By Hugh Dussek, Ph.D.

Dr. Hugh Dussek is Chair of the History Department at Central Piedmont Community College

In the mid-18th century, Europeans immigrated to the Carolina Piedmont area that became Mecklenburg County. Most of these settlers were Scots-Irish and Germans.

The Scots-Irish originated from the Scottish Lowlands, the area between England and the Scottish Highlands. In the 16th century many Lowland Scots converted to Presbyterianism. In the 17th century, pushed out by a history of poverty and border violence, and encouraged by economic opportunities, tens of thousands of Lowland Scots immigrated to Ulster in the north of Ireland. King James I, the reigning monarch of England, Scotland, and Ireland, supported this migration in order to establish a loyal Protestant presence in Ireland. However, further difficulties ensued for the Scots in Ireland and in the 18th century an estimated two hundred thousand Scots-Irish migrated to the American colonies.

The Scots-Irish came to America largely through Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and settled in the backcountry to the west of the colony. As land became occupied and frontier troubles ensued with Native Americans, the Scots-Irish moved south searching for cheap land and new opportunities. Colonial governors saw the hardy Scots-Irish as a useful buffer against Native American tribes to the west and encouraged this movement. The Scots-Irish migrated along the Great Wagon Road. An old Native American trail, the road led west from Philadelphia, then south through the Valley of Virginia towards the backcountry of the Carolinas.

The Scots-Irish held stubbornly to their traditions, but adopted useful practices from others they met, such as the German community. For instance, the Scots-Irish began using the German-invented long rile, an accurate weapon, and the Conestoga wagon, a resilient vehicle for long journeys over the backcountry trails.

The first German settlers in North Carolina were Moravians. Originally sent in 1735 from England to Georgia, most Moravians moved to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in 1741. However, in 1752 a survey expedition was sent to North Carolina and a tract of almost 100,000 acres was selected as a site for a new Moravian settlement. This area was called Wachovia, with the first community named Bethabara. Several other communities soon developed such as Bethanian, Salem, Friedberg, and Friedland in which is present-day Forsyth County. 

The Scots-Irish and Germans settled on farms across the southern Piedmont region. The area boasted cheap and fertile land, and there were few recorded conflicts with Native Americans which suggests cooperation between early settlers and the Catawba people. The Scots-Irish girdled the trees and grew a variety of crops between the stumps. Small communities of Scots-Irish developed around their emerging Presbyterian churches, and the Great Wagon Road connected these communities to the coast and the Atlantic trading system.

The Scots-Irish and German settlers found new opportunities in the backcountry of the Carolinas. Their settlement in the area was one step in the migration of Europeans from the eastern coast of America to the West. The Scots-Irish and Germans set the pattern for settlement and contributed to later developments in the Mecklenburg County community. 

Sources

Tyler Blethen and Curtis Wood, Jr., From Ulster to Carolina: the Migration of the Scotch-Irish to Southwestern North Carolina (North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, 1998).

James G. Leyburn, The Scotch-Irish – A Social History (Chapel Hill, 1962).

Richard Hofstadter, America at 1750 – A Social Portrait, (Knopf 1971).

Elizabeth Fenn, Peter H. Wood, and Sydney Nathans, Natives & Newcomers: The Way We Lived in North Carolina before 1770 (Chapel Hill, 1983).

Parke Rouse, Jr., The Great Wagon Road: From Philadelphia to the South (McGraw Hill, 1973).

C. Daniel Crews, “Moravians,” From ENCYCLOPEDIA OF NORTH CAROLINA edited by William S. Powell. Copyright © 2006 by the University of North Carolina Press. Used by permission of the publisher.