The Highland Scots of North Carolina

MOTIVES FOR MIGRATION

The Highlands of Scotland include the rugged mainland and islands in the North and West of that country. In the first half of the eighteenth century, the inhabitants of these Highlands lived in a secluded feudal society under the control of tribal chieftains. A clan warrior received his plot of land from his chief, to whom he usually was related. In return, the warrior was expected to attend the court of the chief, accept his judgments and discipline, follow him in war, and pay him rent in products of his land. In this society, methods of agriculture were primitive and farming unproductive. To eighteenth-century Englishmen and Lowlanders, the Highlands seemed a mysterious area populated by people speaking a strange tongue called Gaelic, perpetuating strange practices, and paying little if any heed to the laws of the British government.

Captain Edward Burt, an English engineer traveling through the Highlands in 1730, expressed in his Letters his amazement at the society he discovered. The power of the clan chief over his clansmen was almost unlimited. When Burt was offended by the remarks of a chief’s warriors, the angered patriarch offered to send him “two or three of their Heads” in apology. A chief never ventured from his castle without a retinue of gillies (servants), a bard, a piper, and a bladier (spokesman). Women performed much of the agricultural labor, using crude implements constructed largely of wood. The horse collar was not yet used in the Highlands; Burt observed that the people maintained the “barbarous Custom ... of drawing the Harrow by the Horse’s Dock, without any manner of harness whatever.” Their agriculture produced barely enough in good years to sustain men and cattle. In bad years numbers of both perished from starvation. Oatmeal, sometimes mixed with a small quantity of milk, at other times with blood from a freshly-bled cow, was the staple food. Butter and eggs were eaten occasionally; meat was consumed rarely. After visiting in one of the “wretched hovels” of “piled stone and turf” which served as a home, Burt described the interior in this way:“There my Landlady sat, with a Parcel of Children about her, some quite, and others almost naked, by a little Peat Fire, in the Middle of the Hut; and over the Fire-Place was a small Hole in the Roof for a Chimney. The Floor was common Earth, very uneven, and no where Dry, but near the Fire and in the Corners, where no Foot had carried the Muddy Dirt from without Doors.”

The isolation and tribal character of this poverty-stricken society were destroyed in the struggle for the throne of England and Scotland known as the Jacobite rebellions. In Scotland, the ruling family was the House of Stuart (also spelled Stewart and Steuart). In England. the Tudors were the ruling family until the line ran out with the death of Elizabeth I, in 1603. Elizabeth’s cousin, the Scottish king, James VI, was then invited to accept the English crown also. He did so and ruled England as James I. The two nations retained their separate parliaments and councils, but the people were all subjects of the same Stuart monarchs. James and the Stuarts who succeeded him ruled the two nations for a century altogether.

The Stuarts, especially those who reigned before 1688, were strong-willed sovereigns, ever upholding the divine right of kings and always seeking to minimize the power of Parliament. Religion was another source of conflict. The English kings were heads of the Church of England. James I and his son Charles I both disliked Calvinist policy, which put church control in the hands of presbyteries and a General Assembly. They preferred to have royally appointed bishops directing the church, and their attempts to establish such an episcopal system in Scotland produced bitter Presbyterian opposition.

The hostile response of the English and Scottish peoples to these political and religious policies produced some of the most important events in their history. The actions of James I and Charles I stirred up a storm of protest in both England and Scotland. Civil War finally erupted during the reign of Charles I. Charles was executed by the Puritan victors who then ruled England from 1649 to 1660. In 1660 the crown was restored to Charles II. His Catholic brother, James II, ascended the throne at Charles’ death in 1685. James II was a blunt, relentless man who pursued his political and religious policies with such harshness that he soon alienated the members of the English and Scottish Parliaments, the Anglicans, and the Calvinists. In view of his advancing age and the Protestantism of the grown daughters who would succeed him, no attempt was made to depose James II until his bride gave birth to a son in 1688. This brought forth the threat of another Catholic king and triggered the Glorious Revolution of 1688. A coalition of political leaders advised James to leave the country and invited James’s daughter Mary and her husband William to become the joint monarchs of England and Scotland. Unwilling to lose his head to the executioner’s ax as his father had, James fled to France. After the reigns of William and Mary, and Queen Anne, their German nephew, the Elector of Hanover, became King George I of Great Britain in 1714.

