ABSTRACT
Accustomed to hard relentless toil on unrewarding land and heavy industrial work at home, Scots came highly motivated with a sense of religious crusade, duty and the work ethic: they like Robert Bums were universal men. That paradoxical approach worked until technology undermined the old work ethic and mass immigration eroded the cultural base and status of the Scots as a group. In the early days of the United States, Scots saw America as the work of an enlightenment and Christian providence. Though Scots might recognise the American contribution in the Second World War and after, the old strong identification was much weakened. A few years later, in 1792, John Douglas, a Scots machinist, was offering plans of a gig mill and a slubbing billy to a group of merchants, but was persuaded to return to Britain by the British consul before he could establish himself in Pennsylvania.
