Incubator escapee wiki

British Americans

Article Discussion

Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Use American English

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| header1 = {{#if:61.7 million (2020 census)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
18.4% of the total US population
Template:*English: 46.6 million
Template:*Scottish: 8.4 million
Template:*Scotch-Irish: 2.5 million
Template:*Cornish: 2 million
Template:*Welsh: 2 million
Template:*Manx: 7 thousand
Template:* Other: 230,000

Alone
39.1 million (2020 census)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
11.8% of the total US population |Total population}}

| data2 = 61.7 million (2020 census)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
18.4% of the total US population
Template:*English: 46.6 million
Template:*Scottish: 8.4 million
Template:*Scotch-Irish: 2.5 million
Template:*Cornish: 2 million
Template:*Welsh: 2 million
Template:*Manx: 7 thousand
Template:* Other: 230,000

Alone
39.1 million (2020 census)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
11.8% of the total US population {{#if:|(Template:Comma separated entries)}} {{#if: | (including those of ancestral descent)}} | label3 = {{#switch: |census = (census) |estimate|est = (est.) }} | data3 = | label4 = {{#switch: |census = (census) |estimate|est = (est.) }} | data4 = | label5 = {{#switch: |census = (census) |estimate|est = (est.) }} | data5 =

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Less common in the Midwest
Predominantly in the South, New England and Mountain West regions. |Regions with significant populations}} | data7 = Throughout the entire United States
Less common in the Midwest
Predominantly in the South, New England and Mountain West regions. | header8 = | data9 =

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Mainly Protestant (Template:Tooltip Baptist, Congregationalist, Episcopalian, Methodist, Presbyterian and Quaker), to a lesser extent Catholic and Latter-day Saint (Although the Latter is significant in Utah) as well as non-religious, along with converts to Orthodox Christianity, Islam, Judaism, eastern religions, etc. |Religion}} | data64 = Christian
Mainly Protestant (Template:Tooltip Baptist, Congregationalist, Episcopalian, Methodist, Presbyterian and Quaker), to a lesser extent Catholic and Latter-day Saint (Although the Latter is significant in Utah) as well as non-religious, along with converts to Orthodox Christianity, Islam, Judaism, eastern religions, etc. | header65 = {{#if:Template:Hlist |Related ethnic groups}} | data66 = {{#if:Template:Hlist |Template:Hlist Template:Main other }}

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British Americans usually refers to Americans whose ancestral origin originates wholly or partly in the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland and also the Isle of Man, the Channel Islands, and Gibraltar). It is primarily a demographic or historical research category for people who have at least partial descent from peoples of Great Britain and the modern United Kingdom, i.e. English, Scottish, Welsh, Scotch-Irish, Orcadian, Manx, Cornish Americans and those from the Channel Islands and Gibraltar.

Based on 2020 American Community Survey estimates, 1,934,397 individuals identified as having British ancestry, while a further 25,213,619 identified as having English ancestry, 5,298,861 Scottish ancestry and 1,851,256 Welsh ancestry. The total of these groups, at 34,298,133, was 10.5% of the total population. A further 31,518,129 individuals identified as having Irish ancestry, but this is not differentiated between modern Northern Ireland (part of the United Kingdom) and the Republic of Ireland, which was part of the United Kingdom during the greatest phase of Irish immigration. Figures for Manx and Cornish ancestries are not separately reported, although Manx was reported prior to 1990, numbering 9,220 on the 1980 census, and some estimates put Cornish ancestry as high as 2 million. This figure also does not include people reporting ancestries in countries with majority or plurality British ancestries, such as Canadian, South African, New Zealander (21,575) or Australian (105,152).<ref name="factfinder.census.gov5">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> There has been a significant drop overall, especially from the 1980 census where 49.59 million people reported English ancestry and larger numbers reported Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish ancestry also.

