Customer Reviews

A Dance Called America: The Scottish Highlands, the United States and Canada

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Anyone who is a Scot or has a Scottish background will be fascinated by this book. Meticulously researched, it describes the harrowing lives of the many Scots folks who emigrated to the US and Canada during the 18th and 19th centuries.

We were shocked to learn that some Scottish emigrants had become slave owners, while others with few belongings and no means were left stranded on remote points of the Canadian coastline in the middle of winter.

Everyone has heard about the potato famines that drove the many Irish immigrants to North America, but what about their celtic sisters and brothers in Scotland? Was it the clearances or was it the disasterous battle at Culloden in 1745? Hunter's book looks not only at the myriad of issues that emptied the highlands, but also at how the Scotts got to North American and what happened to them when they got there. Hunter explains not only the economic factors in Scotland, but also the brutal conditions that many Scots endured during their passage to Canada and the United States. He looks at the political issues in Scotland, England, Canada and the United State. He examines how they survived and why what they did often depended on when and where they landed. Early emmigrants tended to have money whereas those coming later had next to nothing. Hunter tells you about the businesses that they started, the communities that they built and the leadership that they provide even today to new continent. A Dance Called America opens your eyes to a group of people rarely considered when examining the settlement of North America. While anyone interested in history will enjoy this book, those of Scottish descent will find it particularly interesting

James Hunter has written a great book on Scottish immigration to North America. He strikes a very good balance between Scottish events that determined why people emmigrated, and the different experiences of these gaelic pioneers.

Different periods of emmigration and settlements of Scottish immigrants are covered. The research is very detailed but thankfully doesn't result in statistics which will bore you. Rather Hunter concentrates on the actual experiences of notable settlers and explorers. It's a descriptive account that brings the period alive. I found the description of the quarantine station at Grosse Ile and Cholera Bay to be particularly moving.

This book is more than a chronicle of the hardships, challenges and frustrations that these early settlers had to endure. It reminds us of their achievements and significant contributions. You can appreciate them that much more knowing of their suffererings in a tough, new land.

I'd be giving this book five stars, but I would have liked some maps and I found the chapter on Craigellachie to wander a little bit. But this is still a wonderful book. If you're interested in Scotland or have any Scottish ancestors, add this book to your collection.

Some books like some movies stay with you. I learned so much about what happened in Scotland from Hunter's very interesting accounts. This book has made the kind of impression that compells me to reread it and loan it to others. It's a keeper in my bookcase now for reference. Now I am in the process of visiting those places both in Scotland and in America where these displaced peoples were sent.

Perchance I was daydreaming in my world and American history classes when this was covered, but I graduated not only from high school but also from university with absolutely no appreciation of the full impact that Scottish Highlanders made on both future North American nations in the 18th and 19th centuries. Moreover, I had no knowledge whatsoever of the plight of the Highlanders in their own country nor of their eviction from their crofts, or rented lands, by the landowners, a profit-driven action that led to the Highlanders' emigration to the New World in the first place. Hunter's account goes far to rectify these omissions in my understanding of this facet of history.

Among a few of the more intriguing facts to be encountered in this book are that the Highlanders, following their defeat by the English, largely joined the armies of their conquerors and were soon deployed in defense of English interests. Meanwhile, back in Scotland, they were being dispossessed of their livelihoods by landowners who saw greater profit in large-scale sheep ranching than in the rents of their former tenants. The latter action led to migration of displaced Scots to New World colonies, where they remained loyal Tories even as their fellow New World neighbors decided to rebel and form a new nation independent of the English. As it became clear that they were on the losing side, many moved north to join those who had settled on the lands of what would later become Canada.

Some of those Highlanders who had gone directly to the northlands had done so as soldiers for the English and had defeated the French who had already claimed Quebec as their own (though a longer view of history shows us that French influence remained predominant in Quebec!).

In addition to their vast influence and ownership in the major fur trading companies, the Highlanders, or at least their immediate descendants, may be held responsible for the confederation of the provinces into what would become the Canadian nation, the building of the first transcontinental Canadian railroad, and even the advent of the sport of ice hockey! Along the way to their lasting contributions, however, the Highlanders found the same deprivation, starvation, disease, and death that awaited many other immigrants of two and three centuries ago, all of which Hunter's book carefully details.

I have but one criticism of this fine historical expose, that it does not include a glossary or footnotes with phonetic renderings of the Scottish terms and place names that one meets in the text. I have no idea whether my mental "pronunciation" even approximates something that a Scot would recognize! Also, I wish I had discovered the book when it was first released in hardcover, for a work this enduring and this significant deserves a better presentation that a soft-cover edition. I see that earlier reviewers have recommended the book for readers with an interest in the Scots; I should like to go further and extend that recommendation to readers with an interest in the early history of North America, both the U.S. and Canada, as well as an interest in the hardships endured by early immigrants to the New World, and perhaps those who find pleasure in being surprised by running across seldom-known facts that still impact contemporary life. To be happily surprised and entertained while being instructed is sometimes a difficult condition to achieve, but A DANCE CALLED AMERICA should enable everyone to achieve that condition!

A dance called America by James Hunter is a gem to read. This is the story of the highlanders in America after the clearances. So much of Scottish Highland history books ends with the 1745 and clearances. But after the glens were cleared, where did the people go.

Mr. Hunter answers this question and more. In this book, he explains the highland impact on the North American continent. He first tells of the Darien settlement in Georgia and Cape Fear in North Carolina. As the Clan Chiefs focused less on leading the clans and more on renting their land to sheep herders, the Tacksmen or gentry of the clans began to lead many of the displaced people to found these new colonies in the Americas.

He goes on to explain the settlement of the Mohawk Valley in New York State and the continued migration north after the American Revolution to Glengarry in Ontario.

As the clearances continued, clansmen moved to Cape Breton Island and we learn about the involvement of Thomas Douglas, Earl of Selkirk in the new colonies. He strove to help poor highlanders struggling in the coastal crofts of Scotland to settle in his new Red River Colony in what is today modern Manitoba, Canada.

As Mr. Hunter explains, these Highlanders' success and failures in America, we see the rise of the North West Fur Company and the Hudson Bay Company, which were rivals and dominated by Scots. As these two giants merge into one, we see a Canadian, John A. Macdonald, rise and work with other Highlanders and Canadian Americans of Scottish roots to help forge the lands including Red River, Glengarry, and Cape Breton Island into the nation of Canada.

The legacy of the victims of the Highland clearances is the success of the new nations that were helped in building by the clansmen and their descendents in America and Canada.

Mr. Hunter gives a richly detailed account of these lands and the men who created and lived there. James Hunter not only tells the tales, but he gives his own personal accounts of visiting these areas, cities, and lands of today to help us actually visualize the environment through his vivid descriptions.

A dance called America is a must for anyone interested in Scottish history and the Scots impact on the world. My Grandmother was a McDonald and this book helps me to understand her pride in being of Scottish blood and passing that pride and understanding to me. Thank you Mr. Hunter.