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Archiver > Melungeon > 2003-02 > 1044116070


From: cmtill2109 <>
Subject: Re: [Melungeon] The Southern Mountaineers (cont)
Date: Sat, 1 Feb 2003 08:14:35 -0800 (PST)
In-Reply-To: <20030201152303.95781.qmail@web21302.mail.yahoo.com>


--- cmtill2109 <> wrote:
> --- cmtill2109 <> wrote:
> > Written by Samuel Tyndale Wilson D.D. Printed in
> > 1906.
> > After checking the copyright laws this work has
> > outlived its 95 years of protection.

Chapter 2

A Composite Stock

Like the rest of Americans, the mountain people
are of a composite race. There is probably no unmixed
strain of blood in any community of the United States.
While it is true that family origin is not so
important as personal character, it is nevertheless
true that heredity has much to do with accounting for
that character, and merits consideration from every
thoughtful student of history.

Principally Scotch-Irish

While it is undeniable that the mountain people
of the South are a composite race, the fact remains
that they are probably of about as pure a stock as we
can boast in America. The principal element is
Scotch-Irish, as is indisputably proved by history, by
tradition, and by the family names prevailing in the
mountains. All the region about the mountains was
settled principally by the Scotch-Irish; the unbroken
traditions of the mountaineers agree that the pioneers
were Scotch-Irish; while the names of the people are,
fully fifty per cent, of them, Scotch or Scotch-Irish.
It may be added, too, that there still survive most
interesting phases of life and idioms of language that
are Scotch or Scotch-Irish in origin. No argument
based on the present condition of the mountaineers can
suffice to render doubtful this proof of the
prevailing strain in the mountain stock.

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