

privy council A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

to settle in

and

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

, where they maintained their distinctive religious culture. Trade between Scotland and the American colonies was finally regularized by the parliamentary Act of Union of Scotland and England in 1707.

Population growth Population growth is the increase in the number of people in a population or dispersed group. Actual global human population growth amounts to around 83 million annually, or 1.1% per year. The global population has grown from 1 billion in 1800 to ...

and the commercialization of agriculture in Scotland encouraged mass emigration to America after the

French and Indian War The French and Indian War (1754–1763) was a theater of the Seven Years' War, which pitted the North American colonies of the British Empire against those of the French, each side being supported by various Native American tribes. At the ...

,Fry, ''How the Scots Made America'', p. 20. a conflict which had also seen the first use of Scottish Highland regiments as Indian fighters. More than 50,000 Scots, principally from the west coast, settled in the

Thirteen Colonies The Thirteen Colonies, also known as the Thirteen British Colonies, the Thirteen American Colonies, or later as the United Colonies, were a group of Kingdom of Great Britain, British Colony, colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America. Fo ...

between 1763 and 1776, the majority of these in their own communities in the

South South is one of the cardinal directions or Points of the compass, compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Pro ...

, especially

, although Scottish individuals and families also began to appear as professionals and artisans in every American town. Scots arriving in

and the

Gulf Coast The Gulf Coast of the United States, also known as the Gulf South, is the coastline along the Southern United States where they meet the Gulf of Mexico. The coastal states that have a shoreline on the Gulf of Mexico are Texas, Louisiana, Mississ ...

traded extensively with Native Americans.Fry, ''How the Scots Made America'', p. 41.

Settlers

Scottish settlement in colonial America has often been divided by historians into three separate streams—Lowlanders, Highlanders, and Ulster Scots. Lowland Scots began to migrate to North America in the eighteenth century after the union of England and Scotland. They tended to settle in low-lying coastal areas and cities such as New York and New Jersey. As they were usually well-educated, lowland Scots found work easily, frequently as doctors, schoolmasters, or private tutors for the children of wealthy colonial citizens. Many others were merchants, particularly in the South. Because they were active participants in the British empire (to the point of considering themselves to be "North British" rather than "Scottish"), lowland Scots tended to stay loyal in the Revolution. Highland Scots started arriving in North America in the 1730s. Unlike their Lowland and Ulster counterparts, the Highlanders tended to cluster together in self-contained communities, where they maintained their distinctive cultural features such as the

Gaelic Gaelic is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". As a noun it refers to the group of languages spoken by the Gaels, or to any one of the languages individually. Gaelic languages are spoken in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, and Ca ...

language and

piobaireachd Pibroch, or is an art music genre associated primarily with the Scottish Highlands that is characterised by extended compositions with a melodic theme and elaborate formal variations. Strictly meaning "piping" in Scottish Gaelic, has for some f ...

music. Groups of Highlanders existed in coastal Georgia (mainly immigrants from Inverness-shire) and the Mohawk Valley in New York (from the West Highlands). By far the largest Highland community was centered on the

Cape Fear River The Cape Fear River is a long blackwater river in east central North Carolina. It flows into the Atlantic Ocean near Cape Fear, from which it takes its name. The river is formed at the confluence of the Haw River and the Deep River (North Carol ...

, which saw a stream of immigrants from Argyllshire, and, later, other regions such as the

Isle of Skye The Isle of Skye, or simply Skye (; gd, An t-Eilean Sgitheanach or ; sco, Isle o Skye), is the largest and northernmost of the major islands in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. The island's peninsulas radiate from a mountainous hub dominated ...

. Highland Scots were overwhelmingly loyalist in the Revolution. Distinctly Highland cultural traits persisted in the region until the 19th century, at which point they were assimilated into Anglo-American culture. The Ulster Scots, known as the Scots-Irish (or Scotch-Irish) in North America, were descended from people originally from the Scottish Lowlands, as well as the north of England and other regions, who colonized the province of Ulster in Ireland in the seventeenth century. After several generations, their descendants left for America, and struck out for the frontier, in particular the Appalachian mountains, providing an effective "buffer" for attacks from Native Americans. In the colonial era, they were usually simply referred to as "Irish," with the "Scots-" or "Scotch-" prefixes becoming popular when the descendants of the Ulster emigrants wanted to differentiate themselves from the Catholic Irish who were flocking to many American cities in the nineteenth century. Unlike the Highlanders and Lowlanders, the Scots-Irish were usually patriots in the Revolution. They have been noted for their tenacity and their cultural contributions to the United States.

