Gone to seek a fortune in North Carolina: The failed Scottish Highland emigration of 1884

In 1884, promoters in Scotland and North Carolina recruited a group of at least 180 Highland Scots to settle in the Scottish-American community of southeastern N.C. At the time, the North Carolina settlement (which had been established almost 150 years earlier) was the largest concentrated group of Highland Scots in North America. The 1884 emigration---which proved to be the last organized emigration of Highland Scots to North Carolina---was motivated by desires both to assist impoverished Highland crofters in Scotland, and to reinvigorate North Carolina's Scottish-American settlement with an ethnically attractive labor force. Conflicting expectations among the emigrants and their hosts, however, quickly led to the emigration's failure. This thesis draws upon primary, secondary, and oral sources to provide a comprehensive historical chronicle of this relatively unknown emigration. In so doing, it explores the many meanings that this event---and its memories---held among members of the affected communities.