Quote Originally Posted by cajunscot View Post
How does this tie into the Scots? Well, most Highlanders who immigrated also remained loyal to the crown, for various reasons. The very people you would expect to rebel -- didn't.

Regards,

Todd
Pages 150 to 154 of Meyer's book, The Highland Scots of North Carolina 1732- 1776, describes 3 reasons, at least for North Carolina Scots: 1. some Highlanders (Campbells) had it as it as "part of their tradition to defend the HOuse of Hanover." 2. "The fear of reprisal was probably a second factor....No group of people in the empire was any better acquainted with the painful aftermath of an unsuccessful revolution than the Highlanders....Even though Highlanders who were too young to remember the Forty-five had heard many stories of the brutalities, atrocities and destruction inflicted by the British Army under the Duke of Cumberland." 3. [The NC governor's policy of land grants] " must have been a third factor in influencing some of the Highlanders....the pressure of population and the changes in the agricultural system of the Highlands forced many people from the land. Thus the Highlanders land hunger is understandable."

Loyalties are often divided. I had ancestors who fought on both sides during the Revolution and the Civil War. And similar conflicts of interest can cause history to be interpreted different ways.

I guess history is like memory: selective and not altogether rooted in the facts.