Benjamin Bankhurst | Shepherd University (original) (raw)

Books by Benjamin Bankhurst

Research paper thumbnail of Ulster Presbyterians and Scots Irish Diaspora, 1750-1764 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013)

The migration of roughly 250,000 Irish Protestants to the British North American Colonies marked ... more The migration of roughly 250,000 Irish Protestants to the British North American Colonies marked one of the largest transatlantic movements of Europeans during the eighteenth century. Traditionally historians have structured their examinations of the
Scots Irish, as this group is known in the United States, within a narrative framework beginning in the province of Ulster and ending on the frontiers of North America. In so doing, they have paid little attention to how large-scale emigration transformed the culture and life strategies of the Irish communities that fed the exodus.

Ulster Presbyterians and the Scots Irish Diaspora examines how news regarding the violent struggle to control the borderlands of British North America between 1750 and 1764 resonated among communities in Ireland with familial links to the colonies. Nowhere were these links more firmly established than in the Irish province of Ulster, a region that supplied the largest proportion of European migrants to the Appalachian backcountry during the colonial period. Bankhurst argues that war on the colonial frontier and the arrival of American fundraising drives in Ireland collapsed emotional and spatial distance and produced a sense of empathy among Ulster Presbyterians for their beleaguered kin across the ocean. This empathy was the foundation of a new imperial outlook in Ireland and led to greater popular enthusiasm for British expansion in North America.

Articles and Chapters by Benjamin Bankhurst

Research paper thumbnail of "Early Irish American and Its Enemies: Ethnic Identity Formation in the Era of the Revolution, 1760-1820," Journal of Irish and Scottish Studies, 5:2 (Spring 2012), 17-38.

The formation of an independent United States in the last quarter of the eighteenth century and t... more The formation of an independent United States in the last quarter of the eighteenth century and the attendant development of a new republican nationalism greatly transformed the character and identity of Irish America. Like all ethnic groups in the new nation, the Irish had to recalibrate their preconceptions and ideas on government, social hierarchy and culture in light of the American Revolution. Not only were the years between 1760 and 1820 a time of cultural and political redefinition across the new nation, they also marked a period of transition between the largely Protestant Irish America of the eighteenth century and the Catholic/Gaelic model that superceded in by the 1840s. The last major study of the Irish in America during this period, now published nearly thirty years ago, was David Noel Doyle's Ireland, Irishmen and Revolutionary America. In it, Doyle challenged the over-simplistic division between the two Irish Americas of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. For Doyle, the Irish Diaspora of the revolutionary decades was a distinct entity defined by the fractured social and cultural environment of the era. By abandoning the neat periodisation and accompanying ethno-religious categories established by previous scholars, Doyle reinvigorated the question of what it meant to be Irish in late eighteenth-century America. He noted that the study of ethnic identity in America during this period was complicated by the social changes brought about by the revolution itself. 'The revolution'

Papers by Benjamin Bankhurst

Research paper thumbnail of The Politics of Dissenting Demography in Ireland, 1690–1735

Negotiating Toleration

The era of the Hanoverian Succession was a period of rapid demographic change in Ireland. The arr... more The era of the Hanoverian Succession was a period of rapid demographic change in Ireland. The arrival of 90,000 Scots pushed the extent of Presbyterian influence in Ulster well beyond its heartland in the northeast. This stoked concerns within the Church of Ireland of a possible Presbyterian coup like the one that befallen the Scottish Church in 1690. The fear of expansionist Dissent faded in the years after the death of Queen Anne when Irish Presbyterians began sailing en masse to the American Colonies. Irish Presbyterians were quick to capitalize on Ascendency concerns regarding perceived Protestant decline in their efforts to repeal the Test Act of 1704. This essay examines the changing debate over Dissenter demography in the works of William Tisdall and Jonathan Swift. It argues that Protestant anxieties regarding fluctuations in Dissenting numbers influenced the larger political debates in early eighteenth-century Ireland.

