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63-405: The canal was constructed in the first half of the 19th century, commissioned by Alexander Milne , who owned large tracts of land that would later become part of the city of New Orleans but were at the time mostly swamp. The canal originally served to commerce of small boat traffic from Lake Pontchartrain to the "Back of Town" section of New Orleans in addition to limited swamp drainage. By the end of

126-424: A rear admiral and computer scientist , was the oldest officer and highest-ranking woman in the U.S. armed forces on her retirement at the age of 80 in 1986. Isabella Cannon , the former Mayor of Raleigh, North Carolina , served as the first female mayor of a U.S. state capital. The Scottish-born Alexander Winton built one of the first American automobiles in 1896, and specialized in motor racing . He broke

189-402: A beggar he was well regarded by those who knew him. The Spanish Government granted Milne large tracts of swamp lands bordering on Lake Pontchartrain and seeing the potential for development continued to invest heavily in the area right up until his death. He owned large quantities of land in his own establishment town of Milneburg (now a section of New Orleans) and according to Kendall, in

252-652: A common heritage. The majority of Scotch-Irish Americans originally came from Lowland Scotland and Northern England before migrating to the province of Ulster in Ireland (see Plantation of Ulster ) and thence, beginning about five generations later, to North America in large numbers during the eighteenth century. The number of Scottish Americans is believed to be around 25 million, and celebrations of Scottish identity can be seen through Tartan Day parades, Burns Night celebrations, and Tartan Kirking ceremonies. Significant emigration from Scotland to America began in

315-809: A legacy. Lengthy litigation was brought by the Duke of Richmond and Gordon on behalf of the town of Fochabers. Louisiana courts twice ruled that the legacy could not be granted but eventually on appeal to the Supreme Court of Louisiana, the bequest was finally allowed. Scottish American Scottish Americans or Scots Americans ( Scottish Gaelic : Ameireaganaich Albannach ; Scots : Scots-American ) are Americans whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in Scotland . Scottish Americans are closely related to Scotch-Irish Americans , descendants of Ulster Scots , and communities emphasize and celebrate

378-528: A lesser extent, during the twentieth century, when Scottish heavy industry declined. This new wave peaked in the first decade of the twentieth century, contributing to a hard life for many who remained behind. Many qualified workers emigrated overseas, a part of which, established in Canada, later went on to the United States. In the nineteenth century, American authors and educators adopted Scotland as

441-442: A model for cultural independence. In the world of letters, Scottish literary icons James Macpherson , Robert Burns , Walter Scott , and Thomas Carlyle had a mass following in the United States, and Scottish Romanticism exerted a seminal influence on the development of American literature. The works of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne bear its powerful impression. Among the most notable Scottish American writers of

504-631: A number of notable Scottish Gaelic poets active in the United States since the eighteenth century, including Aonghas MacAoidh and Domhnall Aonghas Stiùbhart . One of the few relics of Gaelic literature composed in the United States is a lullaby composed by an anonymous woman in the Carolinas during the American Revolutionary War. It remains popular to this day in Scotland. More than 160,000 Scottish emigrants migrated to

567-587: A response, was a form of musical worship initially developed for non-literate congregations and Africans in America were exposed to this by Scottish Gaelic settlers as well as immigrants of other origins. However, the theory that the African-American practice was influenced mainly by the Gaels has been criticized by ethnomusicologist Terry Miller, who notes that the practice of " lining out " hymns and psalms

630-534: The Cape Fear valley of North Carolina were centers of Loyalist resistance. A small force of Loyalist Highlanders fell at the Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge in 1776. Scotch-Irish Patriots defeated Scottish American Loyalists in the Battle of Kings Mountain in 1780. Many Scottish American Loyalists, particularly Highlanders, emigrated to Canada after the war. Uncle Sam is the national personification of

693-605: The Civil War , and a monument to their memory was erected in Edinburgh , Scotland, in 1893. Winfield Scott , Ulysses S. Grant , Joseph E. Johnston , Irvin McDowell , James B. McPherson , Jeb Stuart and John B. Gordon were of Scottish descent, George B. McClellan and Stonewall Jackson Scotch-Irish. Douglas MacArthur and George Marshall upheld the martial tradition in the twentieth century. Grace Murray Hopper ,