Those people in England and Scotland who favored the restoration of James II or his heirs to the throne were known as Jacobites (from Jacobus, the Latin for James). Although they took part in several other uprisings, the main revolutionary efforts of the Jacobities took place in 1715 and 1745 and were subsequently known as the Fifteen and the Forty-five.

The Fifteen and the Forty-five were organized in the Highlands of Scotland because many clans were known to favor the House of Stuart and because it was a remote region largely uncontrolled and unpatrolled by the British army. In September, 1715, the Earl of Mar, unhappy at having been removed from his post as Secretary of State by George I, traveled to the Highlands and raised the standard for James Edward, the self-styled “James III.” Six months later an army under the command of Archibald Campbell, the third Duke of Argyle, defeated the Jacobite clans.

The next major Jacobite revolutionary attempt, the Forty-five, was the work of James’s son Charles Edward—affectionately known in the Highlands as Bonnie Prince Charlie. Prince Charles was a tall, slender man with red hair, dark eyes, and a handsome face. Energetic, smooth-talking, and straightforward, he worked hard to make many friends. The impact of his personality was such that almost half of the clans agreed to rise and follow his standard.

The military prowess of the Highlanders was widely respected, although their tactics seemed primitive and disorganized in comparison with those of other European armies. The signal to attack was followed by a mad charge at the enemy as the clansmen shrieked, screamed, and brandished their broad swords called claymores. The very sound and fury of a Highland army often terrorized its opposition. Prince Charles adopted the Highland garb as his uniform. At night he wrapped himself in his plaid and slept in the heather with his troops. Trusting Prince Charles, the Gaels performed mightily for him on the field of battle.

The military campaigns of the Forty-five occurred over an eight-month period and brought terror to George II and his court. In a series of battles, Prince Charles and his kilted army swept through the Lowlands into England to within 130 miles of London. At this point, the homesick Scots refused to venture farther from their Highlands. King George’s son, the Duke of Cumberland, trailed the clans back to the Highlands, and the two armies finally clashed at Culloden Moor in April of 1746. The outnumbered Gaels fought for a time, but when the loss of great numbers and the flight of some units were observed, the entire surviving force turned and ran. The Duke pursued the fleeing clansmen and, in a great bloodbath, cut down the Highlanders in flight or hunted them out in the hills.

Prince Charles did not die with his men in battle as he had promised, but fled from the field at Culloden. During the next five months, he roamed the Highlands and Islands garbed as a Highlander of low rank. Although there was a tempting price of £30,000 on his head, no Highlanders betrayed him. Part of the time he assumed the disguise of a serving maid to a plucky young Highland woman named Flora MacDonald, who was later imprisoned for her role in his escape. In September of 1746, Charles finally embarked for France. With the departure of Prince Charles, the episode was closed. Thereafter, the Highlanders’ feelings of hatred, defiance, and remorse could be expressed only in their poems and songs. Hundreds of these Jacobite verses survive:

In 1746 the British government began the enactment of a series of laws designed to destroy the clans and to bring the Highlands under political supervision. These restrictive laws applied to all clans alike, although most of the clans had not taken part in the rebellion, and some had actually joined the Duke of Argyle and the Campbells in fighting for the House of Hanover. By the Disarming Act of 1746, all weapons were taken from the Highlanders, who were forbidden to render military service to their chiefs. At the same time, the Highland Dress Act deprived the clansman of his colorful highland garb. With the passage of the bill taking from the clan chiefs all “heritable Jurisdictions,” the area became subject to the laws of the realm. Justice was then administered by Sheriff-substitutes and local Justices of the Peace, Finally, the estates of many of the chiefs of the Forty-five were confiscated. As a result of these acts, the special bond between chief and clansman was effectively broken. The feudal, patriarchal Highland clan system came to an end as the chief became a landlord and the clansman a tenant or subtenant.

