Scotch-Irish Americans and Rednecks!

[Artfuldodger]

Back in the Braveheart days if you will when the English and Scottish were always fighting most of the clans had had enough. They were tired of the English pushing their government, heritage and culture on them. Several of the clan chiefs got together, cut their hands and dripped their blood in a bowl. The blood was used as ink to write a letter to the monarch of England stating they were not going to tolerate English rule any longer. The clans would enforce their own laws with their own law enforcement. These new clan law enforcers wore red collars. Thus the term Redneck was born. As migration to America began with the English settling the coast and New England the Scots would arrive behind them. As the Scots encountered the English the English never failed to show their arrogance toward the Scots using the term Redneck. These Scots were the Scot-Irish not because they had any Irish blood but because their stop from the border to northern Ireland to the American colonies. These Scots not want much contact with the English settled the Appalachian Mountains and migrated south maintaining the name Redneck in their defiance of English authority, heritage and culture.

 

[westcobbdog]

Interesting info. Family lore has me related to Robert The Bruce in some way.

 

[NCHillbilly]

I have a lot of Scots-Irish blood.

 

[Nicodemus]

I`m of Scottish descent but when I was coming up, the term "redneck" was a slur, ranked in the same category as white trash. To be called that was an insult, and to me it still is.

 

[Ruger#3]

My kin hit the shore here in 1724 and went to the backside of the mountains to be left alone and practice their religion freely. When the English persisted in their harassment it didn’t go well for them.

My understanding of the derogatory term redneck is it stems from the mountain farmer bent over the plow getting a dark or red neck.

 

[Danuwoa]

I’m mostly Scots-Irish. To me the term redneck can be taken a lot of different ways. It can definitely be a slur and an insult. That was what it was when I was a kid. I remember finding out that a friend of mine’s sister had referred to me as that one time when I was about twelve. I was furious. But then I realized, although she had meant it as an insult, she was calling me that because I spent most of my free time in the woods and my family was more old fashioned than theirs. Also, the term redneck has long been misapplied by “professional” types. Country club folks if you will to those of us who work with your hands and don’t hang around golf courses or live in expensive subdivisions.

Depends on what you mean. If you mean uneducated, morally suspect, and of questionable hygiene then no I’m not.

But if you mean a person who prefers to live in a rural area, dislikes the city and most of what comes with it, cares nothing for pretentious people and their ways, and wants to preserve the old ways, well then I’m the emperor.

 

[NCHillbilly]

I`m of Scottish descent but when I was coming up, the term "redneck" was a slur, ranked in the same category as white trash. To be called that was an insult, and to me it still is.

In today's world of liberal urban idiots, I'll take either term as a compliment.

 

[Ruger#3]

I’m mostly Scots-Irish. To me the term redneck can be taken a lot of different ways. It can definitely be a slur and an insult. That was what it was when I was a kid. I remember finding out that a friend of mine’s sister had referred to me as that one time when I was about twelve. I was furious. But then I realized, although she had meant it as an insult, she was calling me that because I spent most of my free time in the woods and my family was more old fashioned than theirs. Also, the term redneck has long been misapplied by “professional” types. Country club folks if you will to those of us who work with your hands and don’t hang around golf courses or live in expensive subdivisions.

Depends on what you mean. If you mean uneducated, morally suspect, and of questionable hygiene then no I’m not.

But if you mean a person who prefers to live in a rural area, dislikes the city and most of what comes with it, cares nothing for pretentious people and their ways, and wants to preserve the old ways, well then I’m the emperor.

It goes the other way, just because one lives in a subdivision doesn’t mean your ignorant of how to live off the land and appreciate what God provides. Life takes us on unexpected paths sometimes. It’s all about attitude and not making presumptions of others. I take people one at a time. They determine the amount of respect they get not where they live or what they drive.

 

[Danuwoa]

It goes the other way, just because one lives in a subdivision doesn’t mean your ignorant of how to live off the land and appreciate what God provides. Life takes us on unexpected paths sometimes. It’s all about attitude and not making presumptions of others. I take people one at a time. They determine the amount of respect they get not where they live or what they drive.

Seems like maybe I stepped on some toes.?. I’m all for people living the way they want to live. And there are all kinds of people everywhere you go. But I don’t care for that sort of life and while I realize not everybody who lives that way is the way I describe it’s a pretty good rule of thumb.

 

[Milkman]

It goes the other way, just because one lives in a subdivision doesn’t mean your ignorant of how to live off the land and appreciate what God provides. Life takes us on unexpected paths sometimes. It’s all about attitude and not making presumptions of others. I take people one at a time. They determine the amount of respect they get not where they live or what they drive.

