In the

Colony of Virginia The Colony of Virginia was a British Empire, British colonial settlement in North America from 1606 to 1776. The first effort to create an English settlement in the area was chartered in 1584 and established in 1585; the resulting Roanoke Colo ...

, Anglican planters of eastern Virginia were called Tuckahoes, to differentiate them from Cohees—German, Irish and Scotch-Irish immigrants that settled in the

Shenandoah Valley The Shenandoah Valley () is a geographic valley and cultural region of western Virginia and the eastern panhandle of West Virginia in the United States. The Valley is bounded to the east by the Blue Ridge Mountains, to the west by the east ...

, west of the

Blue Ridge Mountains The Blue Ridge Mountains are a Physiographic regions of the United States, physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Highlands range. The mountain range is located in the Eastern United States and extends 550 miles southwest from southern ...

in what is now Western

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

and

West Virginia West Virginia is a mountainous U.S. state, state in the Southern United States, Southern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.The United States Census Bureau, Census Bureau and the Association of American ...

. The Cohees were the first Europeans to settle in what are now

Amherst County Amherst County is a county, located in the Piedmont region and near the center of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. The county is part of the Lynchburg Metropolitan Statistical Area, and its county seat is also named Amhers ...

and

Nelson County, Virginia Nelson County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 14,775. Its county seat is Lovingston. Nelson County is part of the Charlottesville, VA, Metropolitan Statist ...

. Tuckahoes were considered to be "of the Lowland old Virginians". A particular Tuckahoe culture was created when

Algonquin Algonquin or Algonquian—and the variation Algonki(a)n—may refer to: Languages and peoples *Algonquian languages, a large subfamily of Native American languages in a wide swath of eastern North America from Canada to Virginia **Algonquin la ...

-speaking Native Americans, English, other Europeans, and West Africans in the

brought customs and traditions from each of their home countries and the "loosely-knit customs began to crystallize into what later became known as Tuckahoe culture". It began to develop in

James River plantations James River plantations were established in the Virginia Colony along the James River between the mouth at Hampton Roads and the head of navigation at the Fall Line where Richmond is today. History The colony struggled for five years after i ...

and spread throughout the

Tidewater Tidewater may refer to: * Tidewater (region), a geographic area of southeast Virginia, southern Maryland, and northeast North Carolina. ** Tidewater accent, an accent of American English associated with the Tidewater region of Virginia * Tidewater ...

and then other areas of Virginia. Cohee was a name that Irish, Scotch-Irish and German immigrants to the colonial-era

Southern United States The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, Dixieland, or simply the South) is List of regions of the United States, census regions defined by the United States Cens ...

gave themselves. The word comes from the Scots and

Ulster Scots Ulster Scots, may refer to: * Ulster Scots people * Ulster Scots dialect Ulster Scots or Ulster-Scots (), also known as Ulster Scotch and Ullans, is the dialect (whose proponents assert is a dialect of Scots language, Scots) spoken in parts ...

phrase "quo he", which corresponds to "quoth he" in standard English. It has come to mean "a backwoods settler of Scots or northern Irish origin". The term Cohee also applied to German, Scottish, or Irish people in Pennsylvania. The creation of West Virginia marked the end of the "Cohee-Tuckahoe binary", with many Cohees migrating west.

Notes

References

{{Reflist American regional nicknames Pre-statehood history of Virginia History of the Southern United States Virginia society Culture of the United States Pre-statehood history of West Virginia Scotch-Irish American culture in Virginia Scotch-Irish American culture in West Virginia Scotch-Irish American history West Virginia society

See also

Notes

References