Folk and gospel music

American bluegrass and

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

styles have some of their roots in the Appalachian ballad culture of Scotch-Irish Americans (predominantly originating from the "Border Ballad" tradition of southern Scotland and northern England). Fiddle tunes from the Scottish repertoire, as they developed in the eighteenth century, spread rapidly into British colonies. However, in many cases, this occurred through the medium of print rather than aurally, explaining the presence of Highland-origin tunes in regions like Appalachia where there was essentially no Highland settlement. Outside of Gaelic-speaking communities, however, characteristic Highland musical idioms, such as the “Scotch-snap,” were flattened out and assimilated into anglophone musical styles. Some African American communities were influenced musically by the Scottish American communities in which they were embedded. Psalm-singing and gospel music have become central musical experiences for African American churchgoers and it has been posited that some elements of these styles were introduced, in these communities, by Scots. Psalm-singing, or " precenting the line" as it is technically known, in which the psalms are called out and the congregation sings a response, was a form of musical worship initially developed for non-literate congregations and Africans in America were exposed to this by Scottish Gaelic settlers as well as immigrants of other origins. However, the theory that the African-American practice was influenced mainly by the Gaels has been criticized by ethnomusicologist Terry Miller, who notes that the practice of "

lining out Lining out or hymn lining, called precenting the line in Scotland, is a form of a cappella hymn-singing or hymnody in which a leader, often called the clerk or precentor, gives each line of a hymn tune as it is to be sung, usually in a chanted fo ...

" hymns and psalms was common all over Protestant Britain in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and that it is far more likely that Gospel music originated with English psalm singing. The first foreign tongue spoken by some slaves in America was

picked up from Gaelic-speaking immigrants from the Scottish Highlands and Western Isles. There are accounts of African Americans singing Gaelic songs and playing Scottish Gaelic music on bagpipes and fiddle.

Patriots and Loyalists

The civic tradition of the

Scottish Enlightenment The Scottish Enlightenment ( sco, Scots Enlichtenment, gd, Soillseachadh na h-Alba) was the period in 18th- and early-19th-century Scotland characterised by an outpouring of intellectual and scientific accomplishments. By the eighteenth century ...

contributed to the intellectual ferment of the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...

. In 1740, the Glasgow philosopher Francis Hutcheson argued for a right of colonial resistance to tyranny.Fry, ''How the Scots Made America'', pp. 28-29. Scotland's leading thinkers of the revolutionary age,

David Hume David Hume (; born David Home; 7 May 1711 NS (26 April 1711 OS) – 25 August 1776) Cranston, Maurice, and Thomas Edmund Jessop. 2020 999br>David Hume" ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Retrieved 18 May 2020. was a Scottish Enlightenment philo ...

and

Adam Smith Adam Smith (baptized 1723 – 17 July 1790) was a Scottish economist and philosopher who was a pioneer in the thinking of political economy and key figure during the Scottish Enlightenment. Seen by some as "The Father of Economics"——— ...

, opposed the use of force against the rebellious colonies.Fry, ''How the Scots Made America'', pp. 29-32. According to the historian

Arthur L. Herman Arthur L. Herman (born 1956) is an American popular historian. He currently serves as a senior fellow at Hudson Institute. Biography Herman's father Arthur L. Herman, a scholar of Sanskrit, was a professor of philosophy at the University of Wisco ...

: "Americans built their world around the principles of Adam Smith and

Thomas Reid Thomas Reid (; 7 May ( O.S. 26 April) 1710 – 7 October 1796) was a religiously trained Scottish philosopher. He was the founder of the Scottish School of Common Sense and played an integral role in the Scottish Enlightenment. In 1783 he wa ...

, of individual interest governed by common sense and a limited need for government."Fry, ''How the Scots Made America'', p. 154. While

John Witherspoon John Witherspoon (February 5, 1723 – November 15, 1794) was a Scottish-American Presbyterian minister, educator, farmer, slaveholder, and a Founding Father of the United States. Witherspoon embraced the concepts of Scottish common sense reali ...

was the only Scot to sign the Declaration of Independence, several other signers had ancestors there. Other

founding fathers The following list of national founding figures is a record, by country, of people who were credited with establishing a state. National founders are typically those who played an influential role in setting up the systems of governance, (i.e. ...