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756-464: The New World were a man named Haki and a woman named Hekja, slaves owned by Leif Eiriksson . The Scottish couple were runners who scouted for Thorfinn Karlsefni 's expedition in c. 1010, gathering wheat and the grapes for which Vinland was named. The controversial Zeno letters have been cited in support of a claim that Henry Sinclair, earl of Orkney , visited Nova Scotia in 1398. In

819-591: The Scottish Borders . His son Adam II and grandson Adam Abraham (b. Cumberland, England) left for the colonies in the 1730s settling in Pennsylvania. Other Scottish American moonwalkers were the fourth, Alan Bean , the fifth, Alan Shepard, the seventh, David Scott (also the first to drive on the Moon), and the eighth, James Irwin . Scottish Americans Howard Aiken and Grace Murray Hopper created

882-633: The Scottish Enlightenment contributed to the intellectual ferment of the American Revolution . In 1740, the Glasgow philosopher Francis Hutcheson argued for a right of colonial resistance to tyranny. Scotland's leading thinkers of the revolutionary age, David Hume and Adam Smith , opposed the use of force against the rebellious colonies. According to the historian Arthur L. Herman : "Americans built their world around

945-642: The United States , and sometimes more specifically of the American government , with the first usage of the term dating from the War of 1812 . The American icon Uncle Sam, who is known for embodying the American spirit, was based on a businessman from Troy, New York , Samuel Wilson , whose parents sailed to America from Greenock , Scotland , has been officially recognized as the original Uncle Sam. He provided

1008-571: The 1700s, accelerating after the Jacobite rising of 1745 , the steady degradation of clan structures, and the Highland Clearances . Even higher rates of emigration occurred after these times of social upheaval. In the 1920s, Scotland experienced a reduction in total population of 0.8%, totally absorbing the natural population increase of 7.2%: the U.S. and Canada were the most common destinations of these emigrants. Despite emphasis on

1071-697: The 1730s. Unlike their Lowland and Ulster counterparts, the Highlanders tended to cluster together in self-contained communities, where they maintained their distinctive cultural features such as the Gaelic language and piobaireachd music. Groups of Highlanders existed in coastal Georgia (mainly immigrants from Inverness-shire) and the Mohawk Valley in New York (from the West Highlands). By far

1134-575: The 19th century, with most commerce shifted to other canals specifically designed for shipping, the London Avenue Canal had achieved its modern function to take flow of drainage mechanically pumped from the streets of the city. However early on this was mostly just water from the river-side of the Canal head; most of the area along the Canal in back of Gentilly Ridge remained cypress swamp with a few cow-pastures subject to periodic flooding. In

1197-457: The American colonies was finally regularized by the parliamentary Act of Union of Scotland and England in 1707. Population growth and the commercialization of agriculture in Scotland encouraged mass emigration to America after the French and Indian War , a conflict which had also seen the first use of Scottish Highland regiments as Indian fighters. More than 50,000 Scots, principally from

1260-619: The Army Corps millions but came at the expense of reduced engineering reliability. In January 2008, Federal Judge Stanwood Duval of the US District Court for Eastern Louisiana held the US Army Corps of Engineers responsible for defects in the design of the concrete flood walls constructed in the levees of the London Avenue Canal; however, the agency could not be held financially liable due to sovereign immunity provided in

1323-402: The Canal was begun in 1999. The London Avenue Canal Levee and floodwall breached on both sides during Hurricane Katrina in late August 2005 at surge levels more than four feet below design specifications. The east breach occurred around 6 to 7 a.m. and sent tons of sand and water into the neighborhood of Mirabeau (5000 Warrington Drive). The west breach occurred around 7 or 8 a.m. and flooded

