In Pennsylvania and the entirety of America it’s the eve before a national holiday, and tomorrow millions will hopefully take time to reflect on everything we have to be thankful for, in spite of a difficult year. I’d like to offer a perspective, one obtained from my research of historical material for another historical novel. It’s important to remember our history, the Pilgrims, Plymouth, Massachusetts, and the first Thanksgiving. According to written accounts in 1621 the celebration was spread over several days. If it were not for the local Wampanoag tribe, the Pilgrims may have perished. Spin the wheel of time forward to the 1700s and in my research I gained a totally new perspective pertaining to America’s history. The focus is the Scots-Irish, or as they say in Northern Ireland today, the Ulster Irish. While the Pilgrims were colonizing Massachusetts in the early 1600s, Ulster was undergoing a colonization of another type – migrants from Scotland and England were settling in Ulster. It was all part of an organized plantation. By the mid to later 1700s thousands of the Scots-Irish left the ports of Londonderry, Portrush, Larne, and Belfast, to settle in North America. Pennsylvania received the greater influx of Scots-Irish. Did you know the entirety of the state of Delaware was considered part of and governed by Pennsylvania prior to the American Revolution. Benjamin Franklin and General Washington realized that if it were not for the Scots-Irish having settled in Pennsylvania years before, taking up arms and becoming Patriots, the outcome of the war would have been much different, resulting in mass hangings of Patriots. The details will become clear in my upcoming novel about the Scots-Irish and those who sailed on Faithful Steward. Since we are being thankful at this time – I’d like to tip my hat to the Scots-Irish.
Harry Allen Wenzel 
This story of the ship Faithful Steward is a good one as you can nearly tell the story of the 18th century movement of Scots-Irish (or Ulster-Scots as we refer to them today in Northern Ireland) to North America. I know that Harry has spent three years researching this story so this book will be worth reading.
The emigration trade established Londonderry as one of the chief Irish ports for transatlantic trade in the 18th century. Links between the cities of Londonderry and Philadelphia were established through trade. Flaxseed, the raw material of the linen industry, was shipped to Derry from Philadelphia in the early spring, and on the return voyage linen and emigrants were destined for Philadelphia.
The Scots-Irish tended to enter America through Philadelphia and then head for the frontier. Of 128 vessels advertised to sail from Derry between 1750 and 1775, 99 (77%) sailed for Philadelphia with 10 each destined for Charleston (in South Carolina) and Nova Scotia (Canada).
From Philadelphia the Scots-Irish moved southwards through the Great Valley, east of the Appalachian Mountains, across the Potomac and into the Shenandoah Valley between the Blue Ridge and Appalachian ranges. From there they continued south into the Piedmont of North and South Carolina. By the Revolutionary War, in 1776, about 90% of Ulster settlers had made their homes in Pennsylvania, the Valley of Virginia and the Carolinas; and they dominated a one thousand mile frontier along the spine of Appalachia from Pennsylvania to South Carolina.
I estimate that some 75,000 Scots-Irish left Derry for the North American colonies prior to 1776. The American War of Independence has been referred to as the Scots-Irish Presbyterian Rebellion as the backbone of George Washington’s army were these Scots-Irish immigrants.
Brian Mitchell
Derry Genealogy, Northern Ireland
LikeLike
Brian – Thank you for those words. As always – every time I hear from you I learn more.
LikeLike