Demographers regard current figures as a "serious under-count", as a large proportion of Americans of British descent have a tendency to simply identify as 'American' since 1980 where over 13.3 million or 5.9% of the total U.S. population self-identified as "American" or "United States", this was counted under "not specified".<ref>Ancestry of the Population by State: 1980 (Supplementary Report PC80-S1-10) Issued: April 1983</ref> This response is highly overrepresented in the Upland South, a region settled historically by the British.<ref>Ethnic Landscapes of America – By John A. Cross</ref><ref>Census and you: monthly news from the U.S. Bureau... Volume 28, Issue 2 – By United States. Bureau of the Census</ref><ref>Dominic J. Pulera. Sharing the Dream: White Males in a Multicultural America.</ref><ref>Reynolds Farley, 'The New Census Question about Ancestry: What Did It Tell Us?', Demography, Vol. 28, No. 3 (August 1991), pp. 414, 421.</ref><ref>Stanley Lieberson and Lawrence Santi, 'The Use of Nativity Data to Estimate Ethnic Characteristics and Patterns', Social Science Research, Vol. 14, No. 1 (1985), pp. 44–6.</ref><ref>Stanley Lieberson and Mary C. Waters, 'Ethnic Groups in Flux: The Changing Ethnic Responses of American Whites', Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 487, No. 79 (September 1986), pp. 82–86.</ref> Those of mixed European ancestry may identify with a more recent and differentiated ethnic group.<ref>Mary C. Waters, Ethnic Options: Choosing Identities in America (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990), p. 36.</ref> Of the top ten family names in the United States (2010), seven have English origins or having possible mixed British Isles heritage (such as Welsh, Scottish or Cornish), the other three being of Spanish origin.<ref>Frequently Occurring Surnames from the 2010 Census – United States Census Bureau</ref>

Not to be confused are cases when the term is also used in an entirely different (although possibly overlapping) sense to refer to people who are dual citizens of both the United Kingdom and the United States.Template:Citation needed

Sense of heritageEdit

File:United Kingdom United States Locator.svg
Template:Legend0UK  Template:Legend0United States.

Americans of British heritage are often seen, and identify, as simply "American" due to the many historic, linguistic and cultural ties between Great Britain and the U.S. and their influence on the country's population. A leading specialist, Charlotte Erickson, found them to be ethnically "invisible".<ref>Charlotte Erickson, Invisible immigrants: the adaptation of English and Scottish immigrants in nineteenth-century America (1990)</ref> This may be due to the early establishment of British settlements; as well as to non-English groups having emigrated in order to establish significant communities.<ref name="lieberson1" />

Number of British AmericansEdit

Table below shows census results between 1980 (when data on ancestry was first collected) and the 2020 census. Response rates for the question on ancestry was 83.1% (1980) 90.4% (1990) and 80.1% (2000) for the total population of the United States.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Year Ethnic origin Population %
British; total 61,327,867 31.67
1980<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation CitationClass=web

}}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

CitationClass=web

}}</ref>

English 49,598,035 26.34
Scottish 10,048,816 4.44
Welsh 1,664,598 0.88
Northern Irish 16,418 0.01
Total 46,816,175 18.8
1990<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation CitationClass=web

}}</ref>

English 32,651,788 13.1
Scottish 5,393,581 2.2
Scotch-Irish 5,617,773 2.3
Welsh 2,033,893 0.8
British 1,119,140 0.4
Total 36,564,465 12.9
2000<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation CitationClass=web

}}</ref>

English 24,515,138 8.7
Scottish 4,890,581 1.7
Scotch-Irish 4,319,232 1.5
Welsh 1,753,794 0.6
British 1,085,720 0.4
Total 37,619,881 14.4
2010<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation CitationClass=web

}}</ref>

English 25,927,345 8.4
Scottish 5,460,679 3.1
Scotch-Irish 3,257,161 1.9
Welsh 1,793,356 0.6
British 1,181,340 0.4
Total 58,649,411 TBA
2020<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation CitationClass=web

}}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

CitationClass=web

}}</ref>

English 46,550,968 14.0
Scottish 8,422,613 TBA
Scots-Irish 794,478 TBA
Welsh 1,977,383 TBA
British 860,315 TBA
British Islander 43,654 TBA

Composition of Colonial AmericaEdit

Template:Pie chart According to estimates by Thomas L. Purvis (1984), published in the European ancestry of the United States, gives the ethnic composition of the American colonies from 1700 to 1755. British ancestry in 1755 was estimated to be 63%, comprising 52% English and Welsh, 7.0% Scots-Irish, and 4% Scottish.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Studies on origins, 1790Edit