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1386-787: The Flood Control Act of 1928. Post-Katrina, the Army Corps has strengthened and enhanced the reliability of the levees and flood walls of the London Avenue Canal in the following ways: 1) gates with massive pump stations have been installed at the canal's mouth to Lake Pontchartrain, 2) the Army Corps has determined a “safe water” level in the canals which is lower than the height of the canal wall, 3) steel sheet pilings were driven to deeper depths, and 4) relief walls that act as “warning gauges” have been installed. 30°00′39″N 90°04′09″W  /  30.010767°N 90.069222°W  / 30.010767; -90.069222 Alexander Milne (entrepreneur) Alexander Milne (1742–1838)

1449-615: The Poydras Female Asylum in this city I give and bequeath in equal shares or interests of one-fourth to each, all my lands on Bayou St. Joseph and on the Lake Pontchartrain, including the unsold land of Milneburg." Louisiana state law prohibited foreign legatees from being able to inherit if the laws of the country in which the legatee resided prevented a citizen of Louisiana from receiving a similar inheritance. Scots Law allowed only British citizens to inherit

1512-693: The Scots-Irish (or Scotch-Irish) in North America, were descended from people originally from (mainly Lowland) Scotland, as well as the north of England and other regions, who colonized the province of Ulster in Ireland in the seventeenth century. After several generations, their descendants left for America, and struck out for the frontier, in particular the Appalachian mountains, providing an effective "buffer" for attacks from Native Americans. In

1575-475: The Scottish American communities in which they were embedded. Psalm-singing and gospel music have become central musical experiences for African American churchgoers and it has been posited that some elements of these styles were introduced, in these communities, by Scots. Psalm-singing, or " precenting the line " as it is technically known, in which the psalms are called out and the congregation sings

1638-895: The U.S., American statesmen of Scottish descent in the early Republic included Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton , Secretary of War Henry Knox , and President James Monroe . Andrew Jackson and James K. Polk were Scotch-Irish presidents and products of the frontier in the period of Westward expansion . Among the most famous Scottish American soldier frontiersmen was Sam Houston , founding father of Texas . Other Scotch-Irish presidents included James Buchanan , Chester Alan Arthur , William McKinley and Richard M. Nixon , Theodore Roosevelt (through his mother), Woodrow Wilson , Lyndon B. Johnson , and Ronald Reagan were of Scottish descent. By one estimate, 75% of U.S. presidents could claim some Scottish ancestry. Scottish Americans fought on both sides of

1701-488: The United States. American bluegrass and country music styles have some of their roots in the Appalachian ballad culture of Scotch-Irish Americans (predominantly originating from the "Border Ballad" tradition of southern Scotland and northern England). Fiddle tunes from the Scottish repertoire, as they developed in the eighteenth century, spread rapidly into British colonies. However, in many cases, this occurred through

1764-547: The adjacent neighborhood of Lake Vista (6100 Pratt Drive). The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers conducted expensive emergency efforts to fill the breaches in September; more flooding flowed from the incompletely patched canal during Hurricane Rita the next month, but not enough extent to cause any damage that was not already left from Hurricane Katrina. Water continued to flow from seepage in the temporary levee in lower breach in sufficient quantity to cover nearby streets as late as

1827-493: The army with beef and pork in barrels during the War of 1812. The barrels were prominently labeled "U.S." for the United States, but it was jokingly said that the letters stood for "Uncle Sam." Soon, Uncle Sam was used as shorthand for the federal government. Trade with Scotland continued to flourish after U.S. independence. The tobacco trade was overtaken in the nineteenth century by the cotton trade, with Glasgow factories exporting

1890-644: The colonial era, they were usually simply referred to as "Irish," with the "Scots-" or "Scotch-" prefixes becoming popular when the descendants of the Ulster emigrants wanted to differentiate themselves from the Catholic Irish who were flocking to many American cities in the nineteenth century. Unlike the Highlanders and Lowlanders, the Scots-Irish were usually patriots in the Revolution. They have been noted for their tenacity and their cultural contributions to

1953-555: The colonies was 250,888, of whom 223,071 (89%) were white and 3.0% were ethnically Scottish. Population estimates are as follows. The number of Americans of Scottish descent today is estimated to be 20 to 25 million (up to 8.3% of the total U.S. population). The majority of Scotch-Irish Americans originally came from Lowland Scotland and Northern England before migrating to the province of Ulster in Ireland (see Plantation of Ulster ) and thence, beginning about five generations later, to North America in large numbers during

