I was discussing ... on line ... my Scots-Irish ancestry and the driving force among most southerners. Or should I say "our" ancestry. Most all of you have some scots Irish in you. All of my cousins ... the Dixons, Dinkles, Gillispies, Staples and Groffs, et al are from the same lineage. I thought that I would offer some thoughts of mine about that subject ... since it's my blog.
About 450 years ago, in Scotland, there were groups of Celtic cattle thieves known as the 'Borderers' because they lived on the unfertile farm lands along Hadrian's Wall that basically separates England and Scotland. Besides stealing cattle, fighting and killing each other (and others), and making whisky (No E in Whisky in Scotland), they lived simple lives. They were (and are) a fiercely independent people ... loyal to their clan or group and anti-government as a whole. They have always been fiercely Protestant and anti-Catholic. So King James 1 of England (King James IV of Scotland) a sawed off little runt and son of Mary, Queen of Scots (though born a Catholic, he converted to Protestantism and ruled Protestant England and Scotland) ... anyway, James was having a little war with Ireland which gave him no end of trouble ... especially in Ulster. So, James decided to settle these Borderers in Ulster in the midst of the Irish Catholics ... which is why we're also known as Ulster Scots. The results are evident even today where the Protestant Orangemen in Ireland are still enemies of the Catholic "Green" Irish. I have heard it said that they were the equivalent to today's Southern Redneck Fundamentalists.
Because of high taxes and unemployment (sound familiar?) these Ulster Scots / Scots Irish emigrated in droves to America. They reverted to their ways as Borderers, especially in the Appalachian region ... that ridge of mountains that separated the East Coast from the "out there" of the west. With lots of corn for making whiskey, guns with which to kill the Indians, and lots of distance between them and the American guv'ment ... they became the rednecks, hillbillys, and white trash we all know and love today.
These people (their descendants) still live in the hills and mountains of Virginia, West Va, NC, Penn, Tenn, Kentucky and Ohio. And they have spread their seed westward to Texas, Mississippi, Missouri, etc. These are are the Red states that put George W. into the Presidency. Not only the Scots Irish, but as David Hackett says in Albion's Seed, Italians, Germans, and many others have adopted these Ulster Scots attitudes, values, etc. as THE American attitudes and values. Most of our military non Afro-Americans are of this ancestry and or this set of values and mores. These are the folks that fight for America, and they are usually staunch Christians. American Conservatism owes its very existence to the Scots Irish and their "borderer" mentality. They want the Gov'ment to leave us alone when it comes to whiskey, hunting, and all other domestic portions of our existence. I am proud to be from this hardy American stock. We will fight for what we believe in and will live our lives as we wish. In the "Shootist" , John Wayne's character (John B. Books) says ... I do not want any man laying his hand upon me or interfering with me in any way ... I do not do this to others and will not tolerate them doing it to me. Ethan in "The Searchers", Dunston in "Red River", and many, many of the Duke's other roles are stereotypically Scots Irish people with all their honor and all their failures as people.
So, celebrate your heritage.
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