After making the hazardous journey across the Atlantic in simple wooden ships, these brave emigrant families landed at ports in Pennsylvania, Delaware, South Carolina, and New York, and were in the forefront of the push west to territories that hitherto had been inhabited by the native Indian tribes. A determination to carve out for themselves a lifestyle which would take into account their dissenting Calvinistic faith and the desire to break completely from the shackles of autocracy experienced in Ireland and Scotland kept these families going.
The battles with British forces, the native Indian tribes, and the elements in a harsher climate took a terrible toll on men, women, and children, but with a doggedness and a steely character inherent in their culture, the brave Scots-Irish pioneers won through, initially to the Appalachian states of Virginia, Tennessee, the Carolinas, Kentucky, and Georgia, and eventually to points west and south, like Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Texas, and Ohio.
This book records for posterity the daring exploits of a people who tamed the frontier. It is a story that deserves retelling so that the light of democracy and freedom can shine brightly in the complex world in which we live. These were indeed a people undeterred--the Ulster-Scots who moved to America in the 18th century. Their exploits deserve our recognition.
