Conceived in Liberty Volume 2 - Ludwig von Mises Institute

ight" and "taking up land," earned by planting crops and building a home;
"tomahawk right," earned by clearing a few trees; and "cabin right," gained
by building a log cabin. These were rough criteria usually overly generous to
the individual settlers, but the system was an instructive example of rough
justice emerging from customary law, developed solely by the voluntary
actions of the people and without the imposition of statute or decree of the
state.
It might have been expected that the Ulster Scots would choose to settle in
Calvinist New England, which was closest to them in religious conviction. But
subtle religious differences meant a great deal to the Puritans, and they made
the Presbyterians decidedly unwelcome. Indeed, one of the first groups of
Ulster immigrants, several hundred strong, arrived at Boston in 1718 to face a
decidedly hostile reception. Most were shunted off to Maine and ended in
New Hampshire. One group settled in the frontier town of Worcester, Massachusetts,
but was promptly persecuted by the Puritans there. They were
coerced into merging their Presbyterian church into the Puritan church and
found themselves forced to pay tithes to support their persecutors. To the
Presbyterians' petition for relief from the tax, the Worcester township denied
their right to independence from the established Puritan church. When the
Scots began to build their own church, the Puritans destroyed the building.
The hapless Scots were thus forced to move to the more remote western frontier
and there founded settlements at Warren and Blandford.
Religious hatred was bolstered by ethnic feeling against the "foreign"
Scotch-Irish and by the fear of economic competition. Bostonians also did not
want their taxes to be raised to pay for expected welfare and poor relief for
an influx of Ulstermen. This was understandable, but it was characteristic that
the Bostonians blamed the Ulstermen instead of their own law, which provided
for an escalating drain on the taxpayers for payments to any poor resident.
All these factors caused a mob to form in 1729 to prevent a landing of
Ulster Scots, and many migrants were prevented from landing or remaining
during the next decade.
The story was the same in Connecticut. Of the original Boston group of
Ulster Scots one part settled in Voluntown (now Sterling) in northeastern
Connecticut. There the Scots were confronted by an official remonstrance of
the town council when they obtained their first Presbyterian minister,
"because he is a stranger, and we are informed that he came out of Ireland . . .
and we are informed that the Irish are not wholesome inhabitants."
New England hostility to Presbyterian newcomers was, moreover, not overcome
by any great need for more indentured servants. By the eighteenth century,
the greatest need for more forced labor was on large farms and plantations,
and aside from the Narragansett Country there were few such opportunities
in New England—in contrast to the Middle Atlantic and Southern
colonies. As a consequence, religious and ethnic hostility could reign un-
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