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| Scottish American |
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| Notable Scottish Americans: Jimmy Stewart · George Marshall · Reese Witherspoon Douglas MacArthur · Johnny Cash · Edgar Allan Poe |
| Total population |
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Scottish Americans |
| Regions with significant populations |
| Appalachia, New England, Western United States |
| Languages |
| American English, Scots, Scottish Gaelic |
| Religion |
| Protestant,Catholic |
| Related ethnic groups |
| British Americans (Scots-Irish Americans, English Americans, Welsh Americans), Irish Americans |
Scottish Americans or (Scots Americans) are citizens of the United States whose ancestry originates in Scotland. Scottish Americans are closely related to Scots-Irish Americans, descendants of Ulster-Scots, who in the US are often treated as part of a common ethnic group.[citation needed] The majority of Ulster-Scots originally came from the lowlands and border country of Scotland before migrating to Ulster Province in Ireland (see Plantation of Ulster) and thence, beginning about five generations later, to North America in large numbers during the eighteenth century.
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The number of Americans of Scottish descent is estimated to be 20 to 25 million[1][2][3] and Scots-Irish up to 30 million.[4][unreliable source?] In the 2000 Census, 4.8 million Americans reported Scottish ancestry, 1.7% of the total US population. Another 4.3 million reported Scots-Irish ancestry, for a total of 9.2 million Americans reporting Scottish descent. These 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,[5] and because areas where people reported "American" ancestry were the places where, historically, Scottish and Scots-Irish Protestants settled in America (that is: along the North American coast and the Southeastern United States). Scottish Americans descended from nineteenth-century Scottish immigrants tend to be concentrated in the West, while others in New England are the descendants of immigrants from the Maritime Provinces of Canada, especially in the 1920s. Given Scotland's population (just over 5 million), there are almost as many self-identified Scottish Americans as there are native Scots living in their home country.
There has been a long tradition of influences between Scottish and the African American community. The great influx of Scots Presbyterians into the Carolinas introduced the African slaves to Christianity and their way of worship and singing. Even today, psalm singing and gospel music are the backbone of African American churchgoers. It has been long thought by the wider African American community that American Gospel music originated in Africa and was brought to the Americas by slaves. However recent studies by Professor Willie Ruff, a Black American ethno-musicologist at Yale University, concludes that African American Gospel singing was in fact was introduced and encouraged by Scottish Gaelic speaking settlers from North Uist.[6] His study also concludes that the first foreign tongue spoken by slaves in America was not English but Scottish Gaelic taught to them by Gaelic speakers who left the Western Isles because of religious persecution.[6] Traditional Scottish Gaelic psalm singing, or "precenting the line" as it is correctly known, in which the psalms are called out and the congregation sings a response, was the earliest form of congregational singing adopted by Africans in America. Professor Ruff focuses on Scottish settler influences that pre-date all other congregational singing by African Americans in America and found, in a North Carolina newspaper dated about 1740, an advertisement offering a generous reward for the capture and return of a runaway African slave who is described as being easy to identify because he only spoke Gaelic.[7] Such cultural influences have remained until modern times, even a church in Alabama where the African American congregation worshipped in Gaelic as late as 1918, giving a clue to the extent to which the Gaels spread their culture - from North Carolina to Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi.[8]
The states with the most Scottish & Scots-Irish populations:
Scottish
Scots-Irish
The states with the top percentages of Scottish:
Scottish
Scots-Irish
At least twenty three presidents of the United States have some Scottish or Scots-Irish ancestry, although the extent of this varies. For example, Ronald Reagan's great grandfather was a Scot and Woodrow Wilson’s grandparents were both Scottish. To a lesser degree Bill Clinton, James K. Polk and Richard Nixon have less direct Scottish, Scots-Irish ancestry.
Some of the following aspects of Scottish culture can still be found in some parts of the USA.
National Tartan Day, held each year on April 6 in the United States and Canada, celebrates the historical links between Scotland and North America and the contributions Scottish Americans and Canadians have made to US and Canadian history and society. "Scottish Heritage Month" is quickly being adopted around the United States and Canada.
Scottish culture, food, and athletics are celebrated at Highland Games and Scottish Festivals throughout North America. One of the largest of these occurs yearly at Grandfather Mountain, North Carolina. However, in recent years, the games at Pleasanton, California have surpassed them in size. In addition to traditional Scottish sports such as the Caber toss and the Hammer throw, there are Whisky tastings, traditional foods such as Haggis, and traditional Scottish dance.
Some Scottish placenames in USA include:
