Ray

Highland Heritage: Scottish Americans in the American South. By Celeste Ray. (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, c. 2001. Pp. xix+256).

In the latter half of the twentieth century, Americans have participated in the increased use of heritage and ancestry to differentiate from what they see as the dominant national culture. Celeste Ray highlights the particular endurance of Scottish identity in her Highland Heritage. A professor of Anthropology at the University of the South, Ray specializes in Scottish and Celtic culture, as well as its expression in the United States, particularly in the American South. This book analyzes the celebration of Scottish heritage in North Carolina through its history and rituals.

Like most of Europe, Scotland has a long recorded history with no lack of historical moments for those seeking ethnic identity to focus upon. The understood version of Scotland has a very specific reference point: the defeat of Jacobite forces under Bonnie Prince Charlie at Culloden in 1746. This moment is critical for the development of Scottish identity, as it originates the image of a beaten yet unconquered people. The extensive use of Scottish troops abroad by the victorious Hanoverians, as well as the romanticized nation popularized by the writings of Sir Walter Scott further cements this imagined Scotland. These images draw from an idealized Highland culture, with its focus on martial rites, clans and the tartan. Even those whose Scottish ancestry draws from the Lowland Scots or Highland clans that fought against the Jacobites utilize this idealized past to create a unified heritage. Ray focuses particularly on the development of Scottish culture in North Carolina, as many Scots-Americans trace their heritage to Scottish settlements in the Cape Fear River Valley during the 1750s and 1760s.

Ray’s heavily anthropological approach gives great detail on the dress and ritual of Scottish festivals in North Carolina. She focuses heavily on the Grandfather Mountain Games, the oldest and largest gathering of Scottish Americans, but also on other happenings in the state such as various celebrations of the Robert Burns Societies, and other groups that promote Scottish ancestry. These meetings are heavily ritualized, and filled with various Scottish and Jacobite symbols. Most notable is the wearing of tartans, wool dyed with unique designs to represent Scottish clans, from which all attendees draw some connection. These clans act as extended family networks, and members regularly extol the clan’s virtues, even appropriating famous historical figures whose only connection is a shared surname (from which most modern clan ties are derived anyway). Through the use of song and ceremony participants remember the suppression of Highland culture following Culloden, and celebrate their efforts to keep it alive in the present day. Ray also notes several uniquely American rituals, in particular the Kirkin’ o’ the Tartan, a parade of clan tartans that denotes their presence at the Games.

Though her focus is based on North Carolina, Ray mentions the broader influence of Scottish culture on the rest of the South, partially in opposition to the rest of the country. In addition to the localism of the Cape Fear Scots, Ray sees a plain connection between a Scottish identity based on the defeat of Highlanders at Culloden, and the defeated South from the Civil War. As the South celebrates the defeat of their noble and martial culture in 1865, these Southern Scots also remember a similar historical tragedy from Culloden. An emphasis on Scottish weaponry such as the targe (spiked shield) and sgian dubh (small knife tucked into the sock) and warrior culture reinforces this martial image. This connection to Lost Cause mythology creates the only real connection between the book and any study of the Old South. Though North Carolinians expressed an awareness of Scottish heritage, it was not until the rise of cultural sub-histories in the latter part of the twentieth century that the Grandfather Mountain Games and other forms of Scottish celebrations began to take place. Even then, the book seems more appropriate when trying to understand modern imagining of the Old South rather than the place and period itself.

Though aware of many rituals’ imagined or unreliable source, Ray is sensitive to the importance of these rites to their participants. She is able to relate the practices of heritage remembrance without excessive or distracting judgment, keeping the focus on the Scotsmen she is describing. Even if the imagined past suffers from inaccuracy, rites have meaning for their practitioners. She includes a helpful glossary and creates a readable image of the ways in which North Carolinians celebrate Scottish culture. Widespread and comprehensive, Highland Heritage is a useful work for those interested in the endurance of European cultures in the United States, as well as the efforts to connect them to existing American identities.

Texas Christian University Keith Altavilla

Highland Heritage: Scottish Americans in the American South. By Celeste Ray. (Chapel Hill & London: University of North Carolina Press, 2001).

Highland Heritage: Scottish Americans in the American South by Celeste Ray is a study of how heritage relates to history among the descendants of southern Scottish immigrants. Throughout her work, Ray explores heritage, which she perceives as a type of history told from a particular viewpoint, and how the traditions and folktales of heritage replace actual history in memory. By using Scottish heritage revival in North Carolina’s Cape Fear Valley as case study, Ray shows this process as it developed from the first Scottish immigrants in the eighteenth century to their modern successors.

Ray focuses on North Carolina because of the unique history of Scottish influence on the area that continues even today. The Cape Fear region, known traditionally as “the homeland of Scots in America,” became the settlement of perhaps the largest concentration of Scotch-Irish immigrants in the South, especially those from the Scottish Highlands. The direct immigration of Highlanders to Cape Fear began in the 1730’s motivated by land grants and tax-exemptions offered by the Scottish governor of North Carolina. According to Ray, this community was largely responsible for distinguishing “Scottish” as an ethnic group who, along with the Irish and Scots-Irish, are distinct from Anglo-Saxons.

Through most of the book, Ray concentrates on the elements of Scottish-American culture in the present-day including the development of Scottish-American identity and how it pertains to the North Carolina Cape Fear region, the kinship and social structure of contemporary Scottish-American, and the history of heritage events and celebrations like the modern Highland games which are traditionally linked to nineteenth century agricultural fairs held by Scottish Americans in the south.

In her final two chapters, Ray takes her closest look at the interaction of Southern history and Scottish heritage. In the first of these chapters, Ray focuses on the Scottish military tradition, one of the two most prominent features that join Southern and Scottish heritage. In the mid-nineteenth century, several works were published on the warlike nature inherent in Scots. Southerners readily accepted and perpetuated the image of Scots as warriors because they saw parallels between that and southern concepts of chivalrous gentlemen. According to Ray, the ideal image of a Southern man became an amalgamation of these two traditions. The shared experience of the Civil War further solidified this tie between the South and those of Scottish heritage still seen in the displays of the Scottish tartan/plaid and the Confederate flag and modern Highland celebrations.

The other major unifying theme between Scottish and Southern culture was also linked to the Civil War. Both groups feel they have each faced the destruction of their way of life. The South’s loss of the Civil War and the battle of Culloden in Scotland in 1746, which marked the end of the Scotland’s campaign to put a Scottish monarch back on the throne of Britain, were viewed as a merging of the Southern experience and the Scottish experience. Forever linked by their struggles for “lost causes”, Southerner and the Scots melded their traditions together over the last two centuries to create the heritage visible today.

While Ray makes some interesting points on the development of Scottish culture in America, I would say that her book is much more useful to a reader concerned with ethnography and Scottish-American communities today than one interested in the history of the region. Making use of sources such as contemporary interviews and ethnographic field work and research, Ray creates a work that is more anthropology than history. Indeed, she only inserts pieces of historical background when needed to clarify a point. Ray focuses more on the processes of creating heritage than the historical accuracy of traditions. However, she does use her study to reflect on the importance of tradition to history and how understanding heritage can expose biases in the historical record.

Highland Heritage: Scottish Americans in the American South. By Celeste Ray. (Chapel Hill & London: University of North Carolina Press, 2001).

In Highland Heritage: Scottish Americans in the American South, author Celeste Ray presents a case study examining Scottish American heritage revival. An anthropologist, Ray explores the concept of “Scottish” identity today, revealing a culture only marginally identifiable with eighteenth century Scotland. As an anthropological study, rather than a historical investigation, the book concentrates on the nature of the popular notion of heritage and the processes employed by descendants to identify with their forebearers. The author reveals the balance between historical “truths” and idealized representations. Ray observes that shared heritage reminds people to bond together as a distinct group.

The author utilizes two primary approaches to her research: ethnographic data and ethnohistorical data. Ethnographic research utilizes knowledge gleaned from participation and observation of community events, supplemented by oral histories and personal interviews. Ethnographic research often yields valuable insight into the activities and beliefs of the participants. Ethnohistorical research utilizes conventional library and archival data sources. Through these methods, Ray explores the merger of Scottish American culture with that of the southern regions of the United States.

In her introduction, Ray provides a brief overview of the historical roots of Scottish American immigrants, beginning with the large-scale immigration of Scottish Highlanders in the 1730s. Precise numbers of Scottish immigrants remain illusive, though estimates indicate that at least 20,000 immigrated in the eight years preceding the Revolutionary War. Induced by generous land grants and the prospect of a ten-year tax exemption, the majority of Scottish immigrants settled in North Carolina, largely through the efforts of Governor Gabriel Johnston. Johnston’s successor, Josiah Martin, furthered efforts to recruit Scottish immigrants in an effort to secure citizens loyal to the British Crown. The author further reveals the role of the Jacobite controversy in persuading Scots to immigrate to a new land.. Suffering under economic and political oppression resulting from the Jacobite controversy, when Scots, Lowlander, Highlanders and Scots-Irish, sought relief in Colonial America. Nevertheless, many Scottish immigrants remained loyal to the crown. Immigration by Scots shifted to Canada in significant numbers after the Revolutionary War.

The first significant settlement of Scots established itself at Cape Fear in 1732. In 1739, 350 more Scottish immigrants arrived on the passenger ship Thistle. The presence of Scottish Americans prior to the Revolutionary War facilitates a perception of Scottish American heritage as unique and yet profoundly American. Modern Scottish American communities retain their connection to their heritage through clan societies, Scottish dance societies, Scottish media, Highland games, and a myriad of other organizations created to promote Scottish culture. According to the author, these organizations facilitate the fictionalization, or reworking, of Scottish history and allow the creation of new rituals designed to establish an “implied continuity from the past.”

Chapter One, entitled “Highland and Scottish Identity: The Origins of Contemporary Ethnic Expression,” explores the authors assertion that modern Scottish identity emerged in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Romanticism, the re-emergence of the kilt and tartan, the skilled performance of Highland soldiers in the service of the British imperial military force, and the writings of Sir Walter Scott produced a unique identity for Scottish American people. The Jacobite defeat and relegation of Scots as virtual second-class citizens of the British Empire instilled a sense of persecution of Scottish values and of the Scottish lifestyle that continues to find expression in Scottish culture today. For Scottish Americans, grievances against Britain terminated with the immigration of their ancestors to Colonial America. Though colonists initially retained their pre-immigration regional identities, the Scottish ethnic identity merged, creating a common Scottish heritage.

Scott’s writings amplified the Scottish image as a race of bagpipe-toting warriors. The “Highlander” persona took root in Scottish culture, both in the homeland and in America. British aristocrats located vacation homes in Scotland with expectations of experiencing Scottish “Highland culture.” The clan system in Scotland nevertheless declines significantly in influence following the defeat of “Bonnie Prince Charlie’s Highlands” on the Moors of Culloden on April 16, 1746. Popular Scottish folklore credits the diaspora of Scottish immigrants to America as a response to this defeat.

Chapter two, entitled “Scottish Heritage and Revival in North Carolina,” explores the factors contributing to heritage revivals and the unique history of the Scottish presence in North Carolina. Three primary groups of Scottish immigrants moved to North Carolina. The first group, the Lowland Scots, tended to settle in individual homesteads near the Atlantic Coast. The second group, the Highlanders, represented the largest group of settlers and settled together in Cape Fear Valley. The third group, the Scots-Irish, settled in the Western mountainous regions, whose topography resembled that of Scotland. The melding of these three groups, with their unique blend of Highland culture and Lowland faith, became a hallmark of Scottish Americans in the Southern United States. Associations of Scottish immigrants and their offspring formed in the South prior to the Civil War. Additional groups formed in the North and West after the war ended.

Chapter three, entitled “Kith and Clan in the Scottish American Community,” focuses on the modern Scottish community. Unified by a sense of familial heritage, the Scottish American community maintains their sense of unity through literature and publications. The author devotes considerable attention to specific clan societies and their chiefs. Newly “discovered” clan members are expected to research their heritage and, if necessary, to prove their lineage. Scottish Americans tracing their lineage to Lowland Scots do not claim Gaelic heritage. Subsequently, their claims to “clanship” are based solely on their surname. These groups claim their status as “clans” by alleging that Lowland clans existed as “closed” clans, not mingling in alliances with Highland/Gaelic clans historically. The author reveals her anthropological background in her assertion that Scottish Americans create “imagined communities,” united through perceived heritage, though they often never meet.

Closing out chapter three is a brief discussion concerning the status of women in modern Scottish clans. Scottish culture remains a male-dominated society. Highland games, valued as important cultural events, emphasize events dominated by traditionally masculine activities. Women often are excluded from Scottish societies and are rarely elected to important offices.

In chapter four, entitled “The Brigadoon of the Scottish American Community: Scottish Highland Games and Gatherings,” the author presents the games as an expression of the imagined community. Rituals and reenactments express Scottish values and cultural themes. For example, the lighting of a large fire by clan members at the Grandfather Mountain Games in North Carolina symbolizes the gathering of dispersed clans.

Scottish traditions credit the origin of the games to competitions held by kings or chiefs for amusement and the selection of soldiers and laborers. The first recorded athletic event associated with the games dates to the late eleventh century. Subsequent gatherings also facilitated clan and marriage alliances, settled disputes and facilitated trade. Games often coincided with agricultural fairs, later dispersing throughout the year, often to attract the lucrative tourist trade. Ray interprets the games as a cultural exchange between Scots in Scotland and elsewhere. Modern versions of the games seem heavily influences by the “Highlandism” of Scott’s writings. New meanings to rituals blend with ancient customs. Ray further insists that Southern fascinations with kinship and lineage fuel the popularity of the games.

