[Wallace T.]

Don’t forget the largely Scots-Irish origins of the Americans who are often called rednecks. They spent centuries fighting the English in Scotland and the old-stock Irish in Northern Ireland. They may have perpetrated a few massacres, but they were victims as well. Their ranks were thinned as a result of the religious and dynastic wars in the British Isles in the 17th and 18th Centuries. The Highland Clearances caused many Scots to starve or emigrate. The Scots-Irish were also lesser victims of the Anglican Ascendancy in Ireland, even though their immigration from Scotland had originally been encouraged to provide the English crown with manpower to fight the Irish Catholics. Many Scots and Scots-Irish were indentured servants in America and the West Indies, and were often treated worse than black slaves. Of course, they never suffered pogroms or a Holocaust, but their history was nonetheless far more tragic than what the English, French, and Spanish had experienced in the century before their immigration to the New World.

[squireofgothos]

That reminds me of my family. I have a funny story. My ancestors came to this country (the US) from Scotland during the famines. My great great great great grandmother (I’m pretty sure it was 4 greats) was brought over and had to pay for her passage by working in a textile factory. She had bright red hair, and my grandmother told me she was VERY attractive. Anyway, she worked in the factory for 4 days before one of the factory owners walked by and saw her, and they were soon married! So my grandmother jokes that our family were indentured servants for all of 4 days.