I agree. I am as country as a gourd dipper. Raised on a farm.
In an earlier stage of life I would have scoffed or laughed if someone told me that in my later life I would be living in an all brick home subdivision. But as Ruger says life takes us on unexpected paths. I will expand it to say love does as well.
My Ancestry DNA says I am about 80% Great Britain origin with the bulk of the remainder Eastern Europe. I have traced my mother’s line directly to Ireland

 

[Danuwoa]

I agree. I am as country as a gourd dipper. Raised on a farm.
In an earlier stage of life I would have scoffed or laughed if someone told me that in my later life I would be living in an all brick home subdivision. But as Ruger says life takes us on unexpected paths. I will expand it to say love does as well.
My Ancestry DNA says I am about 80% Great Britain origin with the bulk of the remainder Eastern Europe. I have traced my mother’s line directly to Ireland

Eastern European, that’s interesting. I’ve got a good dose of that too. I understand that people’s lives take them unexpected places. I prefer the life I have and have made decisions to ensure that I get to live that way. I’m an educated man but choose to be an iron worker because I prefer this type of life.

 

[Hillbilly stalker]

We were taught and believed that the term redneck had 2 origins. First, and most closely related to us, the term came from the coal country wars in Wv and Bloody Harlan in Eastern Kentucky. The miners from the northern part of the state were Unionized and marched to Southern Wv to help organize those miners. When they marched or traveled they wore a red bandana around their neck as a secret code to avoid the Pinkertons and Baldwin felts scum. If you do any reading on the Battle of Blair mountain, you will see the importance. The second origin was from the Deep South white workers that stayed bent over in the fields trying to scratch out a living Share cropping and such. Either or was a badge of honor and I would also include the third one I’ve read today on here. Tough times made tough people back in those days. I notice nowadays educated and or rich people often use the term redneck as a slur trying to separate the social classes and degrade the people who may have had a lot rougher life. I hate that. I think that is a huge mistake. My people are Scotch-Irish, you get back home and go up in any holler and you will immediately notice how clannish they are. Or on either end of the ridge. It shows in their music played on a Dulcimer, mouth bow or Jews harp. A place were education doesn’t count as much as what you had put in you like honor, honestly a sense of duty to your country and hard work. So when some body throws the term redneck at me....I just smile and say “ thank ya”, it don’t sting a bit.

 

[trad bow]

I was raised out in the country. To me redneck was someone that was somewhat on the trashy side. Those who carried theirselves with some dignity that live out in the country were called good ol boys.

 

[Wire Nut]

I’m scots-Irish and Cherokee. I’m a registered citizen of the Cherokee nation of Oklahoma. I get called a redneck a lot. My son is a low single digit handicap in golf and I own a business that does well, but I live on a farm and my wardrobe consists of at least one piece of camo at any given moment. I spend a lot of time in a swamp or running a river in a jet boat. Being called a redneck in a demeaning manor used to bother me but as I get older I like less and less people anyway. So my list of people to take fishing or duck hunting has gotten more manageable

 

[Artfuldodger]

When I was in High School, early 70's, one group was the freaks and the other was the rednecks. No geeks back then, but a few nerds.
The rednecks and freaks had a few fights here and there. Weird but the girls were neutral. They'd date a freak one night and a redneck the next.
We still mostly just blended together at wild hog cookouts and bon fires, etc. It's not like the freaks didn't hunt and fish, they just dressed funny and smoked pot. After I got out of the Navy, all the rednecks smoked pot. Before I went in the Navy, rednecks didn't smoke pot. When I got out of the Navy, all the freaks had bought pick-up trucks.

 

[Artfuldodger]

I have a lot of Scots-Irish blood.

I think a good bit of them settled in the mountains. Lot of their culture and ways still up there. Probably more up there than anywhere else in the South wouldn't you say?
It reminded them of home plus they got to escape from the English settlers.

 

[NCMTNHunter]

I’m pretty much 100% Scots-Irish as well. Anytime the discussion would turn to our general disregard for authority my grandpaw would always laugh and say “We’re the descendants of men who refused to be ruled.”

 

[Railroader]

I'm about as mixed breed as it gets I guess, having Scot, German, and a good dose of Creek and/or Seminole in the bloodstream.

Dad's side was sharecrop farmer from Millwood Ga. They would admit to his mom being a half breed indian, and his Dad besides farming ran a little store on the railroad tracks at Millwood.

Mom's side was from up a holler in Pike Co. Kentucky. Her Dad was a coal miner of course, and her Mom was the local authority on The Signs, folk medicine, and cooking small batches of said "medicine"...

So based on my heritage, there was never any question as to the color of my neck...

Call me one, and I say "Absolutely, now what?"

 

[georgia_home]

Sound like my wife’s family (Scots/Irish). Except she married into polish / redneck.

 

[Artfuldodger]

I'm about as mixed breed as it gets I guess, having Scot, German, and a good dose of Creek and/or Seminole in the bloodstream.

Dad's side was sharecrop farmer from Millwood Ga. They would admit to his mom being a half breed indian, and his Dad besides farming ran a little store on the railroad tracks at Millwood.

Mom's side was from up a holler in Pike Co. Kentucky. Her Dad was a coal miner of course, and her Mom was the local authority on The Signs, folk medicine, and cooking small batches of said "medicine"...

So based on my heritage, there was never any question as to the color of my neck...

Call me one, and I say "Absolutely, now what?"

Was reading about Millwood, McDonald's Mill, Red Bluff and the railraod from McDonald's Mill to Douglas which was the first railroad to Douglas.