When this Highland force was conquered by the Americans, the
large majority willingly bound themselves not to fight further
against the American cause and were set at liberty. Many of them
felt that, by offering their lives to the swords of the
Americans, they had canceled their obligation to King George and
were now free to draw their swords again and, this time, in
accordance with their sympathies; so they went over to the
American side and fought gallantly for independence.
Although the brave glory of this pioneer age shines so brightly
on the Lion Rampant of Caledonia, not to Scots alone does that
whole glory belong. The second largest racial stream which flowed
into the Back Country of Virginia and North Carolina was German.
Most of these Germans went down from Pennsylvania and were
generally called "Pennsylvania Dutch," an incorrect rendering of
Pennsylvanische Deutsche. The upper Shenandoah Valley was settled
almost entirely by Germans. They were members of the Lutheran,
German Reformed, and Moravian churches. The cause which sent vast
numbers of this sturdy people across the ocean, during the first
years of the eighteenth century, was religious persecution. By
statute and by word the Roman Catholic powers of Austria sought
to wipe out the Salzburg Lutherans and the Moravian followers of
John Huss.
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