Template:Multiple image The ancestry of the 3,929,214 population in 1790 has been estimated by various sources by sampling last names in the very first United States official census and assigning them a country of origin.<ref name="lieberson1"/> There is debate over the accuracy between the studies with individual scholars and the Federal Government using different techniques and conclusion for the ethnic composition.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="lieberson1">Template:Cite book</ref> A study published in 1909 titled A Century of Population Growth by the Census Bureau estimated the British origin combined were around 90% of the white population.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Another source by Thomas L. Purvis in 1984<ref name="jstor.org">Template:Cite journal</ref> estimated that people of British ancestry made up about 62% of the total population or 74% of the white or European American population.<ref name="jstor.org"/> Some 81% of the total United States population was of European heritage.<ref>Historical U.S. population by race Template:Webarchive</ref> Around 757,208 were of African descent with 697,624 being slaves.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

A Century of Population Growth (1909)Edit

Estimated British American population in the Continental United States as of the 1790 Census.<ref name="CPG1909" />

State or Territory
Template:Flag Template:Flagicon British Isles
Total
Template:Flagcountry Template:Flagicon British
Total		 Template:Flagcountry
Template:Flagicon English Template:FlagiconTemplate:Efn Template:Flagicon Scotch Template:Flagicon Irish
# % # % # % # % # %
Template:Flag Template:Nts 96.21% Template:Nts 2.77% Template:Nts 98.98% Template:Nts 0.68% Template:Nts 99.66%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 86.30% Template:Nts 7.50% Template:Nts 93.80% Template:Nts 3.90% Template:Nts 97.70%
Template:Flagcountry Template:Nts 83.10% Template:Nts 11.20% Template:Nts 94.30% Template:Nts 2.30% Template:Nts 96.60%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 83.10% Template:Nts 11.20% Template:Nts 94.30% Template:Nts 2.30% Template:Nts 96.60%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 93.14% Template:Nts 4.32% Template:Nts 97.46% Template:Nts 1.39% Template:Nts 98.85%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 84.00% Template:Nts 6.50% Template:Nts 90.50% Template:Nts 2.40% Template:Nts 92.90%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 95.00% Template:Nts 3.60% Template:Nts 98.60% Template:Nts 1.00% Template:Nts 99.60%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 94.06% Template:Nts 4.71% Template:Nts 98.77% Template:Nts 0.95% Template:Nts 99.72%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 58.03% Template:Nts 7.74% Template:Nts 65.77% Template:Nts 7.12% Template:Nts 72.89%
Template:Flagcountry Template:Nts 78.22% Template:Nts 3.19% Template:Nts 81.41% Template:Nts 0.80% Template:Nts 82.21%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 83.10% Template:Nts 11.20% Template:Nts 94.30% Template:Nts 2.30% Template:Nts 96.60%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 58.97% Template:Nts 11.71% Template:Nts 70.68% Template:Nts 2.03% Template:Nts 72.71%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 95.99% Template:Nts 3.06% Template:Nts 99.05% Template:Nts 0.71% Template:Nts 99.76%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 82.38% Template:Nts 11.73% Template:Nts 94.11% Template:Nts 2.55% Template:Nts 96.66%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 83.10% Template:Nts 11.20% Template:Nts 94.30% Template:Nts 2.30% Template:Nts 96.60%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 95.39% Template:Nts 3.01% Template:Nts 98.40% Template:Nts 0.70% Template:Nts 99.10%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 85.00% Template:Nts 7.10% Template:Nts 92.10% Template:Nts 2.00% Template:Nts 94.10%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 82.14% Template:Nts 6.98% Template:Nts 89.12% Template:Nts 1.94% Template:Nts 91.06%

Template:Notelist

American Council of Learned Societies (1929)Edit

The 1909 Century of Population Growth report came under intense scrutiny in the 1920s; its methodology was subject to criticism over fundamental flaws that cast doubt on the accuracy of its conclusions. The catalyst for controversy had been passage of the Immigration Act of 1924, which imposed numerical quotas on each country of Europe limiting the number of immigrants to be admitted out of a finite total annual pool. The size of each national quota was determined by the National Origins Formula, in part computed by estimating the origins of the colonial stock population descended from White Americans enumerated in the 1790 Census. The undercount of other colonial stocks like German Americans and Irish Americans would thus have contemporary policy consequences. When CPG was produced in 1909, the concept of independent Ireland did not even exist. CPG made no attempt to further classify its estimated 1.9% Irish population to distinguish Celtic Irish Catholics of Gaelic Ireland, who in 1922 formed the independent Irish Free State, from the Scotch-Irish descendants of Ulster Scots and Anglo-Irish of the Plantation of Ulster, which became Northern Ireland and remained part of the United Kingdom. In 1927, proposed immigration quotas based on CPG figures were rejected by the President's Committee chaired by the Secretaries of State, Commerce, and Labor, with the President reporting to Congress "the statistical and historical information available raises grave doubts as to the whole value of these computations as the basis for the purposes intended."<ref name="ACLS1929" /> Among the criticisms of A Century of Population Growth:

  • CPG failed to account for Anglicization of names, assuming any surname that could be English was actually English
  • CPG failed to consider first names even when obviously foreign, assuming anyone with a surname that could be English was actually English
  • CPG failed to consider regional variation in ethnic settlement e.g. surname Root could be assumed English in Vermont (less than 1% German), but more commonly a variant of German Roth in states with large German American populations like populous Pennsylvania (home to more Germans than the entire population of Vermont)
  • CPG started by classifying all names as Scotch, Irish, Dutch, French, German, Hebrew, or other. All remaining names which could not be classed with one of the 6 other listed nationalities, nor identified by the Census clerk as too exotic to be English, were assumed to be English
  • CPG classification was an unscientific process by Census clerks with no training in history, genealogy, or linguistics, nor were scholars in those fields consulted
  • CPG estimates were produced by a linear process with no checks on potential errors nor opportunity for peer review or scholarly revision once an individual clerk had assigned a name to a nationality

Concluding that CPG "had not been accepted by scholars as better than a first approximation of the truth", the Census Bureau commissioned a study to produce new scientific estimates of the colonial American population, in collaboration with the American Council of Learned Societies, in time to be adopted as basis for legal immigration quotas in 1929, and later published in the journal of the American Historical Association, reproduced in the table below. Note: as in the original CPG report, the "English" category encompassed England and Wales, grouping together all names classified as either "Anglican" (from England) or "Cambrian" (from Wales).<ref name="ACLS1929" />

Template:Small<ref name="ACLS1929">Template:Cite book</ref>

State or Territory
Template:Flagcountry Template:Flagicon British Isles
Total
Template:Flagcountry Template:Flagicon British
Total		 Template:Flag
Template:Flagicon English Template:FlagiconTemplate:Efn Template:Flagicon Scotch Template:FlagiconScotch-Irish
# % # % # % # % # %
Template:Flag Template:Nts 67.00% Template:Nts 2.20% Template:Nts 69.20% Template:Nts 1.80% Template:Nts 71.00%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 60.00% Template:Nts 8.00% Template:Nts 68.00% Template:Nts 6.30% Template:Nts 74.30%
Template:Flagcountry Template:Nts 57.40% Template:Nts 15.50% Template:Nts 72.90% Template:Nts 11.50% Template:Nts 84.40%
Template:Flag & Template:FlagiconTenn. Template:Nts 57.90% Template:Nts 10.00% Template:Nts 67.90% Template:Nts 7.00% Template:Nts 74.90%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 60.00% Template:Nts 4.50% Template:Nts 64.50% Template:Nts 8.00% Template:Nts 72.50%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 64.50% Template:Nts 7.60% Template:Nts 72.10% Template:Nts 5.80% Template:Nts 77.90%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 82.00% Template:Nts 4.40% Template:Nts 86.40% Template:Nts 2.60% Template:Nts 89.00%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 61.00% Template:Nts 6.20% Template:Nts 67.20% Template:Nts 4.60% Template:Nts 71.80%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 47.00% Template:Nts 7.70% Template:Nts 54.70% Template:Nts 6.30% Template:Nts 61.00%
Template:Flagcountry Template:Nts 52.00% Template:Nts 7.00% Template:Nts 59.00% Template:Nts 5.10% Template:Nts 64.10%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 66.00% Template:Nts 14.80% Template:Nts 80.80% Template:Nts 5.70% Template:Nts 86.50%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 35.30% Template:Nts 8.60% Template:Nts 43.90% Template:Nts 11.00% Template:Nts 54.90%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 71.00% Template:Nts 5.80% Template:Nts 76.80% Template:Nts 2.00% Template:Nts 78.80%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 60.20% Template:Nts 15.10% Template:Nts 75.30% Template:Nts 9.40% Template:Nts 84.70%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 76.00% Template:Nts 5.10% Template:Nts 81.10% Template:Nts 3.20% Template:Nts 84.30%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 68.50% Template:Nts 10.20% Template:Nts 78.70% Template:Nts 6.20% Template:Nts 84.90%
Template:Sort Template:Nts 60.94% Template:Nts 8.21% Template:Nts 69.15% Template:Nts 5.99% Template:Nts 75.14%
Template:Sort Template:Nts 29.81% Template:Nts 4.08% Template:Nts 33.89% Template:Nts 2.92% Template:Nts 36.81%
Template:Sort Template:Nts 11.20% Template:Nts 1.53% Template:Nts 12.73% Template:Nts 1.10% Template:Nts 13.83%
Template:Flagicon Spanish America Template:Nts 2.54% Template:Nts 0.35% Template:Nts 2.89% Template:Nts 0.25% Template:Nts 3.14%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 60.10% Template:Nts 8.09% Template:Nts 68.19% Template:Nts 5.91% Template:Nts 74.10%

