More significantly, the many waves of northern immigrants brought their culture with them, and it differed sharply from that of the other Britons who had settled on the eastern seaboard. It was a warrior culture bred by centuries of enmity. They valued men for their strength and bravery, and often also for their cunning and even cruelty. The male dress they imported to the American frontier emphasized manliness: Its broad cut across the chest and shoulders and the heavy seams and fringes gave the impression of strength, while its narrow waist and heavy belts added to the effect. Boots and leather stockings rather than shoes suggested that the wearer was at ease in the outdoors, while the readiness to fight was emphasized by weapons, with the knives and daggers of Britain soon complemented by guns in America.

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Eagerness and aptitude for fighting was mandatory. Families bonded closely, and an insult or injury to one member would be taken up by everyone else. Retribution was often severe, but rarely settled a dispute, as the loser of the encounter exacted vengeance. Thus, feuds could continue over generations. In this way the famous Hatfield and McCoy feud of Southern history saw the deaths of 20 people, though its origin was merely an argument over two hogs.

The similarity to the enmities of the British borders is clear. Less obvious perhaps are other concomitants of a warrior culture. Men who spent a lot of time fighting or readying themselves for battle did not always stoop to work. Women did that. And both in Britain and America, women bore the brunt of backbreaking farm and domestic labor. While men were valued for strength, women were valued for producing the next generation of warriors. Just as men’s clothes displayed their masculinity, young women’s clothes showed off their sexuality with tight waists and close-cut bodices that drew the eye to their breasts.

In England, the rates of illegitimate births were highest in Cumberland and other areas of the Northwest. This pattern continued in America, and many brides were heavily pregnant on their wedding day. Once married, the couple generally lived in a log cabin. Though such a house seems quintessentially American, historian David Hackett Fischer points out that the traditional cabin was based on the old English measurement of the rod or pole, and that like the cabins of the English-Scottish borders, it could be erected quickly. Such a home was useful when raids and home burnings were so common that investment in substantial accommodation was unwise. The immigrants to America were much safer than the relatives they left behind, but they brought with them the mentality of impermanence. Fischer notes that even today, flimsy housing such as trailers and prefabricated buildings remain most common in the Southern states where these immigrants settled.

Perhaps more surprisingly, the Southern fondness for religious revivals and field meetings also springs from the warrior culture of their British homelands. Most of the immigrants from these regions were Calvinist Presbyterians. But given their independent warrior attitudes, they had little time for church hierarchy, much preferring, both in Britain and in America, the spontaneity of outdoor meetings where fiery preachers would address their thoughts to God.

This attitude was at odds with their Calvinist co-religionists of New England. John Winthrop had reminded the people he led to Massachusetts that the eyes of the world were upon them; they were thus like a City upon a Hill, and their lives in the New World were strictly regulated. Similarly, William Penn had aimed to promote brotherly love and welcomed all who accepted God to his colony. These earlier immigrants lived law-abiding, orderly lives with religion as its core. But even though many of the newcomers from round the Irish Sea had fought fiercely for their religion and suffered persecution in its name, their motive in coming to America was not to build a religious society. They were economic migrants, anxious to find and defend land where they could settle and feed their families.

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