James Madison James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father. He served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for hi ...

had no ancestral connection but were imbued with ideas drawn from Scottish moral philosophy.Fry, ''How the Scots Made America'', pp. 38-40. Scottish Americans who made major contributions to the revolutionary war included Commodore John Paul Jones, the "Father of the American Navy", and Generals Henry Knox and William Alexander (American general), William Alexander. Another person of note was a personal friend of George Washington, General Hugh Mercer, who fought for Charles Edward Stuart at the Battle of Culloden. The Scotch-Irish, who had already begun to settle beyond the Proclamation Line in the Ohio Valley, Ohio and Tennessee Valleys, were drawn into rebellion as war spread to the frontier.Fry, ''How the Scots Made America'', pp. 13, 23. Tobacco plantations and independent farms in the backcountry of Virginia, Maryland and the Carolinas had been financed with Scottish credit, and indebtedness was an additional incentive for separation. Most Scottish Americans had commercial ties with the old country or Scottish clan, clan allegiances and stayed true to the Crown.Fry, ''How the Scots Made America'', pp. 13, 24-26. The Scottish Highland communities of upstate New York and the Cape Fear (region), Cape Fear valley of North Carolina were centers of Loyalist (American Revolution), Loyalist resistance. A small force of Loyalist Scottish Highlands, Highlanders fell at the Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge in 1776. Scotch-Irish Patriot (American Revolution), Patriots defeated Scottish American Loyalists in the Battle of Kings Mountain in 1780.Fry, ''How the Scots Made America'', p. 28. Many Scottish American Loyalists, particularly Highlanders, emigrated to Canada after the war.

Uncle Sam

Uncle Sam is the national personification of the

, and sometimes more specifically of the American government, with the first usage of the term dating from the War of 1812. The American icon Uncle Sam, who is known for embodying the American spirit, was based on a businessman from Troy, New York, Samuel Wilson, whose parents sailed to America from Greenock,

, has been officially recognized as the original Uncle Sam. He provided the army with beef and pork in barrels during the War of 1812. The barrels were prominently labeled "U.S." for the United States, but it was jokingly said that the letters stood for "Uncle Sam." Soon, Uncle Sam was used as shorthand for the federal government.

Emigrants and free traders

Trade with Scotland continued to flourish after U.S. independence. The tobacco trade was overtaken in the nineteenth century by the cotton trade, with Glasgow factories exporting the finished textiles back to the United States on an industrial scale.Fry, ''How the Scots Made America'', pp. 19, 41. Emigration from Scotland peaked in the nineteenth century, when more than a million Scots left for the United States,Fry, ''How the Scots Made America'', p. 193. taking advantage of the regular Atlantic steam-age shipping industry which was itself largely a Scottish creation,Fry, ''How the Scots Made America'', p. 194. contributing to a revolution in transatlantic communication. Scottish emigration to the United States followed, to a lesser extent, during the twentieth century, when Scottish heavy industry declined.Evans, Nicholas J., 'The Emigration of Skilled Male Workers from Clydeside during the Interwar Period', ''International Journal of Maritime History'', Volume XVIII, Number 1 (2006), pp. 255-280. This new wave peaked in the first decade of the twentieth century, contributing to a hard life for many who remained behind. Many qualified workers emigrated overseas, a part of which, established in Canada, later went on to the United States.Everyculture:Scottish American
Posted by Mary A. Hess. Retrieved January 3, 2012, to 1:25 pm.

Writers

In the nineteenth century, American authors and educators adopted Scotland as a model for cultural independence. In the world of letters, Scottish literary icons James Macpherson, Robert Burns, Walter Scott, and Thomas Carlyle had a mass following in the United States, and Scottish Romanticism exerted a seminal influence on the development of American literature. The works of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne bear its powerful impression. Among the most notable Scottish American writers of the nineteenth century were Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, Edgar Allan Poe and Herman Melville. Poet James Mackintosh Kennedy was called to Scotland to deliver the official poem for the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn in 1914. In the twentieth century, Margaret Mitchell's ''Gone with the Wind (novel), Gone With the Wind'' exemplified popular literature. William Faulkner won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1949. There have been a number of notable

poets active in the United States since the eighteenth century, including Aonghas MacAoidh and Domhnall Aonghas Stiùbhart. One of the few relics of Gaelic literature composed in the United States is a lullaby composed by an anonymous woman in the Carolinas during the American Revolutionary War. It remains popular to this day in Scotland.