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2016-789: The colony from Scotland, including prisoners taken in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms . By the 1670s Glasgow was the main outlet for Virginian tobacco , in open defiance of English restrictions on colonial trade ; in return the colony received Scottish manufactured goods, emigrants and ideas. In the 1670s and 1680s Presbyterian Dissenters fled persecution by the Royalist privy council in Edinburgh to settle in South Carolina and New Jersey , where they maintained their distinctive religious culture. Trade between Scotland and

2079-787: The course of one week disposed of some of his landholdings realising $ 3,000,000. He continued to invest in property in New Orleans and at his death, his real estate properties were worth more than $ 2,000,000. Milne died in October 1838 and was buried in Saint Louis No. 2 Cemetery , New Orleans having made his will only three years earlier. In the will he bequeathed $ 30,000 to his relatives in his home town of Fochabers, Scotland; he freed his two house servants, gave them land on Esplanade Avenue and ensured that $ 10,000 would be provided to build two brick houses for them and until such time as

2142-570: The descendants of emigrants, often Gaelic-speaking, from the Maritime Provinces of Canada , from the 1880s onward. Americans of Scottish descent outnumber the population of Scotland, where 4,459,071 or 88.09% of people identified as ethnic Scottish in the 2001 Census. The states with the largest populations of either Scottish or Scotch Irish ancestral origin: The states with the top percentages of Scottish or Scotch-Irish residents: The metropolitan and micropolitan areas with

2205-532: The early 20th century the old "London Avenue Machine" steam-pump at the head of the Canal was replaced with a more efficient system of high capacity pumps designed by A. Baldwin Wood . Residential development of the areas along the Canal in the Gentilly neighborhood (except along the highest ground along Gentilly Road itself) did not begin until after Wood's improved drainage system was operational. Dillard University

2268-787: The early years of Spanish colonization of the Americas , a Scot named Tam Blake spent 20 years in Colombia and Mexico . He took part in the conquest of New Granada in 1532 with Alonso de Heredia . He arrived in Mexico in 1534–5, and joined Coronado 's 1540 expedition to the American Southwest . After the Union of the Crowns of Scotland and England in 1603, King James VI , a Scot, promoted joint expeditions overseas, and became

2331-432: The eighteenth century. In the 2000 census, 4.8 million Americans self-reported Scottish ancestry, 1.7% of the total U.S. population. Over 4.3 million self-reported Scotch-Irish ancestry, for a total of 9.2 million Americans self-reporting some kind of Scottish descent. Self-reported numbers are regarded by demographers as massive under-counts, because Scottish ancestry is known to be disproportionately under-reported among

2394-427: The finished textiles back to the United States on an industrial scale. Emigration from Scotland peaked in the nineteenth century, when more than a million Scots left for the United States, taking advantage of the regular Atlantic steam-age shipping industry which was itself largely a Scottish creation, contributing to a revolution in transatlantic communication. Scottish emigration to the United States followed, to

2457-492: The first American in orbit, John Glenn , and the first man to fly free in space, Bruce McCandless II , were Scottish Americans. The first men on the Moon, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin , were also of Scottish descent; Armstrong wore a kilt in a parade through his ancestral home of Langholm in the Scottish Borders in 1972. Armstrong's ancestry can be traced back to his eighth paternal great-grandfather Adam Armstrong from

2520-565: The first automatic sequence computer in 1939. Hopper was also the co-inventor of the computer language COBOL . Ross Perot , another Scottish American entrepreneur, made his fortune from Electronic Data Systems , an outsourcing company he established in 1962. Software giant Microsoft was co-founded in 1975 by Bill Gates , who owed his start in part to his mother, the Scottish American businesswoman Mary Maxwell Gates , who helped her son to get his first software contract with IBM. Glasgow-born Microsoft employee Richard Tait helped develop

