Close to the end of In Search of Ulster-Scots Land, author Barry Vann quotes the Scottish cleric Robert Blair's reflections on his migration from his native land to Ulster in the 1630s: “The Sovereign Lord, who hath determined the bounds of our habitation, thrust me over to Ireland altogether against my inclination,” Blair remembered (166). This image of a reluctant emigrant seeing his fate as part of the design of Providence strikes an apt metaphor within which to consider this refreshing and challenging volume. For Vann, men like Blair represent an important community whose migrations back and forth across the North Channel separating southwestern Scotland and Ulster and ultimately across the Atlantic, primarily to the Appalachian region of what became the United States, demands reconsideration. Although historians have long analyzed the economic, political, and even religious reasons for these migrations, Vann's contribution is to draw upon the methods and theories of other social sciences, most importantly geography, to present a nuanced understanding of an ethnic and cultural group's identity. It is “geotheology,” or the conceptualization of place in religious terms, that offers the most interesting insight into the motives behind these migrations.
The underlying theology is easily identifiable. Calvinism, leavened by the unfolding of the Scottish Reformation, the “two kingdoms” theory of sovereignty associated most closely with Andrew Melville, and a progression of emblematic documents—the Confession of Faith/Scots Confession (1560/67); The King's Confession, or Negative Confession, of 1581; and the National Covenant (1638)—gave voice to the notion that the Scottish people had been specially selected by God to create a polity that operated solely to observe and live according to his will, as expressed through scripture. Within that understanding, a host of threats, most importantly Catholicism and Erastianism marked by worldly magistrates and rulers attempting to co-opt the authority of God and his Kirk, lay in the weeds. When these were made manifest in the reigns of James VI/I and especially Charles I, Scotland became polluted, and migration was the only option for true believers.
Vann acknowledges that the early Stuarts's policy of plantation facilitated the emigration of Scots to Ireland, and for those who feared and loathed the religious policies of the regime, early seventeenth-century Ulster could stand as a land of refuge. But only for some. Scotland featured numerous socioeconomic challenges, and for some dissenters, rising rents, unproductive lands, and failed crops were evidence of punishment from an angry God. Therefore, migration became an opportunity to atone for one's sins as well, although individuals leaving Scotland owing to poverty could expect little sympathy from their religious leaders.
Vann expertly describes the topography and geographic features of the region, with particular emphasis placed on the ancient transportation links that facilitated passages across the North Channel. Appreciation for the possibilities inherent in a term like “geotheology” grows when one considers the prevalence of nautical and maritime terminology in the sermons and other writings of preachers like Samuel Rutherford in the 1630s. Sea routes were not one-way, of course, and at particular moments, such as when the National Covenant was ascribed in 1638, joyful migrants saw the hand of God at work again, in developments that might permit them to return to their homeland. For others, escape from the sinful British Isles caused them to look further afield—to America mostly—for a place to live according to their beliefs. Vann's concluding section dealing with the late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century migration of Scots-Irish settlers to America, and particularly the Appalachian region, notes the transference of the ideal of liberty, suspicion of the state, and adherence to literal belief in the Bible as the word of God that became, and arguably have remained, components of the Bible Belt. When he applies his geographer's skills to describing the physical features of the Appalachian and Ozark regions—far from the Atlantic seaboard and insulated from the outside world by mountain ranges and tricky passes—it can be seen why some might have considered it to be a land apart.
But who were these people that left Scotland for Ulster and later America? In terms of viewing them as a distinct group, most readers will readily accept the label Scots-Irish and the ethnic and historical connotations this implies. What is harder is to accept Vann's sweeping theological description of them as “Puritan Presbyterians.” Indeed, it is often difficult to understand how Vann wishes to employ these two descriptors as they are used in both interchangeable and complimentary fashions. Few readers would quibble with an understanding of “Presbyterian” as it relates to a form of church government or as a Protestant denomination. “Puritan” is far more problematic, however. It was mostly used as an epithet; rarely, it was applied in early seventeenth-century Scotland, and it practically never appears in discussions of Scottish or Ulster dissenters after the Restoration. For some, the coupling of these terms, in the fashion he employs, will suggest a theological and confessional unity that breaks down on close examination.
This concern notwithstanding, and in spite of some minor factual errors, there is much to recommend in this book and the reconceptualization of the people it describes. Vann is an effective guide in search of Ulster-Scots Land.