In addition, the London authorities instituted new religious policies aimed at Episcopalians and Catholics, in order to prevent other Jacobite revolutions. Pastors and priests who refused to take an oath of allegiance to the British king were forbidden to preach, teach, or officiate at meetings. Both the leaders and any persons attending such illegal gatherings were threatened with imprisonment and “transportation.”

With the old religious, military, and clan leadership removed, the Jacobites of the Highlands were never again a threat to the peace of the British Isles.

In the three decades following the Forty-five, thousands of Highlanders flocked to America. More of them settled in North Carolina than in any other colony. What was responsible for this migration? American historians who have studied this movement believe the North Carolina Highlanders were forced into exile. These writers note that, although social and economic factors may have been involved, the major reason for the migration was political—the persecution and deportation of rebel Highlanders after the Forty-five. This writer disagrees with this exile theory and concurs with the eighteenth century British observations that point primarily to nonpolitical causes for the migration. This viewpoint is explained and defended in the book upon which this pamphlet is based.

According to the writer’s research, the following three interrelated factors are responsible for the exodus from the Highlands during the latter two-thirds of the eighteenth century: (1) The changes in agriculture produced excessive rents and evictions. (2) The decay of the clan system removed the social ties and restraints that might have prevented migration. (3) The growth of population contributed to poverty and unrest.

During the time when the tribal chieftains exercised control over members of his clan, a system of landholding had developed which served to organize the clan membership into military groups. The chief, whose power was determined by the number of clansmen responding to his call, would grant leases or “tacks” to close relatives in return for token rents and military service. These tacksmen would then divide the land and “subset” it to groups of tenants who farmed it in common and who also agreed to render military service. These tacksmen and tenants hired subtenants, or cotters as laborers. The tacksmen then served as organizers or lieutenants of the military group formed by the tenants and subtenants.

Since a tacksman’s obligation of his chief had been figured largely in military terms, a rise in rents was inevitable when such military service was outlawed after the Forty-five. Whenever a tacksman’s lease expired, the laird assured himself a greater income by substantially increasing the rent upon renewal or by auctioning the lease. The tacksmen, of course, attempted to pass the rent rise on to their tenants, but they were largely unsuccessful in raising their tenants’ rents for the reason that tenants were already paying to the limit of their capacity. When the tacksman could not successfully pass on the rent rise, he was forced to pay it himself. When he was no longer able to pay the rents, he made plans to emigrate.

Another phase of agricultural change was the introduction of new methods of production. Formerly, land had been tilled by the “run-rig” system. Under this system, a group of tenants rented the land in common from a tacksman. Lots were drawn to decide which strip or ridge each tenant would till. Plowing was done co-operatively and, in some places, cultivation and harvesting, too. With such a farming system there was no incentive for liming, draining, or otherwise improving fields, since a tenant could never be certain he would work the same ridges again. The absence of enclosures meant that selective breeding was impossible and that crops were constantly in danger of destruction from wandering cattle. Neither crop rotation nor field rotation was practiced. The “infields” near the farmyard received some manure and were constantly under oats and barley. The “outfields,” which consisted of less fertile land and which received little manure, were tilled until they were exhausted. They then were allowed to lie fallow until strengthened.

Enlightened lairds were aware that this type of farming would never allow the tenants a return adequate for an improved standard of living or for the payment of higher rents, and they therefore suggested new farming methods. Other lairds, motivated only by self-interest, simply raised the rents whenever possible. The rise in rents tended to drive out numbers of both the tacksmen and tenant groups.

Slowly but steadily during the last half of the eighteenth century, agricultural methods changed. “Run-rigs” were replaced by compact, enclosed farms which encouraged tenants to improve the holding and which allowed selective breeding. The “outfield” and “infield” system was discarded for a system of field and crop rotation. Large areas of swamp, heretofore considered untillable, became valuable farm land after being drained. When the English iron plow was tried in the Highlands, it proved far superior to the old wooden harrow. Turnips, rutabagas, peas, and kale were adopted as rotation crops and as new foods. Flax, which the government introduced in hope of starting a linen industry, did not grow well; but potatoes thrived and within two decades were the staple food in some areas. To fertilize the thin soil, limestone, which was plentiful in many sections, was burned in peat fires and spread upon the land. These new techniques and crops transformed agricultural life in the Highlands. It must be pointed out, however, that the adoption of new farming methods was not always uniform throughout the Highlands. As late as 1814, tacksmen were still found in several areas; and in others the “run-rig” system persisted at the end of the eighteenth century.

