'Did you hear about the Gaelic-speaking African?': Scottish Gaelic Folklore about Identity in North America

Abstract

This is the first sustained attempt to gather historical documentation about Scottish Gaelic-speaking people of African descent in North America. Many Scottish Gaels contemplated the consequences of assimilating into whiteness in America, in order to access wealth and privilege. Gaels were not just losing their language and culture, they were adopting an Anglophone identity during a time of rabidly racist Anglo-Saxonism in America. The folk anecdotes regarding Gaelic-speaking people of African descent examined in this article — and there must have been many more variants in oral tradition — illustrate the anxieties of immigrant Highland communities. By assimilating they would no longer be 'Other' to the institutions of the state, but their own ancestors would be 'Other' to them. Yet, at the same time, they were aware of several significant cases of the 'Other' of white identity in North America — African-Americans and Native Americans — assimilating into immigrant Highland communities and becoming Gaelic speakers. A range of folklore is explored, describing the ways in which they engage with questions of linguistic and racial identity.