Template:Notelist

1980Edit

The 1980 census was the first that asked people's ancestry.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The 1980 United States Census reported 61,327,867 individuals or 31.67% of the total U.S. population self-identified as having British descent. In 1980, 16,418 Americans reported "Northern Islander". No Scots-Irish (descendants of Ulster-Scots) ancestry was recorded, although over ten million people identified as Scottish.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> This figure fell to over 5 million each in the following census when the Scotch-Irish were first counted.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

1990Edit

Over 90.4% of the United States population reported at least one ancestry, 9.6% (23,921,371) individuals as "not stated" with a total of 11.0% being "not specified".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Additional responses were Cornish (3,991), Northern Irish 4,009 and Manx 6,317.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

2000Edit

Most of the population who stated their ancestry as "American" (20,625,093 or 7.3%) are said to be of old colonial British ancestry.<ref name=Ancestry2000>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

2000 Census<ref name="The Source: Gen">Template:Cite book</ref>
Ancestry Number % of total
German 42,885,162 15.2
African 36,419,434 12.9
Irish 30,594,130 10.9
English 24,515,138 8.7
Mexican 20,640,711 7.3
Italian 15,723,555 5.6
French 10,846,018 3.9
Hispanic 10,017,244 3.6
Polish 8,977,444 3.2
Scottish 4,890,581 1.7
Dutch 4,542,494 1.6
Norwegian 4,477,725 1.6
Scotch-Irish 4,319,232 1.5
United States 281,421,906 100

Geographical distributionEdit

Template:Multiple image Following are the top 10 highest percentage of people of English, Scottish and Welsh ancestry, in U.S. communities with 500 or more total inhabitants (for the total list of the 101 communities, see references)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

EnglishEdit

  1. Hildale, UT 66.9%
  2. Colorado City, AZ 52.7%
  3. Milbridge, ME 41.1%
  4. Panguitch, UT 40.0%
  5. Beaver, UT 39.8%
  6. Enterprise, UT 39.4%
  7. East Machias, ME 39.1%
  8. Marriott-Slaterville, UT 38.2%
  9. Wellsville, UT 37.9%
  10. Morgan, UT 37.2%

ScottishEdit

  1. Lonaconing, MD town 16.1%
  2. Jordan, IL township 12.6%
  3. Scioto, OH township 12.1%
  4. Randolph, IN township 10.2%
  5. Franconia, NH town 10.1%
  6. Topsham, VT town 10.0%
  7. Ryegate, VT town 9.9%
  8. Plainfield, VT town 9.8%
  9. Saratoga Springs, UT town 9.7%
  10. Barnet, VT town 9.5%

WelshEdit

  1. Malad City, ID city 21.1%
  2. Remsen, NY town 14.6%
  3. Oak Hill, OH village 13.6%
  4. Madison, OH township 12.7%
  5. Steuben, NY town 10.9%
  6. Franklin, OH township 10.5%
  7. Plymouth, PA borough 10.3%
  8. Jackson, OH city 10.0%
  9. Lake, PA township 9.9%
  10. Radnor, OH township 9.8%

2020 state totalsEdit

As of 2020, the distribution of British Americans (combined English, Welsh, Scottish, Scotch-Irish, and British ancestry self-identification) across the 50 states and DC is as presented in the following table:

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CitationClass=web

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State Number Percentage
Template:Flag Template:Nts 12.13%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 12.97%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 12.28%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 12.03%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 8.12%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 15.67%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 11.49%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 12.99%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 8.97%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 10.29%
Template:Flagcountry Template:Nts 11.69%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 6.02%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 23.59%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 8.18%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 12.35%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 11.53%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 14.56%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 15.46%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 7.77%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 26.78%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 10.65%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 12.89%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 12.62%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 8.13%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 10.95%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 13.07%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 17.62%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 11.14%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 10.49%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 23.75%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 6.82%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 9.87%
Template:Flagcountry Template:Nts 7.17%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 15.58%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 6.64%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 12.92%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 11.99%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 17.51%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 11.46%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 13.51%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 14.70%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 8.77%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 14.83%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 9.32%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 33.15%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 24.45%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 14.75%
Template:Flagcountry Template:Nts 16.00%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 16.24%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 8.11%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 19.16%
Template:Flag Template:Nts 11.40%

HistoryEdit

OverviewEdit

The British diaspora consists of the scattering of British people and their descendants who emigrated from the United Kingdom. The diaspora is concentrated in countries that had mass migration such as the United States (as well as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Zimbabwe) and that are part of the English-speaking world. A 2006 publication from the Institute for Public Policy Research estimated 5.6 million British-born people lived outside of the United Kingdom.<ref name="BritsAbroad">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

After the Age of Discovery, the British were one of the earliest and largest communities to emigrate out of Europe, and the British Empire's expansion during the latter half of the 18th century, throughout the 19th century and first quarter of the 20th century saw an "extraordinary dispersion of the British people", with particular concentrations "in Australasia and North America", and to some degree into Africa and South Asia.<ref name="BritDis47">Template:Harvnb.</ref>

The British Empire was "built on waves of migration overseas by British people",<ref name="Marsh254">Template:Harvnb.</ref> who left the United Kingdom and "reached across the globe and permanently affected population structures in three continents".<ref name="BritDis47"/> As a result of the British colonization of the Americas, what became the United States was "easily the greatest single destination of emigrant British".<ref name="BritDis47"/>

Historically in the 1790 United States census estimate and presently in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand "people of British origin came to constitute the majority of the population" contributing to these states becoming integral to the Anglosphere.<ref name="Marsh254"/> There is also a significant population of people with British ancestry in South Africa and in British Overseas Territories.Template:Citation needed

Colonial periodEdit

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} An English presence in North America began with the Roanoke Colony and Colony of Virginia in the late-16th century during the reign of Tudor queen Elizabeth I, but the first successful English settlement was established in 1607, on the James River at Jamestown. By the 1610s, an estimated 1,300 English people had travelled to North America, the "first of many millions from the British Isles".<ref name="BritDis48">Template:Harvnb.</ref> In 1620, the Pilgrims established the English imperial venture of Plymouth Colony, beginning "a remarkable acceleration of permanent emigration from England" with over 60% of trans-Atlantic English migrants settling in the New England Colonies.<ref name="BritDis48"/> During the 17th century, an estimated 350,000 English, Welsh and Cornish migrants arrived in North America, which in the century after the Acts of Union 1707 was surpassed in rate and number by Scottish and Irish migrants.<ref name="BritDis49">Template:Harvnb.</ref>

File:Declaration of Independence (1819), by John Trumbull.jpg
John Trumbull's famous painting, Declaration of Independence. Most of the Founding Fathers had British ancestors.

The British policy of salutary neglect for its North American colonies intended to minimize trade restrictions as a way of ensuring they stayed loyal to British interests.<ref name="history of colonial"/> This permitted the development of the American Dream, a cultural spirit distinct from that of its British founders.<ref name="history of colonial">Template:Citation</ref> The Thirteen Colonies of British America began an armed rebellion with French support against British rule in 1775 when they rejected the right of the Parliament of Great Britain to govern them without representation; they proclaimed their independence in 1776, and subsequently constituted the first thirteen states of the United States of America, which became a sovereign state in 1781 with the ratification of the Articles of Confederation. The 1783 Treaty of Paris represented Great Britain's formal acknowledgment of the United States' sovereignty at the end of the American Revolutionary War.<ref name="road">Template:Citation</ref>

In the original Thirteen Colonies, most laws contained strong elements found in the English common law system.Template:Citation needed

The vast majority of the Founding Fathers of the United States were of mixed British extraction. Most of them were of English descent, with smaller numbers of those of Scottish, Irish Protestant or Scots-Irish, and Welsh ancestry. A minority were of high social status and can be classified as White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP). Many of the prewar WASP elite were Loyalists who left the new nation, some moving north to the Canadian colonies which remained under British rule.<ref>Richard D. Brown, "The Founding Fathers of 1776 and 1787: A collective view." William and Mary Quarterly (1976) 33#3: 465–480, especially pp 466, 478–79. online</ref>

File:The Great Rapprochement.jpg
Uncle Sam embracing John Bull, while Britannia and Columbia hold hands and sit together in the background (1898).