Soldiers and statesmen

More than 160,000 Scottish emigrants migrated to the U.S. American statesmen of Scottish descent in the early Republic included United States Secretary of the Treasury, Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, United States Secretary of War, Secretary of War Henry Knox, and President of the United States, President James Monroe. Andrew Jackson and James K. Polk were what we now call Scotch-Irish presidents and products of the frontier in the period of History of the United States (1789–1849)#Westward expansion, Westward expansion. Among the most famous Scottish American soldier frontiersmen was Sam Houston, founding father of

. Other Scotch-Irish presidents included James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Chester Alan Arthur, William McKinley and Richard M. Nixon. Ulysses S. Grant, Theodore Roosevelt (through his mother), Woodrow Wilson, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Ronald Reagan were of Scottish descent.Fry, ''How the Scots Made America'', p. 53. By one estimate, 75% of U.S. presidents could claim some Scottish ancestry.Fry, ''How the Scots Made America'', pp. 60-61. Samuel houston

Scottish Americans fought on both sides of the American Civil War, Civil War, and a monument to their memory was erected in

, Scotland, in 1893. Winfield Scott, Ulysses S. Grant, Joseph E. Johnston, Irvin McDowell, James B. McPherson, Jeb Stuart and John B. Gordon were of Scottish descent, George B. McClellan and Stonewall Jackson Scotch-Irish.Fry, ''How the Scots Made America'', pp. 53, 72. Douglas MacArthur and George Marshall upheld the martial tradition in the twentieth century. Grace Murray Hopper, a rear admiral and computer scientist, was the oldest officer and highest-ranking woman in the U.S. armed forces on her retirement at the age of 80 in 1986.Fry, ''How the Scots Made America'', pp. 219-220. Isabella Cannon, the former Raleigh, North Carolina, Mayor of Raleigh, North Carolina, served as the first female mayor of a U.S. state capital.

Automakers

The Scottish-born Alexander Winton built one of the first American automobiles in 1896, and specialized in motor racing. He broke the world speed record in 1900.Fry, ''How the Scots Made America'', p. 221. In 1903, he became the first man to drive across the United States. David Dunbar Buick, another Scottish emigrant, founded Buick in 1903. The Scottish-born William Blackie transformed the Caterpillar Inc., Caterpillar Tractor Company into a multinational corporation.

Motorcycle manufacturer

Harley-Davidson Inc (formerly HDI), often abbreviated "H-D" or "Harley", is an American motorcycle manufacturer. The Davidson brothers were the sons of William C Davidson (1846-1923) who was born and grew up in Angus, Scotland, and Margaret Adams McFarlane (1843-1933) of Scottish descent from the small Scottish settlement of Cambridge, Wisconsin. They raised five children together: Janet May, William A., Arthur Davidson (motorcycling), Walter, Arthur and Elizabeth.

Aviation

Scottish Americans have made a major contribution to the US aircraft industry. Alexander Graham Bell, in partnership with Samuel Pierpont Langley, built the first machine capable of flight, the Aviation history#Langley, Bell-Langley airplane, in 1903.Fry, ''How the Scots Made America'', pp. 221-223. Lockheed Corporation, Lockheed was started by two brothers, Allan Loughead, Allan and Malcolm Loughead, in 1926. Douglas Aircraft Company, Douglas was founded by Donald Wills Douglas Sr. in 1921; he launched the world's first commercial passenger plane, the DC-3, in 1935. McDonnell Aircraft was founded by James Smith McDonnell, in 1939, and became famous for its military Jet aircraft, jets. In 1967, McDonnell and Douglas McDonnell Douglas, merged and jointly developed jet aircraft, missiles and spacecraft.

Spaceflight

Scottish Americans were pioneers in human spaceflight. The Project Mercury, Mercury and Project Gemini, Gemini capsules were built by McDonnell. The first American in space, Alan Shepard, the first American in orbit, John Glenn, and the first man to fly free in space, Bruce McCandless II, were Scottish Americans. The first men on the moon, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, were also of Scottish descent; Armstrong wore a kilt in a parade through his ancestral home of Langholm in the Scottish Borders in 1972. Armstrong's ancestry can be traced back to his eighth paternal great-grandfather Adam Armstrong from the Scottish Borders. His son Adam II and grandson Adam Abraham (b. Cumberland, England) left for the colonies in the 1730s settling in Pennsylvania. Other Scottish American moonwalkers were the fourth, Alan Bean, the fifth, Alan Shepard, the seventh, David Scott (also the first to drive on the moon), and the eighth, James Irwin.

