Can anyone tell me why so many people of African/Carribean origin have Scottish surnames, especially those living in United States and the UK?

lanfranco

The usual reasons: immigration, transportation, and slavery. Where African-American and Caribbean black people have Scottish surnames, it is usually because their slave ancestors had owners of Scottish descent, either in the U.S. or the Caribbean. Some of those owners were free immigrants, some were originally transported to the New World for crimes and later managed to buy land and obtain slaves. http://www.newworldcelts.org/carribean.html Aug 29 07, 6:44 PM

queproblema

Not all are black, very notably the first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, born in Nevis, the son of a Scottish laird. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Hamilton#Early_years Aug 29 07, 7:02 PM

queproblema

I should have looked at Frankie's link before mouthing off. It mentions not only Hamilton but Roosevelt. "Many of the colonists used the islands as a stopping-off point before continuing on to the mainland of America, where they then settled. Alexander Hamilton and Theodore Roosevelt are numbered among those who descend from Scots who initially settled in the Caribbean." What did you say about constitutional loquacity? Aug 29 07, 7:25 PM