American Revolution

Multicultural Influence

The multicultural influence on the American Revolution, and the corresponding influence of the revolution on American multiculturalism, can be defined in three categories. First, in some cases ethnicity appears to have been a factor in why some groups supported the revolution in greater proportion than others. Second, the assistance rendered to the new “United States” by traditional enemies, such as France and Spain, had an influence on how these nations and their cultures were viewed following the war, and thus the acceptance of French and Spanish cultural elements in America. And third, individuals who came to North America to support the Revolution left a lasting legacy that became, in different ways, a part of the American multicultural mosaic.

Among the diverse groups within colonial America, some contained sizable numbers of people who tended to be anti-English. The Scots-Irish, whose ancestors moved from Scotland to Northern Ireland, then on to North America, were mostly Presbyterians who settled in Pennsylvania and along the frontier edges of the southern colonies. In America, their dislike for the British government was compounded by their residence on the frontier or “backcountry” areas that were remotely located from the centers of political and economic power in the lowland areas. Residents of the backcountry often felt a sense of neglect, with a frequent complaint being that the only time they saw any evidence of government concern was when the tax collector arrived. For these reasons, the majority of Scots-Irish appear to have supported the American Revolution.

Historian James G. Leyburn noted in his The Scotch-Irish: A Social History that the largely Scots-Irish community of Mecklenburg, North Carolina, declared its own independence a year before the Declaration of Independence when it adopted the Mecklenburg Declaration in 1775. It was the heavily Scots-Irish Virginia and North Carolina militia that won the critical Battle of Kings Mountain, which caused the British to abandon their Southern Campaign, leading eventually to the decisive defeat of the British at Yorktown. Leyburn quoted a British major general as stating that “half the rebel Continental Army were from Ireland.” He quotes a Hessian officer serving with the British forces in a similar vein: “Call this war by whatever name you may, only call it not an American rebellion; it is nothing more or less than a Scotch Irish Presbyterian rebellion.” No doubt these are exaggerations, but the comments nonetheless acknowledged the significant support of the Scots-Irish for the revolutionary cause.

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