Computing

Scottish Americans have also been leaders in computing and information technology. Scottish Americans Howard Aiken and Grace Murray Hopper created the first automatic sequence computer in 1939. Hopper was also the co-inventor of the computer language COBOL. Ross Perot, another Scottish American entrepreneur, made his fortune from Electronic Data Systems, an outsourcing company he established in 1962. Software giant Microsoft was co-founded in 1975 by Bill Gates, who owed his start in part to his mother, the Scottish American businesswoman Mary Maxwell Gates, who helped her son to get his first software contract with IBM. Glasgow-born Microsoft employee Richard Tait helped develop the ''Encarta'' encyclopedia and co-created the popular board game Cranium (board game), Cranium.

Cuisine

Scottish Americans have helped to define the modern American diet by introducing many distinctive foods. Philip Danforth Armour founded Armour and Company, Armour Meats in 1867, revolutionizing the American meatpacking industry and becoming famous for hot dogs. Campbell Soups was founded in 1869 by Joseph A. Campbell and rapidly grew into a major manufacturer of canned soups. Will Keith Kellogg, W. K. Kellogg transformed American eating habits from 1906 by popularizing breakfast cereal. Glen Bell, founder of Taco Bell in 1962, introduced Tex-Mex food to a mainstream audience. Marketing executive Arch West, born to Scottish emigrant parents, developed Doritos.

Community activities

Some of the following aspects of Scottish culture can still be found in some parts of the US. * Bagpipes, Bagpiping and pipe bands * Burns Supper * Ceilidhs * Hogmanay, the Scottish New Year * St. Andrew's Day festivities * Tartan - some places in the US have their own tartan, and Scottish dress is worn by some Americans to celebrate their ancestral heritage.

Tartan Day

Tartan Day, National Tartan Day, held each year on April 6 in the

and

, celebrates the historical links between Scotland and

and the contributions Scottish Americans and Canadians have made to US and Canadian democracy, industry and society. The date of April 6 was chosen as "the anniversary of the Declaration of Arbroath in 1320—the inspirational document, according to U.S. Senate Resolution 155, 1999, upon which the American Declaration of Independence was modeled".Edward J. Cowan, "Tartan Day in America", in Celeste Ray (ed.), ''The Transatlantic Scots'' (Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press, 2005), p. 318. The Annual Tartan Week celebrations come to life every April with the largest celebration taking place in New York City. Thousands descend onto the streets of the Big Apple to celebrate their heritage, culture and the impact of the Scottish people, Scottish Americans in America today. Hundreds of pipers, drummers, Highland dancers, Scottie Dogs and celebrities march down the streets drowned in their family tartans and Saltire flags whilst interacting with the thousands of onlookers. NYC is not the only large city to celebrate Tartan Day. Large events also take place in Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, California, Chicago, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Québec, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Australia, and New Zealand. Scottish Heritage Month is also promoted by community groups around the United States and Canada.National Scots, Scots-Irish Heritage Month in the USA
ElectricScotland.com

Scottish Festivals

Massed Bands, 2005 Pacific Northwest Highland Games

Scottish culture, food, and athletics are celebrated at Highland Games and Scottish festivals throughout

. The largest of these occurs yearly at Pleasanton, California, Grandfather Mountain,

and Estes Park, Colorado. There are also other notable Scottish Festivals in cities like Tulsa, Oklahoma, Ventura, California at the Seaside Highland Games, Atlanta, Georgia (at Stone Mountain Park), San Antonio, Texas and St. Louis, Missouri. In addition to traditional Scottish sports such as caber toss, tossing the caber and the hammer throw, there are whisky tastings, traditional foods such as haggis, Bagpipes and Drums competitions, Celtic rock musical acts and traditional Scottish dance.