Research paper thumbnail of Tennent, William, Sr. (1673–1746)

The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of the American Enlightenment, 2015

Research paper thumbnail of KENNY, Peacable Kingdom Lost: The Paxton Boys and the Destruction of William Penn’s Holy Experiment

Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 2010

Research paper thumbnail of âAn Infant Sister Church, in Great Distress, Amidst a Great Wildernessâ

Research paper thumbnail of He Never Wants for Suitable Instruments

Ulster Presbyterians and the Scots Irish Diaspora, 1750-1764

Research paper thumbnail of Early Irish America and its Enemies: Ethnic Identity Formation in the Era of the Revolution, 1760 – 1820

Journal of Irish and Scottish Studies

For differing meanings of 'Irishness' to immigrants to America see chapter 8 in the same volume: ... more For differing meanings of 'Irishness' to immigrants to America see chapter 8 in the same volume: '"Scotch-Irish", "Black Irish", and "Real Irish": Emigrants and Identities in the Old South', 142-5. For a discussion on the usefulness of the term 'Scotch-Irish' see Miller's 'Ulster Presbyterians and the "Two Traditions" in Ireland and America' in Lee and Casey (eds), Making the Irish American, 255-60.

Research paper thumbnail of Atlantic Migration and North America in the Irish Presbyterian Imagination

Ulster Presbyterians and the Scots Irish Diaspora, 1750–1764, 2013

Research paper thumbnail of The Press, Associational Culture and Popular Imperialism in Ulster, 1750–64

Ulster Presbyterians and the Scots Irish Diaspora, 1750–1764, 2013

Research paper thumbnail of ‘An Infant Sister Church, in Great Distress, Amidst a Great Wilderness’: American Presbyterian Fundraising in Ireland, 1752–63

Ulster Presbyterians and the Scots Irish Diaspora, 1750–1764, 2013

Research paper thumbnail of Introduction: Mathew Carey, Ireland, and the Politics of Transatlantic Debate

Research paper thumbnail of Vindicating Ireland: Historical Memory, Irish America, and Mathew Carey’s Later Histories of Ireland

Research paper thumbnail of Introduction: Mathew Carey and Dublin

Research paper thumbnail of Ulster Presbyterians and the Scots Irish Diaspora, 1750-1764

Research paper thumbnail of A Looking-Glass for Presbyterians: Recasting a Prejudice in Late Colonial Pennsylvania

The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 2009

... The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography Vol. CXXXIII, No. 4 (October 2009) Page 2.... more ... The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography Vol. CXXXIII, No. 4 (October 2009) Page 2. 318 BENJAMIN BANKHURST October models for collective identity, in which ethnicity, religion, and politics ... Page 4. 320 BENJAMIN BANKHURST October ...

Research paper thumbnail of Ulster Presbyterians and Scots Irish Diaspora, 1750-1764 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013)

The migration of roughly 250,000 Irish Protestants to the British North American Colonies marked ... more The migration of roughly 250,000 Irish Protestants to the British North American Colonies marked one of the largest transatlantic movements of Europeans during the eighteenth century. Traditionally historians have structured their examinations of the
Scots Irish, as this group is known in the United States, within a narrative framework beginning in the province of Ulster and ending on the frontiers of North America. In so doing, they have paid little attention to how large-scale emigration transformed the culture and life strategies of the Irish communities that fed the exodus.

Ulster Presbyterians and the Scots Irish Diaspora examines how news regarding the violent struggle to control the borderlands of British North America between 1750 and 1764 resonated among communities in Ireland with familial links to the colonies. Nowhere were these links more firmly established than in the Irish province of Ulster, a region that supplied the largest proportion of European migrants to the Appalachian backcountry during the colonial period. Bankhurst argues that war on the colonial frontier and the arrival of American fundraising drives in Ireland collapsed emotional and spatial distance and produced a sense of empathy among Ulster Presbyterians for their beleaguered kin across the ocean. This empathy was the foundation of a new imperial outlook in Ireland and led to greater popular enthusiasm for British expansion in North America.

Research paper thumbnail of "Early Irish American and Its Enemies: Ethnic Identity Formation in the Era of the Revolution, 1760-1820," Journal of Irish and Scottish Studies, 5:2 (Spring 2012), 17-38.

