Spread of English-Speaking Peoples 127 



those who have been rightly called the Roundheads 

 of the South, the same men who, before any others, 

 declared for American independence. 9 



The two facts of most importance to remember 

 in dealing with our pioneer history are, first, that 

 the western portions of Virginia and the Carolinas 

 were peopled by an entirely different stock from that 

 which had long existed in the tide-water regions of 

 those colonies; and, secondly, that, except for those 

 in the Carolinas who came from Charleston, the 

 immigrants of this stock were mostly from the north, 

 from their great breeding-ground and nursery in 

 western Pennsylvania. 10 



That these Irish Presbyterians were a bold and 

 hardy race is proved by their at once pushing past 

 the settled regions, and plunging into the wilderness 

 as the leaders of the white advance. They were the 

 first and last set of immigrants to do this ; all others 

 have merely followed in the wake of their predeces- 

 sors. But, indeed, they were fitted to be Americans 

 from the very start ; they were kinsfolk of the Cove- 

 nanters ; they deemed it a religious duty to interpret 

 their own Bible, and held for a divine right the elec- 



9 Witness the Mecklenburg Declaration. 



10 McAfee MSS. " Trans- Alleghany Pioneers" (John P. 

 Hale), 17. Foote, 188. See also "Columbian Magazine," I., 

 122, and Schopf, 406. Boone, Crockett, Houston, Campbell, 

 Lewis, were among the Southwestern pioneers whose families 

 originally came from Pennsylvania. See "Annals of Augusta 

 County, Va.," by Joseph A. Waddell, Richmond, 1888 (an ex- 

 cellent book), pp. 4, 276, 278, for a clear showing of the Pres- 

 byterian Irish origin of the West Virginians, and of the 

 large German admixture. 