Scottish Gaelic language in the United States

Although

had been spoken in most of Scotland at one time or another, by the time of large-scale migrations to North America – the eighteenth century – it had only managed to survive in the Highlands and Western Isles of Scotland. Unlike other ethnic groups in Scotland, Scottish Highlanders preferred to migrate in communities, and remaining in larger, denser concentrations aided in the maintenance of their language and culture. The first communities of Scottish Gaels began migrating in the 1730s to Georgia, New York and the Carolinas. Only in the Carolinas were these settlements enduring. Although their numbers were small, the immigrants formed a beach-head for later migrations, which accelerated in the 1760s. The American Revolutionary War effectively stopped direct migration to the newly formed United States, most people going instead to British North America (now Canada). The Canadian Maritimes were a favored destination from the 1770s to the 1840s. Sizable concentrations of Gaelic communities existed in Ontario, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island, with smaller clusters in Newfoundland, Quebec, and New Brunswick. Those who left these communities for opportunities in the United States, especially in New England, were usually fluent Gaelic speakers into the mid-twentieth century. Of the many communities founded by Scottish Highland immigrants, the language and culture only survives at a community level in the Canadian province of

. According to the 2000 census, 1,199 people speak Scottish Gaelic at home. The direct descendants of Scottish Highlanders were not the only people in the United States to speak the language, however. Gaelic was one of the languages spoken by fur traders in many parts of North America. In some parts of the Carolinas and Alabama, African-American communities spoke Scottish Gaelic, particularly (but not solely) due to the influence of Gaelic-speaking slave-owners. According to musicologist Willie Ruff, jazz musician Dizzy Gillespie spoke often of the Gaelic speaking African-Americans.

Notable people

Presidents of Scottish or Scotch-Irish descent

Several President of the United States, presidents of the United States have had some Scottish or Scotch-Irish ancestry, although the extent of this varies. For example, Donald Trump's mother was Scottish and Woodrow Wilson's maternal grandparents were both Scottish. Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, Chester A. Arthur and William McKinley have less direct Scottish or Scotch-Irish ancestry. ;James Monroe (Scottish and Welsh) : 5th President 1817-1825: His paternal great-great-grandfather, Andrew Monroe, emigrated to America from Ross-shire, Scotland in the mid-17th century. ;Andrew Jackson (Scotch-Irish) : 7th President 1829-1837: : He was born in the predominantly Ulster-Scots Waxhaws area of

two years after his parents left Boneybefore, near Carrickfergus in County Antrim. ;James Knox Polk (Scottish and Scotch-Irish) :11th President, 1845-1849: His Scottish paternal great x 5 grandfather, Robert Pollock, emigrated to Ireland in the 17th century. The family's surname was later changed from Pollock to Polk. ;James Buchanan (Scottish and Scotch-Irish) :15th President, 1857-1861: His paternal great-grandmother, Katherine Blair, was born in Stirlingshire. ;Andrew Johnson (Scotch-Irish and English) :17th President, 1865-1869: His grandfather left Mounthill, near Larne in County Antrim around 1750 and settled in

. ;Ulysses S. Grant (Scottish, Scotch-Irish and English) :18th President, 1869-1877: His maternal great-grandfather, John Simpson, was born in Dergenagh, County Tyrone. ;Rutherford Hayes (Scottish and English) :19th President, 1877-1881: His ancestor, George Hayes, emigrated from Scotland to Connecticut in 1680. ;Chester A. Arthur (Scotch-Irish, Scottish and English) :21st President, 1881-1885: His paternal great-grandmother, Jane Campbell, emigrated from Scotland to County Antrim, Ireland.Northern Ireland Tourist Board
''discovernorthernireland - explore more: Arthur Cottage''
Accessed 03/03/2010. "Arthur Cottage, situated in the heart of County Antrim, only a short walk from the village of Cullybackey is the ancestral home of Chester Alan Arthur, the 21st President of the USA." ;Grover Cleveland (Scotch-Irish and English) :22nd and 24th President, 1885-1889 and 1893-1897: Born in

