| The Ulster-Scots or Scotch-Irish (preferably the
former) were a hearty people who went to Northern Ireland during the reign of James I and
then emigrated to the colonies starting in 1718 to 1750. It is said that around
250,000* Scottish people from Ulster, Northern Ireland came to the colonies. There
were many reasons why so great a number of people left Northern Ireland for a land in the
midst of rebirth, a place of hardship and a place where the unknown overshadowed the
known. Aside from the turmoil of picking up their lives and moving half-way across
the globe, the colonies offered them a freedom they would never have experienced in
Ireland. Because of high rents, religious turmoil, small-pox outbreak, large
losses of livestock, lack of hard currency, weak trade, poor crops poor due to bad
weather, the Ulster-Scots decided to pick up their lives and move to a new land. |