Scots-Irish+in+late+18th+century

**Historical Background:**
The Scots-Irish are a group of people who are of Scottish descent and reside in Northern Ireland, also known as Ulster. There are six sects of Northern Ireland, those being Antrim, Armagh, Cavan, Down, Monaghan, and Tyrone. The capital of this region is Belfast. Originally, 200,000 Scottish Presbyterians migrated to Northern Ireland under the influence of Great Britain. However, in order to maintain its dominance, Great Britain wanted to send people of the Protestant faith to this region as well. This strategy ultimately failed and. The Scottish were eventually confronted with many economical problems.



**Causes of Emigration:**
There were many problems that the Scots-Irish faced, which led to their emigration from Northern Ireland to the America. Their economy was the largest factor of this process. It was gradually worsening, which put much pressure on the Scots-Irish. This led to the Scots-Irish paying costly rents for the land on which they lived, while a declination in the amount of crops grown was also adding to their suffering. The linen trade was also losing value, thus leading to less work and even further damaging the economy. Due to these problems, approximately two million Scots-Irish immigrants moved to America.



**Scots-Irish Immigrants in the Colonies:**
By 1775, 55,000 Scots-Irish immigrants were in America. The Scots-Irish were able to settle in American colonies formed by Scotland, which were located in East Jersey and South Carolina. Due to the tolerance of Presbyterianism within these settlements, the Scots-Irish were able to practice their religion freely. The Scots-Irish immigrants came to the United States in search of work, such as the prosperous tobacco industry. Many simply wanted to escape the poverty that was increasing in Northern Ireland. These immigrants ultimately sought opportunity and wanted to improve their own lives in America. They wanted to construct better futures for themselves. The Scots-Irish immigrants would help one another to survive and were known to remain in groups of their own ethnicity.

**Positive and Negative Effects on Immigration:**
There were positive effects on immigration that were brought by the Scots-Irish immigrants. Due to the poor economy in Northern Ireland, many of these immigrants were able to move to America by becoming redemptioners, a name that replaced servants for the Scots-Irish. Thus, these immigrants worked for the benefit of the American colonies and the immigration of the Scots-Irish helped to change the lives of many poor people in Northern Ireland. This improved the quality of immigration in general.

There were also negative effects on immigration to which the Scots-Irish immigration contributed. When the immigrants from Ulster came to America and became redemptioners, they were not always treated with good care. There were many instances in which the masters of these servants did not give them adequate food or clothing that was required. Therefore, the Scots-Irish immigrants were abused and a negative connotation was added to immigration because of the hardships that these immigrants had suffered from.

**Scots-Irish Demands:**
According to a government document, as found on, [], the Scots-Irish immigrants in the colonies desired to have regulations on the distribution of land among themselves and rules on the acceptance of new Scots-Irish emigrants into America. The Scots-Irish immigrants believed that hard working emigrants from Ireland were worthy of coming to the American colonies. They also believed that Scots-Irish immigrants should have a limit to the land that they can own and these immigrants should earn their land. Congress, however, denied these requests.