Chapter five, “Heritage Pilgrimage and a Sense of Scottish Places,” explores the pilgrimages of Scottish Americans to sites of importance in Scottish history. The Longstreet Presbyterian Church, established in 1756, serves as one such site in the United States. A thriving industry revolved around pilgrimages to Scotland by Scottish Americans, with a marked increase in popularity after World War II. The author discusses international clan gatherings and family reunions. Comparisons of Scottish games, known as “gatherings” in Scotland, reveal distinct differences in Scottish American and Scottish ideology. Ray reveals that gatherings in Scotland lack the inclusive nature of Scottish American games. Instead, participants remain strictly divided by social class. Scottish Americans also contribute funds to clan trusts and organizations promoting the preservation of hereditary clan lands in Scotland. Participation in these organizations leads to the desire for a sense of “place” among Scottish Americans.

Chapter six, entitled “Warrior Scots,” discusses the prevalence of military themes in cultural events and the tendency of Scots to join military organizations. Clan histories focus overwhelmingly on battles and military episodes from Scottish history. The reenactment of the Battle of Widow Moore Creek, fought on February 27, 1776 between Loyalist Scots and Patriot Scots, is a popular venue at Scottish gatherings.

The author alludes to the celebration of a genetic propensity for militaristic activities as having an impact on the Southern temperament. Scottish and Southern cultures bond in militaristic stereotypes and the bitterness of defeat. The author provides additional discussion of this aspect in chapter seven.

Ray notes the popularity of Scottish weaponry, especially those forbidden by the 1746 Disarming Act and the 1747 Act of Proscription. Targes, dirks, claymores, tartans and bagpipes abound at Scottish gatherings, symbolizing the often militaristic nature of Scottish history.

Chapter seven, “Scottish Heritage, Southern Style,” represents the most comprehensive analysis of Southern Scottish Americans in the text. In Scottish heritage lore prevalent in the South, the southern identity evolved from Scottish culture and history, not slavery or Jim Crow laws. Southern Scots, Ray argues, perceive the defeat of Jacobitism, the subsequent Diaspora from Scotland, and the Confederate defeat as the loss of distinctly agrarian lifestyles. Both Scottish and Southern lifestyles are romanticized. This romanticism is reflected in Scott’s depiction of Highland chiefs as noble aristocrats presiding over a feudal agrarian system. As southern “aristocrats,” plantation owners reflected the same lifestyle. Again, Ray argues that the influence of Scott’s writings can not be overstated.

Symbolism plays a substantial role in comparison between Scottish and Southern cultures. The author cites obvious comparisons between the ritual of burning St. Andrews cross at the beginning of Highland games to the KKK practice of burning crosses. Remarkably, the prevalent display of the Confederate flag at Highland games and the incorporation of the Scottish flag’s representation of St. Andrews cross on the Confederate flag serves to further merge the two events into the legacy of Scottish Americans. Both the Scottish tartan and the Confederate flag serve as symbols of lost causes. Significantly, both can be purchased at most Scottish gatherings.

The author’s study of Scottish American heritage movements is effective as an anthropological study of a modern ethnic group. Ray largely confines her analysis to modern Scottish American culture, primarily within the past four decades. As an investigation of the Scottish American experience from the 1730s onward, the study falls short in historical depth. Events such as the Jacobite controversy and the immigration of Scottish peoples to Colonial America, while briefly outlined for readers, fails to provide significant insight into the issues involved or the historical context of the era. In depth discussion of conflicts between groups, previously divided by into diverse regional sections of Scotland, after their immigration is lost in this study, as is the difficult issue of divided loyalty to the crown during the Revolutionary War. Lifestyles of Scottish Americans between their immigration to North America and the post-World War I era are given only occasional cursory discussion, with the economic, political and social interaction with other ethnic groups rarely mentioned. By focusing on heritage gatherings and Scottish celebrations, Ray reveals only a portion of Scottish American culture. Finally, the author’s narrow focus on Scottish Americans in North Carolina may not be representative of groups in other areas of the South. A more comprehensive approach to Scottish Americans in other southern states might give a more accurate reflection of this evolving culture.

Ray follows her study with an appendix detailing the Highland dress code, a glossary of Scottish terminology, endnotes, and a bibliography indicating a strong reliance on secondary sources.