Rednecks and Hillbillies
– Great Americans......
When Jed Clampett and
the Beverley Hillbillies first appeared on our television screens in the mid 1960’s, I must confess that I had
no idea what Hillbillies and Rednecks in fact were. I also,
totally incorrectly, believed that the Irish who immigrated to the United
States during the Great Famine in the 1840’s were those who ‘made the greatest contribution’ to present day America.
How wrong was I..................................
In fact, Rednecks and Hillbillies go way back before the famine
of the 1840’ – back in fact to the middle of the 1600’s.
Hillbillies and Rednecks have a wonderful history in the
Americas and I hope you will forgive me if I try to
explain.........................
The history surrounding Ulster-Scots also
known as Scots-Irish in
the US begins
as far as this post is concerned when in 1638 and 1641, in Scotland, the Presbyterians there
signed a Covenant.
They demanded to retain their Presbyterian form
of church government and would not accept, under any circumstances, the Church of England as
its official state church as ordered by the then monarch Elizabeth
the First and the English government.
Many signed in their own blood and wore red
pieces of cloth around their necks as a sign of their religious beliefs. They
became known as ‘Rednecks’. As
a matter of fact, as late as1940, at least
one Scottish
Presbyterian minister insisted on wearing a red clerical
collar.
They were banned from all public office because of their refusal
to become part of the ‘new’
Church of England and swear allegiance
to Elizabeth, the then Queen of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland
in her capacity as ‘Protector of the Faith’.
Things became so hard for them that tens of thousands moved to Ulster in Northern Ireland.
Others, though few at this stage, sailed to the new world and
took up residence in the United
States. The land in the Province of Ulster, Northern
Ireland had been confiscated from the Catholic
Irish and basically granted freely to those in the Queens favour.
In Ulster, the Scottish
Presbyterians were regularly harassed not only by the English but also by the nationalist Irish whose
lands had been dispossessed. The ‘new’ Ulster landowners also hated
them. Their Presbyterian churches were regularly burned down
by their enemies and many were forced to travel by boat on Sundays back to the Scottish mainland
to attend services. Thousands
were killed by the cruel sea..
When The Test Act of 1704 was passed into law by the English it caused even more hardship to the Presbyterians, as marriages
conducted by their ministers were now deemed by the government to be void and
invalid. They were also further barred from worshipping in their churches,
running schools or holding any form of public office.
At that time, they also became known as 'Blackmouths' due to
the fact that in the summer they would eat blackberries during
services in the hedgerows and fields. They were a hardy set of people
through necessity…..
Oddly enough the Irish
Catholics were also known as ‘blackmouths’ for the same reason that they too
had to hold their services in the hedgerows and woodlands….
Many of the former Scots
were involved in the Linen
trade weaving and when the English placed additional tariffs
on the Ulster industry, they found the situation totally untenable.
The earlier trickle of
immigrants to America now became a flood……………….
The first small group of families had begun sailing to America in the 1690’s
but by 1740 over a quarter of a million men, women and children had left. Their
Presbyterian ministers sailed with them and as they had the basis of a well organised church with them, Presbyterianism began to spread rapidly
across America.
Many moved to the South and
mountainous regions. They wore red or orange neckerchiefs to signify their
origins and became known as Rednecks.
The later arrivals, after the Battle
of the Boyne in 1690, when King William of Orange (King Billy) beat King
James (the Irish/Jacobites), the men
from the mountain regions became known as the ‘Billies from the Hills’, later changed
to ‘Hillbillies’.
It is likely that even before the film Deliverance and the
portrayal of the supposed Hillbillies in
it, they have always been ridiculed. However, their true
history and bravery is magnificent and present-day America owes so much to those who carved
their way across the continent during the Frontier years.
A few lines before I
name names..................
Their hatred of the English because
of the religious bigotry against them back home in Scotland first, then in Ulster
made them ideal candidates to take the rebel side in the War of Independence against the Crown.
As one learned gentleman (ProfessorJames G.Leyburn) said
of them "They
provided some of the best fighters in the American army. Indeed
there were those who held the Scots-Irish responsible for the war
itself".
George Washington himself once said "If
defeated everywhere else, I will make my last stand for liberty among the
Scots-Irish of my native Virginia".
The Scots-Irish provided
25 Generals and
about one third of the rebel army.
The Pennsylvania
Line was made up entirely of Scots-Irish emigrants and their
sons. At the battle of Kings
Mountain, a militia of mainly Scots-Irish Presbyterians defeated
an English army
twice its size.
President Theodore Roosevelt once said of the Scots-Irish "In the Revolutionary war, the
fiercest and most ardent Americans of all were the Presbyterian Irish settlers
and their descendants".
Probably my greatest shock of all during my reading was yet to
come.
The Declaration
of Independence was printed by an Ulster-Scot, John Dunlop and
it was first read in public by a first generation Scots-Irish American, Colonel John
Nixon. The first, and largest, signature on the
document came from another Scots-Irish
Presbyterian, John Hancock.
Over the coming decades, the Scots-Irish gradually lost their
identity and embraced America. The name fell out of use for almost a century
until the arrival of the Catholic
Irish during the Great
Famine in the 1840’s. Those refugees were known as Catholic Gaelic Irish and
the Presbyterians reintroduced the name Scots-Irish.
The ‘new’ arrivals,
the Catholics tended to congregate in Catholic Irish communities in New York, Chicago and
Boston whilst
the Scots-Irish population spread throughout
America in particular the Mid-West and Southern States.
With the promise of ‘better free land further West’, they
would move off in large numbers, and colonise vast expanses of
land. Once again after a number of years, they would move off again.
And so it continued..............
Nine of the men who died at the Alamo were actually born in Ulster, whilst Davy Crockett, William Travis and Jim Bowie were all
first, second or third generation Scots-Irish as
were many others.
Famous Scots-Irish Americans include Andrew Jackson, Davy Crockett, Sam
Houston, Stonewall Jackson, Woodrow Wilson and
others. John
Wayne, Willie Nelson and Elvis Presley are among many, many other
famous American stars of film, stage and music.
Today there are
about 27 Million Scots-Irish
Presbyterian Americans and 17 Million Catholic Irish Americans –
although many from a Protestant background regard themselves as Irish-Americans.
As I always thought that ‘the Irish in America’ were those who had sailed there during the Great Famine in the 1840’s, I feel that I must confess how wrong I was. They too may well have produced some ‘great Americans’ but without a shadow of doubt the ‘true greatness’ was provided by the Presbyterian Scots-Irish or Ulster-Scots - whichever is preferred.
Hurray for the Rednecks and Hillbillies..................they
deserve it.
I do however take a little pride in the fact that I can claim
just a little connection.....John F. Kennedy was one of ours.................
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