Nation and Province in the First British Empire: Scotland and the Americas, 1600-1800

In recent years, scholars have often noted the prolific connections that emerged between Scotland and Britain's North American colonies in the generation before the American Revolution. Indeed, it is now apparent that the Scots played active and important roles in such diverse areas of early American life as religion, science, commerce, education, and moral philosophy. Yet, no single work has sought to delineate the overall pattern of that relationship, including both its extent and its limitations, nor has any attempted to place those connections within the framework of Scottish involvement throughout the Americans and the larger Atlantic world. This exciting new collection of essays by a group of internationally known scholars investigates various aspects of Scotland's involvement with the Americas over the course of more than two centuries, during which Scotland evolved from an independent kingdom into a minority partner, albeit a highly active and visible one, in a British state and an expansive British empire. While Scotland's long and intricate history of overseas involvement had earlier inhibited turning its attention towards American colonization, it now became an aggressive participant, giving uncommon attention to American matters and developing some of themost far-reaching and influential perspectives upon the role of the province within the empire. Those perspectives would have important ramifications on both sides of the Atlantic, affecting Scottish enterprise from Canada to the Caribbean.