Ladies of Quality: Loyalist Scotswomen in Revolutionary America (2023)

Undergraduate: Ila Chilberg

Faculty Advisor: Katherine Turk
Department: History

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Due to overwhelming migration preceding the American Revolutionary War, Scottish families formed a significant basis of North Carolina’s population, government, and economy during the mid to late 18th century. To properly ascertain their influence in this period, it is necessary to look at how intersections of military, political, economic, and social factors influenced the motives of Scottish women in North Carolina before, during, and after the American Revolution. After the fallout of the Jacobite rebellion led to a wave of Scottish migration, newly arrived Scotswomen found a colony entrenched in political flux. As a result, for many Loyalist Scotswomen, their actions in the war were not necessarily fueled by an allegiance to the British government but more so by their familial and financial ties. Additionally, the agency that the war provided for them created women who not only engaged in political and military forums but also used the war as a platform to assert themselves in the government in its aftermath. This paper offers insight into why Scottish women migrated to North Carolina preceding the American Revolution, the nature of Loyalist Scottish women’s role in relation to the war front, and how they used the aftermath of the war to assert agency for themselves both at home and in political settings. Particular focus is placed on conflicts whose context mirrored that of the Revolutionary War, including the 1745 Jacobite rebellion and the Regulator movement, both of which involve the war-time motives of female Scottish Carolinians and the social constrictions they experienced.

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