2583-794: The first machine capable of flight, the Bell-Langley airplane , in 1903. Lockheed was started by two brothers, Allan and Malcolm Loughead , in 1926. Douglas was founded by Donald Wills Douglas Sr. in 1921; he launched the world's first commercial passenger plane, the DC-3 , in 1935. McDonnell Aircraft was founded by James Smith McDonnell , in 1939, and became famous for its military jets . In 1967, McDonnell and Douglas merged and jointly developed jet aircraft, missiles and spacecraft . Scottish Americans were pioneers in human spaceflight . The Mercury and Gemini capsules were built by McDonnell. The first American in space, Alan Shepard ,

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2646-643: The first week of January, 2006. That month the Army Corps of Engineers finished temporary repairs of the canal breaches. In October 2005, the Army Corps of Engineers convened an investigation of the levee breaches that occurred during Hurricane Katrina called the Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force (IPET). The members of the IPET confirmed that the canal floodwalls failed at significantly lower water level than

2709-401: The founder of British America . The first permanent English settlement in the Americas, Jamestown , was thus named for a Scot. The earliest Scottish communities in America were formed by traders and planters rather than farmer settlers. The hub of Scottish commercial activity in the colonial period was Virginia . Regular contacts began with the transportation of indentured servants to

2772-511: The frontier. Tobacco plantations and independent farms in the backcountry of Virginia, Maryland and the Carolinas had been financed with Scottish credit, and indebtedness was an additional incentive for separation. Most Scottish Americans had commercial ties with the old country or clan allegiances and stayed true to the Crown . The Scottish Highland communities of upstate New York and

2835-411: The hardware business, he set up a brick-making company using mainly slave labour—by the late 18th century most of the brick used in New Orleans was made at his works. Milne was said to be small in stature with a drooping head and his eyes continuously focused on the ground and apparently heedless of things going on around him. Although his dress was shabby causing him on occasion to be mistaken for

2898-547: The houses were built his executors would pay them $ 3 per day to support them. The remainder of the will was sectioned into five parts; $ 100,000 was provided for the founding of a free school for the boys and girls in Fochabers and surrounding area; to the other four his will stated the following: "It is my positive wish and intention that an asylum for destitute orphan boys and another for the relief of destitute orphan girls shall be established at Milneburg, in this parish, under

2961-533: The largest Highland community was centered on the Cape Fear River , which saw a stream of immigrants from Argyllshire, and, later, other regions such as the Isle of Skye . Highland Scots were overwhelmingly loyalist in the Revolution. Distinctly Highland cultural traits persisted in the region until the 19th century, at which point they were assimilated into Anglo-American culture. The Ulster Scots , known as

3024-684: The majority of mixed ancestry, and because areas where people reported "American" ancestry were the places where, historically, Scottish and Scotch-Irish Protestants settled in North America (that is: along the North American coast, Appalachia , and the Southeastern United States ). Scottish Americans descended from nineteenth-century Scottish emigrants tend to be concentrated in the West, while many in New England are

3087-417: The medium of print rather than aurally, explaining the presence of Highland-origin tunes in regions like Appalachia where there was essentially no Highland settlement. Outside of Gaelic-speaking communities, however, characteristic Highland musical idioms, such as the “Scotch-snap,” were flattened out and assimilated into anglophone musical styles. Some African American communities were influenced musically by

3150-523: The name of the Milne Asylum for Destitute Orphan Boys and the Milne Asylum for Destitute Orphan Girls; and that my executors shall cause the same to be duly incorporated by the proper authorities of this state; and to the said contemplated institutions, and to the present institution of the society for the relief of destitute orphan boys of the City of Lafayette and parish of Jefferson in this state; and to

3213-562: The nineteenth century were Washington Irving , James Fenimore Cooper , Edgar Allan Poe and Herman Melville . Poet James Mackintosh Kennedy was called to Scotland to deliver the official poem for the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn in 1914. In the twentieth century, Margaret Mitchell 's Gone With the Wind exemplified popular literature. William Faulkner won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1949. There have been

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3276-504: The official journal of the World Water Council , both the breaches were due to faulty design. The authors concluded that the Army Corps of Engineers had misinterpreted the results of a Sheet Pile Load test (E-99 Study) they conducted in the mid 1980s. The engineers had wrongly concluded that they could install sheet pilings at a depth of not more than 17 feet, rather than 31 to 46 feet. This switch to shorter sheet pilings saved