Immigration after 1776Edit

British immigration to the U.S. 1820–2000
Period Arrivals Period Arrivals Period Arrivals
1820–1830 27,489 1901–1910 525,950 1981–1990 159,173
1831–1840 75,810 1911–1920 341,408 1991–2000 151,866
1841–1850 267,044 1921–1930 339,570
1851–1860 423,974 1931–1940 31,572
1861–1870 606,896 1941–1950 139,306
1871–1880 548,043 1951–1960 202,824
1881–1890 807,357 1961–1970 213,822
1891–1900 271,538 1971–1980 137,374
Total arrivals: 5,271,016<ref>Almost All Aliens: Immigration, Race, and Colonialism in American History ... By Paul Spickard</ref><ref>Statistical Abstract of the United States (Page: 89)</ref><ref>Statistical Abstract of the United States Immigration by country of origin 1851–1940 (Page: 107)</ref><ref>Statistical Abstract of the United States (Page: 92)</ref>

Nevertheless, longstanding cultural and historical ties have, in more modern times, resulted in the Special Relationship, the exceptionally close political, diplomatic and military co-operation of United Kingdom – United States relations.<ref name="wither">Template:Citation</ref> Linda Colley, a professor of history at Princeton University and specialist in Britishness, suggested that because of their strong colonial influence on the United States, the British find Americans a "mysterious and paradoxical people, physically distant but culturally close, engagingly similar yet irritatingly different".<ref>Template:Harvnb.</ref>

For over two centuries (1789–2009) of early U.S. history, all Presidents with the exception of two (Van Buren and Kennedy) were descended from the varied colonial British stock, from the Pilgrims and Puritans to the Scotch-Irish and English who settled Appalachia, with more recent presidents such as Joe Biden and Donald Trump having partial British ancestry.<ref>Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America – By David Hackett Fischer (P. 839)</ref>

Cultural contributionsEdit

Much of American culture shows influences from nation states of British culture. Colonial ties to Great Britain spread the English language, legal system and other cultural attributes.<ref name="books.google.co.uk">Template:Cite book</ref> Historian David Hackett Fischer has posited that four major streams of immigration from the British Isles in the colonial era contributed to the formation of a new American culture, summarized as follows:

Fischer's theory acknowledges the presence of other groups of immigrants during the colonial period, both from the British Isles (the Welsh and the Highland Scots) and not (Germans, Dutch, and French Huguenots), but believes that these did not culturally contribute as substantially to the United States as his main four.

Historical influenceEdit

Apple pie – New England was the first region to experience large-scale English colonization in the early 17th century, beginning in 1620, and it was dominated by East Anglian Calvinists, better known as the Puritans. Baking was a particular favorite of the New Englanders and was the origin of dishes seen today as quintessentially "American", such as apple pie and the oven-roasted Thanksgiving turkey.<ref>Fischer, pp. 74, 114, 134–39.</ref> "As American as apple pie" is a well-known phrase used to suggest that something is all-American.

AutomakersEdit

Buick – David Dunbar Buick was a Scottish-born American, a Detroit-based inventor, best known for founding the Buick Motor Company.Template:Citation needed

Motorcycle manufacturerEdit

File:Founders of Harley-Davidson The North Shore Bulletin Dec 1920.jpg
Founders of Harley-Davidson, from left: William A. Davidson, Walter Davidson Sr., Arthur Davidson and William S. Harley.

Harley-Davidson – The Davidson brothers were of Scottish descent (William. A., Walter and Arthur Davidson) and William S. Harley of English descent. Along with Indian Motorcycle Manufacturing Company was the largest and most recognizable American motorcycle manufacturer.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

