![]() ![]() ![]() 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. By assimilating they would no longer be ‘Other’ to the institutions of the state, but their own ancestors would be ‘Other’ to them. 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. 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. Many Scottish Gaels contemplated the consequences of assimilating into whiteness in America, in order to access wealth and privilege. ![]() This is the first sustained attempt to gather historical documentation about Scottish Gaelic-speaking people of African descent in North America. ![]()
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