Wales, the Welsh and the Making of America
Read a review of Vivienne Sanders’ Wales, the Welsh and the Making of America published by University of Wales Press.
University of Wales Press, 2021
288 pp, paperback
ISBN: 978-1-78683-790-5
Wales, the Welsh and the Making of America
Covering the history of the outsized contributions of the Welsh to the establishment and growth of America, author Vivienne Sanders starts at the beginning – with the first arrival of the Welsh to America – claimed by some to predate Christopher Columbus by almost 325 years.
There is evidence, albeit, shall we say, less than fully confirmed, that Welshman Prince Madoc came to America in the year 1170, landed in present-day Alabama, and started the Madoc Indian tribe – who, of course, spoke Welsh.
Some believers in this Madoc Indian theory included President Thomas Jefferson, who instructed the famous explorers Lewis and Clark to find the Madoc Indians, and a number of Indians themselves, including the Zuni Indians of Arizona and the chief of the Cherokee, Oconostota, who both claimed Welsh ancestry.
From there, the book moves on to sections on how critical the Welsh were in the colonization of North America, the American Revolutionary War, the Civil War, the spread of America to western lands, and the industrialization of America.
Sanders also discusses some of the most influential Welshmen in American history, including five of the first six presidents (plus other, later presidents), William Penn, the aforementioned Meriwether Lewis of Lewis and Clark fame, Benjamin Franklin, Frank Lloyd Wright, and the under-appreciated Richard Price among others.
Ivy League schools Yale, Brown, and Princeton were all started or greatly advanced by Welshmen, often in the name of Christianity. Those that know what is the current state of Yale is will find it is hard to fathom Yale having Christian roots, yet that is the history.
It should be noted that Sanders is not an apologist for the Welsh. Some low lights are covered, too. Many ethnic groups tend to overestimate their contribution to America’s founding, but since there were so many Welsh to come early in the country’s history, that is probably not the case here.
Almost as interesting as the stories of famous Welsh and their contributions to America are the short sidebars which are often quite interesting. Some examples of these include:
President James Garfield, whose Welsh ancestors included a knight at Caerphilly Castle, died more from the incompetence of his doctors, one of whose given name was “Doctor,” than from his official cause of death which was a gunshot wound to the stomach.
William Penn, after whom the state of Pennsylvania is named, didn’t want a state named after him – he wanted it named New Wales – but agreed to the name Pennsylvania since the word “penn” means “high” or “chief” and the word “sylvania” means “woods” in Welsh.
The mean net worth of Welsh immigrants in Jefferson County, Ohio, in 1870, was more than five times the average American, seven times the average German immigrant, and 26 times the average Irish immigrant.
Before her list of conclusions, Sanders discusses the reasons why the Welsh influence in America has greatly decreased. Basically, it is because of their assimilation into the rest of America.
Overall, readers who are Welsh or have Welsh roots should enjoy this work. They might even enjoy that, unsurprisingly, the English come in for a bit of a kicking every so often. That certainly isn’t unforeseeable when you consider that many of the early Welsh came to America because of their ill-treatment by the English.
Marshall Hughes
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