SportsEdit

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} Baseball – The earliest recorded game of base-ball for which the original source survives, involved the family of George II of Great Britain, played indoors in London in November 1748. The Prince is reported as playing "Bass-Ball" again in September 1749 in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, against Lord Middlesex.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The English lawyer William Bray wrote in his diary that he had played a game of baseball on Easter Monday 1755 in Guildford, also in Surrey.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> English lawyer William Bray recorded a game of baseball on Easter Monday 1755 in Guildford, Surrey; Bray's diary was verified as authentic in September 2008.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> This early form of the game was apparently brought to North America by British immigrants. The first appearance of the term that exists in print was in "A Little Pretty Pocket-Book" in 1744, where it is called Base-Ball. Today, rounders, which has been played in England since Tudor times, holds a similarity to baseball. Although, literary references to early forms of "base-ball" in the United Kingdom pre-date use of the term "rounders".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In addition to baseball, American football is a sport that developed from soccer and Rugby, which are both sports that originated in the British Isles.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Bowling or ten-pin bowling derived from Nine-Pins (nine-pin bowling) brought over by early British settlers.

Continental Colors, 1775–1777Edit

File:Flag of the United States (1776–1777).svg
The "Continental Union Flag" which served as the U.S. national flag from 1776 to 1777; the thirteen stripes represent the original Thirteen Colonies.

The Continental Union Flag is considered to be the first national flag of the United States.<ref name="Popular Mechanics">Popular Mechanics – Oct 1926</ref> The design consisted of 13 stripes, red and white, representing the original Thirteen Colonies, the canton on the upper left-hand corner bearing the British Union Flag, the red cross of St. George of England with the white cross of St. Andrew of Scotland. The flag was first flown on December 2, 1775, by John Paul Jones (then a Continental Navy lieutenant) on the ship Alfred in Philadelphia).<ref name="Popular Mechanics"/>

Place namesEdit

AlabamaEdit

CaliforniaEdit

ColoradoEdit

ConnecticutEdit

DelawareEdit

FloridaEdit

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> the largest lake of the Lake District and England

MaineEdit

MarylandEdit

MassachusettsEdit

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

MichiganEdit

New HampshireEdit

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New JerseyEdit

New YorkEdit

North CarolinaEdit

OhioEdit

  • Kendal, Ohio after Kendal, Westmorland.<ref name="springhill">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

PennsylvaniaEdit

|CitationClass=web }}Template:Dead link</ref>

TexasEdit

UtahEdit

VirginiaEdit

WisconsinEdit

In addition, some places were named after the kings and queens of the former kingdoms of England and Ireland. The name Virginia was first applied by Queen Elizabeth I (the "Virgin Queen") and Sir Walter Raleigh in 1584.,<ref>In 1584 Sir Walter Raleigh sent Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe to lead an exploration of what is now the North Carolina coast, and they returned with word of a regional "king" named "Wingina." This was modified later that year by Raleigh and the Queen to "Virginia", perhaps in part noting her status as the "Virgin Queen." Template:Cite book</ref> the Carolinas were named after King Charles I and Maryland named so for his wife, Queen Henrietta Maria (Queen Mary). The Borough of Queens in New York was named after Catherine of Braganza (Queen Catherine), the wife of the King Charles II.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

See alsoEdit

Template:Portal

ReferencesEdit

Template:Reflist

Scholarly sourcesEdit

  • Template:Cite book
  • Bridenbaugh, Carl. Vexed and Troubled Englishmen, 1590–1642 (1976).
  • Template:Citation
  • Template:Cite book
  • Erickson, Charlotte. Invisible Immigrants: The Adaptation of English and Scottish Immigrants in Nineteenth-Century America (1972_.
  • Template:Cite book
  • Furer, Howard B., ed. The British in America: 1578–1970 (1972).
  • Template:Cite book the standard reference source for all ethnic groups.
  • McGill, David W., and John K. Pearce. "American families with English ancestors from the colonial era: Anglo Americans." in Ethnicity and family therapy (1996): 451–466; reviews modern social psychology of family types.
  • Template:Cite book
  • Shepperson, Wilbur S. British emigration to North America: projects and opinions in the early Victorian period (1957), examines opinion in Britain. online
  • Tennenhouse, Leonard. The Importance of Feeling English: American Literature and the British Diaspora, 1750–1850 (2007).
  • Van Vugt, William E. "British (English, Scottish, Scots Irish, and Welsh) and British Americans, 1870–1940’." in Elliott Barkan, ed., Immigrants in American History: Arrival, Adaptation, and Integration (2013): 4:237+.
  • Van Vugt, William E. British Buckeyes: The English, Scots, and Welsh in Ohio, 1700–1900 (2006).

External linksEdit

Template:Sister project

Template:European Americans Template:British diaspora Template:United States topics

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