Equally far-reaching changes occurred in grazing, which was the most important agricultural activity of the Highlands. Both before and after the Forty-five, black cattle constituted the major export from the region. However, although cattle continued as the main export, the introduction of Lowland sheep after the Forty-five was an important event in Highland agriculture. Since the sheep graziers could afford to pay rents considerably higher than the farmers, sheep farming was encouraged by the lairds. Sheep herding began in Perthshire in the 1760’s, and only ten years later the practice had spread to the northermost part of the Highlands. With the sheep came enclosures and displaced tenants. The Scots Magazine in 1772 lamented the large number of Sutherland tenants forced to move to North Carolina because their farms were turned into pastures. Three years later the Scots Magazine noted the expulsion of large numbers of tenants in Perth and Argyllshire for the same reason.

Another motive for migration was the decay of the clan system. Before 1745 the chief was the unquestioned ruler of his clan. His word was law and absolute discipline was demanded. Life or death, war or peace, awaited his command. The clansman rejoiced to share his name, religion, and his dangers. In this society, where exploitation might have been expected, power was tempered with benevolence. The chief’s table was open to all and his counsel freely offered to the most humble. Thus, in a society of marked distinctions, an intimacy developed which can best be expressed in family terms. Bound together by common devotion to a chief, the clan was an integrated family which prospered and suffered together, worked and warred together, lived and died together.

Parliament acted swiftly after the defeat of 1746 to cut the military and judicial ties between chief and clansmen. The chain of circumstances that followed caused the lairds to raise the rent, insist upon enclosure of land, and introduce sheep. These actions made the clansman feel that the chief had ceased to be his patron. Loyalty to his laird was no longer a deterrent to emigration.

Pamphlets praising America and enumerating the advantages and attractions of the New World were circulated among the discontented Highlanders. Quite apart from these printed pamphlets, and probably more influential, were the letters sent back to Scotland by the new settlers in America. On the ship Batchelor of Leith, which sailed from Caithness in 1774, over half those aboard indicated that they made their decision to migrate because of the encouraging accounts received from countrymen or relatives who had gone before them.

Pamphlets and letters were not, in themselves, the basic reasons for the large Highland emigration of the eighteenth century. Why were a people noted for clannishness and provincialism willing to be transported to a new continent? New modes of landholding, cultivation, and grazing had produced high rents, enclosures, and evictions. Highlanders, no longer protected or regulated by chief and clan organizations, sought relief for economic woes in the New World.

The third major motive for migration was population pressure. Even in the first quarter of the century, there seemed to be more people than the economic resources of the area could support. This situation became more critical when the number of inhabitants further increased in the last half of the century.

Several factors contributed to this population growth. New roads allowed easier transport of foods so that sectional crop failures could be remedied and famine averted. Vaccination for smallpox saved many lives that otherwise might have been claimed by that dread scourge. The introduction of new crops (particularly potatoes and kale, which were more dependable and more productive than the old Highland oats) also served to encourage a population rise.

In a rapidly expanding economy, this growing population might have been welcomed; in the Highland economy, even with the agricultural improvement after 1746, the increasing numbers were a constant problem. Indeed, improved methods of agriculture tended to aggravate the unemployment problem. For example, under the old agricultural system, plowing a given tract of land had required five men and five horses; with the English plow, one man and one horse did the same amount of work. When grazing areas were enclosed, herders were no longer needed.

Although poverty and unemployment had long plagued the Highlands, these were more powerful forces for positive action when combined with the increase in information on idyllic America, and with the removal of the clan structure, which had been a restraint to movement.