Overview

This distinguished monograph, published originally by the Cornell University Press, is a treatise on the causes and character of Scottish emigration to North America prior to the American Revolution. Entire chapters are then devoted to Lowland and Highland emigration, forced transportation of felons and the drafting of Scottish troops to the colonies, rising rents and other factors in the Scottish social structure, and the British government's role in colonization. Three concluding chapters cover the geographical centers of Scottish settlement--especially the Carolinas, the formation of a Scottish merchant class, the role of the Society of Saint Andrews among Scottish-Americans, and the political conservatism or Toryism of many Scottish settlers during the American Revolution.