3339-529: The principles of Adam Smith and Thomas Reid , of individual interest governed by common sense and a limited need for government." John Witherspoon and James Wilson were the two Scots to sign the Declaration of Independence, and several other signers had ancestors there. Other Founding Father like James Madison had no ancestral connection but were imbued with ideas drawn from Scottish moral philosophy. Scottish Americans who made major contributions to

3402-648: The revolutionary war included Commodore John Paul Jones , the "Father of the American Navy", and Generals Henry Knox and William Alexander . Another person of note was a personal friend of George Washington, General Hugh Mercer , who fought for Charles Edward Stuart at the Battle of Culloden . The Scotch-Irish, who had already begun to settle beyond the Proclamation Line in the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys , were drawn into rebellion as war spread to

3465-519: The sons of William C Davidson (1846–1923) who was born and grew up in Angus, Scotland , and Margaret Adams McFarlane (1843–1933) of Scottish descent from the small Scottish settlement of Cambridge, Wisconsin . They raised five children together: Janet May, William A., Walter , Arthur and Elizabeth. Scottish Americans have made a major contribution to the U.S. aircraft industry . Alexander Graham Bell , in partnership with Samuel Pierpont Langley , built

3528-511: The struggles and 'forced exile' of Jacobites and Highland clansmen in popular media, Scottish migration was mostly from the Lowland regions and its pressures included poverty and land clearance but also the variety of positive economic opportunities believed to be available. The table shows the ethnic Scottish population in the British colonies from 1700 to 1775. In 1700 the total population of

3591-505: The top of the floodwall due to faulty design. In August 2007, the Corps announced the results of an engineering analysis applying more stringent post-Katrina design criteria which showed the maximum safe load on some of the surviving floodwalls is only 7 feet (2.1 m) of water, which is half the original 14-foot (4.3 m) design intent. According to an article published in the August 2015 issue of

3654-449: The top percentage of Scottish or Scotch-Irish residents: As of 2020, the distribution of Scottish Americans across the 50 states and DC is as presented in the following table. The first Scots in North America came with the Vikings . A Christian bard from the Hebrides accompanied Bjarni Herjolfsson on his voyage around Greenland in 985/6 which sighted the mainland to the west. The first Scots recorded as having set foot in

3717-434: The west coast, settled in the Thirteen Colonies between 1763 and 1776, the majority of these in their own communities in the South , especially North Carolina , although Scottish individuals and families also began to appear as professionals and artisans in every American town. Scots arriving in Florida and the Gulf Coast traded extensively with Native Americans . Highland Scots started arriving in North America in

3780-440: The world speed record in 1900. In 1903, he became the first man to drive across the United States. David Dunbar Buick , another Scottish emigrant, founded Buick in 1903. The Scottish-born William Blackie transformed the Caterpillar Tractor Company into a multinational corporation. Harley-Davidson Inc (formerly HDI ), often abbreviated "H-D" or "Harley", is an American motorcycle manufacturer. The Davidson brothers were

3843-408: Was a Scottish American entrepreneur and philanthropist and was born in Fochabers , Moray , Scotland . He was employed as a footman by the Duke of Richmond and Gordon and when ordered by the duke to powder his red hair, Milne declined, left his employment and emigrated to the American colonies. By 1776, Milne had moved to New Orleans in Louisiana (New Spain) , where, after doing well in

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3906-488: Was common all over Protestant Britain in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and that it is far more likely that Gospel music originated with English psalm singing. The first foreign tongue spoken by some slaves in America was Scottish Gaelic picked up from Gaelic-speaking immigrants from the Scottish Highlands and Western Isles. There are accounts of African Americans singing Gaelic songs and playing Scottish Gaelic music on bagpipes and fiddle. The civic tradition of

3969-409: Was established beside the Canal. In the 1930s, construction of levees along Lake Pontchartrain and the Paris Avenue Canal improved drainage further back along the canal's borders. With additional lift pumps in place in 1945, the full length of land along the canal all the way back to the lake was soon developed as residential neighborhoods. A major project of upgrading the floodwalls and bridges along

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