Notes from Joon

These words . . .

“No people so few in number have scored so deep a mark in the world’s history as the Scots have done” **

were written by eighteenth century English historian, J. A. Froude. We Scots have been influential in many fields throughout our earth’s history and I thought I’d share a few of our marks with you now.

Did you know that nearly a century before Columbus’ first voyage noble born Scottish explorer Prince Henry Sinclair commanded an expedition that reached North America? There were many more great explorers of Scottish ancestry ~ Captain James Cook, David Livingstone, William Clark and Neil Armstrong . . .

“One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

It was not until the middle of the eighteenth century that Scots became a significant minority in America when the colonies began to move toward revolution. The recently arrived Scots played a leading role in the American Revolution with their more liberal philosophy, the opposite of the English. These immigrant Scots, however, were seen as foreigners, which led to discrimination against them in the new world, something our new government would not tolerate!

Those Scots who arrived in America from Northern Ireland (Ulster) harbored a hatred of the Hanoverian government driving them into America’s revolutionary movement with fervor.

The shot heard ‘round the world, that started the American Revolution, was said to have been fired by a Scottish-American Lexington Minuteman named Ebenezer Munro. Thirty-eight percent (21) of the Declaration of Independence signers were of the blood. The mark of the Scots is literally indelible! The Scotch-Irish troops stayed through the bitter winter at Valley Forge while others left. Mary Hays McCauly, better known as Molly Pitcher, was the colonials’ most famous battlefield heroine and another Scotch-Irish descendent!

There are many Scots who helped build America and have contributed to our great history. For instance, Maj. General Edward Braddock, Perthshire-born and loyal commander at Culloden, was named to the Command of North America, arriving in Alexandria, Virginia, February 1755. Daniel Boone, James “Jim” Bowie, Christopher “Kit” Carson, and David “Davy” Crockett were all of Ulster ancestry born in the new world.

The Scots were also deeply involved with the Cherokees, the most progressive of all American tribes. I’ll talk about this further in PART II, coming next month.