The formation of an independent United States in the last quarter of the eighteenth century and t... more The formation of an independent United States in the last quarter of the eighteenth century and the attendant development of a new republican nationalism greatly transformed the character and identity of Irish America. Like all ethnic groups in the new nation, the Irish had to recalibrate their preconceptions and ideas on government, social hierarchy and culture in light of the American Revolution. Not only were the years between 1760 and 1820 a time of cultural and political redefinition across the new nation, they also marked a period of transition between the largely Protestant Irish America of the eighteenth century and the Catholic/Gaelic model that superceded in by the 1840s. The last major study of the Irish in America during this period, now published nearly thirty years ago, was David Noel Doyle's Ireland, Irishmen and Revolutionary America. In it, Doyle challenged the over-simplistic division between the two Irish Americas of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. For Doyle, the Irish Diaspora of the revolutionary decades was a distinct entity defined by the fractured social and cultural environment of the era. By abandoning the neat periodisation and accompanying ethno-religious categories established by previous scholars, Doyle reinvigorated the question of what it meant to be Irish in late eighteenth-century America. He noted that the study of ethnic identity in America during this period was complicated by the social changes brought about by the revolution itself. 'The revolution'

Research paper thumbnail of The Politics of Dissenting Demography in Ireland, 1690–1735

Negotiating Toleration

The era of the Hanoverian Succession was a period of rapid demographic change in Ireland. The arr... more The era of the Hanoverian Succession was a period of rapid demographic change in Ireland. The arrival of 90,000 Scots pushed the extent of Presbyterian influence in Ulster well beyond its heartland in the northeast. This stoked concerns within the Church of Ireland of a possible Presbyterian coup like the one that befallen the Scottish Church in 1690. The fear of expansionist Dissent faded in the years after the death of Queen Anne when Irish Presbyterians began sailing en masse to the American Colonies. Irish Presbyterians were quick to capitalize on Ascendency concerns regarding perceived Protestant decline in their efforts to repeal the Test Act of 1704. This essay examines the changing debate over Dissenter demography in the works of William Tisdall and Jonathan Swift. It argues that Protestant anxieties regarding fluctuations in Dissenting numbers influenced the larger political debates in early eighteenth-century Ireland.

Research paper thumbnail of Tennent, William, Sr. (1673–1746)

The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of the American Enlightenment, 2015

Research paper thumbnail of KENNY, Peacable Kingdom Lost: The Paxton Boys and the Destruction of William Penn’s Holy Experiment

Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 2010

Research paper thumbnail of âAn Infant Sister Church, in Great Distress, Amidst a Great Wildernessâ

Research paper thumbnail of He Never Wants for Suitable Instruments

Ulster Presbyterians and the Scots Irish Diaspora, 1750-1764

Research paper thumbnail of Early Irish America and its Enemies: Ethnic Identity Formation in the Era of the Revolution, 1760 – 1820

Journal of Irish and Scottish Studies

For differing meanings of 'Irishness' to immigrants to America see chapter 8 in the same volume: ... more For differing meanings of 'Irishness' to immigrants to America see chapter 8 in the same volume: '"Scotch-Irish", "Black Irish", and "Real Irish": Emigrants and Identities in the Old South', 142-5. For a discussion on the usefulness of the term 'Scotch-Irish' see Miller's 'Ulster Presbyterians and the "Two Traditions" in Ireland and America' in Lee and Casey (eds), Making the Irish American, 255-60.

Research paper thumbnail of Atlantic Migration and North America in the Irish Presbyterian Imagination

Ulster Presbyterians and the Scots Irish Diaspora, 1750–1764, 2013

Research paper thumbnail of The Press, Associational Culture and Popular Imperialism in Ulster, 1750–64

Ulster Presbyterians and the Scots Irish Diaspora, 1750–1764, 2013

Research paper thumbnail of ‘An Infant Sister Church, in Great Distress, Amidst a Great Wilderness’: American Presbyterian Fundraising in Ireland, 1752–63

Ulster Presbyterians and the Scots Irish Diaspora, 1750–1764, 2013

Research paper thumbnail of Introduction: Mathew Carey, Ireland, and the Politics of Transatlantic Debate

Research paper thumbnail of Vindicating Ireland: Historical Memory, Irish America, and Mathew Carey’s Later Histories of Ireland

Research paper thumbnail of Introduction: Mathew Carey and Dublin

Research paper thumbnail of Ulster Presbyterians and the Scots Irish Diaspora, 1750-1764

Research paper thumbnail of A Looking-Glass for Presbyterians: Recasting a Prejudice in Late Colonial Pennsylvania

The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 2009

... The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography Vol. CXXXIII, No. 4 (October 2009) Page 2.... more ... The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography Vol. CXXXIII, No. 4 (October 2009) Page 2. 318 BENJAMIN BANKHURST October models for collective identity, in which ethnicity, religion, and politics ... Page 4. 320 BENJAMIN BANKHURST October ...