At 04:08 PM 6/6/2002 -0400, holley calmes wrote: >Let me say a word or two about the Scots however. Having graduated from >the School of Scots History as taught by Doc M Gilchrist, who's way >smarter than I am, I'd like to make a few statements. > >Not all Scots hated England. It might be argued that the Scots who >emmigrated to the colonies had a grudge, (I don't know about that group) >but in general it was only about 1/4 of the Scot population who were >Jacobites or who were demonstrably anti-England. I think the movie >"Braveheart", which was second only in bogus history to Patriot, has >reinforced a view in this country that all Scots were always at war with >all English, and it just wasn't so. > >If you break down the British Army during the Rev, a clear 1/4 of the >officers and men were Scots. And they weren't forced! > >I am not speaking of the Scots Irish. That's a whole different kettle of >fish. This is true -- I should probably have been more specific, since most of the folks I'm referring to would probably fall under the category of Scots-Irish. I'm not as up on my history before they landed here as I could be (I wouldn't exactly consider myself an historical expert of any sort, at least not in any kind of organized way...I research willie-nillie as something catches my interest <g>). If I remember correctly, many of the Scots who went to Ireland were folks that refused to accept English authority, weren't they? If so, it would make sense that they brought their attitudes and feelings with them when they came to America. I haven't researched it, but I wouldn't be surprised if many of the Scots that came to the colonies were at the least luke-warm towards the English. It makes sense that the people willing to undertake the rather arduous task of crossing an ocean to settle a new country might be doing so in part because they're not happy where they are -- they'd be leaving something they didn't want as much as they'd be heading towards something they did want. I almost hate to admit it, but I enjoyed both Braveheart and Patriot (Patriot much more than Braveheart -- maybe I'd rather watch the British get beat by the Americans instead of fighting Scots <g>). I wouldn't say they were good history, any more than Gone With the Wind, but as entertainment, well, I'm shallow. I'll watch Mel Gibson any day of the week <g>. I hope that they had the same effect on some of their viewers that GWTW had on me -- I had never had much interest in the Civil War until I read that, but it caught my attention, and interested me enough that I wanted to learn about the period. If they can convert some folks into historians and genealogists, then at least they're useful as well as entertaining! Angie