, he was the maternal grandson of merchant Abner Neal, who emigrated from County Antrim in the 1790s. He is the only president to have served non-consecutive terms. ;Benjamin Harrison (Scottish, Scotch-Irish and English) :23rd President, 1889-1893: Through his mother, Elizabeth Irwin, his great x 5 grandfather, David Irvine, was born in Aberdeenshire, and emigrated to Ireland. ;William McKinley (Scottish and Scotch-Irish) :25th President, 1897-1901: His Scottish paternal great-great-great-great-grandfather, James McKinley, settled in Ireland in 1690.
;Theodore Roosevelt (Scottish, Scotch-Irish, Dutch, English & French) :26th President, 1901-1909: His maternal great-great-great-grandmother, Jean Stobo, emigrated to America from Scotland with her parents in 1699. ;William Howard Taft (Scotch-Irish and English) :27th President 1909-1913 ;Woodrow Wilson (Scottish and Scotch-Irish) :28th President, 1913-1921: His Scottish maternal grandparents from Paisley, Renfrewshire, Paisley, Rev. Dr Thomas Woodrow and Marion Williamson, emigrated to America in the 1830s. Throughout his career he reflected on the influence of his ancestral values on his constant quest for knowledge and fulfillment. ;Warren G. Harding (Scottish and English) :29th President 1921-1923: His paternal great-great grandmother, Lydia Crawford, was born in Midlothian. ;Franklin D. Roosevelt (Scottish, Dutch, English and French) :32nd President 1933-1945: His maternal great-great-great grandparents, James Murray and Barbara Bennett, were from Dumfriesshire and Roxburghshire. ;Harry S. Truman (Scottish, English and German) :33rd President 1945-1953: His paternal great-great-great-great-grandfather, Thomas Monteith, was a merchant from

. ;Lyndon B. Johnson (English, German and Scotch-Irish) :36th President, 1963-1969:: ;Richard Nixon (Scotch-Irish, Irish, English and German) :37th President, 1969-1974: The Nixon ancestors left Ulster in the mid-18th century; the Quaker Milhous family ties were with County Antrim and County Kildare. ;Gerald Ford (Scottish and English) :38th President 1974-1977: His maternal great-grandfather, Alexander Gardner, emigrated to Quebec from Kilmacolm in 1820. ;Jimmy Carter (Scottish, Scotch-Irish and English) :39th President 1977-1981: His paternal great x 6 grandfather, Adam Clinkskaill, was Scottish. ;Ronald Reagan (Irish, Scottish and English) :40th President 1981-1989: His great-grandfather, John Wilson, emigrated to North America from Paisley, Renfrewshire, Paisley in 1832. ;George H. W. Bush (Scottish, Irish and English) :41st President 1989-1993: His maternal great-great-great-grandmother, Catherine Walker (née McLelland), was Scottish. ;Bill Clinton (Scottish, Irish and English) :42nd president 1993-2001: His father and mother were Old Stock Americans with family lineage tracing back to the colonial era. ;George W. Bush (Scottish, Irish and English) :43rd President 2001-2009: His great-great-great-great-grandmother, Catherine Walker (née McLelland), was Scottish. ;Barack Obama (Scotch-Irish, English and Kenyan) :44th President 2009-2017: The ancestry of his mother's family is partially Scotch-Irish. ;Donald Trump (Scottish and German) :45th President: His mother, Mary Anne MacLeod Trump, Mary Anne MacLeod, was born in the village of Tong, Lewis, Tong, Isle of Lewis, and emigrated to the USA in 1930.

Vice Presidents of Scottish or Scotch-Irish descent

;John C. Calhoun (Scotch-Irish) :10th Vice President 1825-1832 ;George M. Dallas (Scottish) :15th Vice President 1845-1849; former Secretary of War ;Adlai Stevenson I (Scottish and Scotch-Irish) :23rd Vice President 1893-1897: The Stevensons (Stephensons) are first recorded in Roxburghshire in the 18th century. ;Charles Curtis (Scottish) :31st Vice President 1929-1933 ;Henry A. Wallace (Scotch-Irish) :33rd Vice President 1941-1945 ;Walter Mondale (Scottish) :42nd Vice President 1977-1981: His maternal great-grandparents, Walter Cowan and Agnes Phorson, were Scottish. ;Al Gore (Scotch-Irish) :45th Vice President 1993-2001 ;Dick Cheney (Scottish) :46th Vice President 2001-2009

Other American presidents of Scottish or Scotch-Irish descent

;Sam Houston (Scotch-Irish) :President of

, 1836-38 and 1841-44 ;Jefferson Davis (Scotch-Irish) :President of Confederate States of America 1861-1865 ;Arthur St. Clair (Scottish) :President under the List of Presidents of the Congress under the Articles of Confederation, Articles of Confederation 1788

Scottish placenames

Some place names of Scottish origin (either named after Scottish places or Scottish immigrants) in the US include: *California **Albion, California, Albion **Ben Lomond, California, Ben Lomond **Bonny Doon, California, Bonny Doon **Inverness, California, Inverness **Irvine, California, Irvine, named for the historic Irvine Ranch, and Irvine Subdivision of Orange County, California *Colorado **Montrose, Colorado, Montrose *Connecticut **Scotland, Connecticut, Scotland *Delaware **Glasgow, Delaware, Glasgow **Perth, Delaware, Perth *Florida **Paisley, Florida, Paisley **Dundee, Florida, Dundee **Dunedin, Florida, Dunedin, from ''Dùn Èideann'', Scottish Gaelic for Edinburgh **Inverness, Florida, Inverness *Illinois **Dundee, Illinois, Dundee **Elgin, Illinois, Elgin **Inverness, Illinois, Inverness **Midlothian, Illinois, Midlothian **Bannockburn, Illinois, Bannockburn **Glencoe, Illinois, Glencoe *Indiana **Perth, Indiana, Perth **Edinburgh, Indiana, Edinburgh *Kentucky **Glasgow, Kentucky, Glasgow *Louisiana **Gretna, Louisiana, Gretna **Scotlandville, Louisiana, Scotlandville *Maine **Argyle, Maine, Argyle * Maryland **Aberdeen, Maryland, Aberdeen **Glencoe, Maryland, Glencoe **Glenelg, Maryland, Glenelg **Lochearn, Maryland, Lochearn **Lothian, Maryland, Lothian **Midlothian, Maryland, Midlothian **Muirkirk, Maryland, Muirkirk * Massachusetts **Melrose, Massachusetts, Melrose *Mississippi **Aberdeen, Mississippi, Aberdeen * Montana **Glasgow, Montana, Glasgow **Aberdeen, Montana **Inverness, Montana **Drummond, Montana * New Jersey **Perth Amboy, New Jersey, Perth Amboy **Scotch Plains, New Jersey, Scotch Plains *New York **Albany, New York, Albany **Argyle **Dundee, New York, Dundee **Perth, New York, Perth *North Carolina **Aberdeen, North Carolina, Aberdeen **Clyde, North Carolina, Clyde **Cumnock, North Carolina, Cumnock **Dundarrach, North Carolina, Dundarrach **Glencoe, North Carolina, Glencoe **Highlands, North Carolina, Highlands **Inverness **Roxboro, North Carolina, Roxboro - a variant spelling of Roxburgh **Scotland County, North Carolina, Scotland County *North Dakota **Perth, North Dakota, Perth **Perth Township, Walsh County, North Dakota, Perth Township *Oklahoma **Glencoe, Oklahoma, Glencoe **Guthrie, Oklahoma, Guthrie *Oregon **Albany, Oregon, Albany **Burns, Oregon, Burns - after Scottish poet Robert Burns **Dundee, Oregon, Dundee **Elgin, Oregon, Elgin **Glencoe, Oregon, Glencoe **Hermiston, Oregon, Hermiston **Macleay, Oregon, Macleay **McDonald, Oregon, McDonald **McEwen, Oregon, McEwen **Melrose, Oregon, Melrose **Nibley, Oregon, Nibley **Sutherlin, Oregon, Sutherlin - a variant spelling of Sutherland **Paisley, Oregon, Paisley **Wedderburn, Oregon, Wedderburn *South Carolina **Elgin, Kershaw County, South Carolina, Elgin **Lake Murray (South Carolina), Lake Murray *Texas **Argyle, Texas, Argyle - a variant spelling of Argyll **Dallas, Texas, Dallas **Edinburg, Texas, Edinburg - a variant spelling of

**Houston, Texas, Houston - suburbs include Neartown Houston, Montrose **Midlothian, Texas, Midlothian **Scotland, Texas, Scotland *Utah **Argyle, Utah, Argyle (now a ghost town) **Ben Lomond Mountain (Utah), Ben Lomond **Logan, Utah, Logan *Virginia **Dumfries, Virginia, Dumfries **Glasgow, Virginia, Glasgow **Gretna, Virginia, Gretna **Hamilton, Loudoun County, Virginia, Hamilton **Kilmarnock, Virginia, Kilmarnock **McDowell, Virginia, McDowell **Midlothian, Virginia, Midlothian * Washington state **Aberdeen, Washington, Aberdeen **Fife, Washington, Fife * Wisconsin ** Argyle, Wisconsin, Argyle ** Dunbar, Wisconsin, Dunbar

Notes

References

External links

Scottish Emigration DatabaseScotlands People - Official government source for Scottish rootsUS Scots: includes extensive listing of Highland games eventsWebsite of ''An Comunn Gàidhealach Ameireaganach''
{{British diaspora American people of Scottish descent, * British-American history, Scottish European-American society Scottish-American history, Scottish