Early in the nineteenth century Highlanders had settled many rural areas of eastern Nova Scotia and later, when they formed the vast majority of the coal industry's work force, they transferred their Scottish music and traditions to the mining communities. Pipe bands were common in most towns where they presented a constant round of concerts, often in competition. The clan structure which had such importance in Scotland continued to have social significance in Nova Scotia; in this photograph six of the bandsmen bear the name McIntyre and the other two are Jamiesons. Other musical instruments, especially the fiddle, were also popular and traditional music and folklore flourished, albeit somewhat adapted as a result of contact with a wider variety of cultural heritages in the mining towns.
The strength of such traditions must not be under-estimated for when they combined with the people's religious heritage an ethnic solidarity emerged which helped define the system of allegiances that structured the miners' lives on a daily basis. Ethnicity and religion often conditioned the miners' relationship to the complex world of the mining town and the state. Pride in the Scottish heritage continues to be an important force in Nova Scotia. Similarly, other cultural and ethnic agencies served to maintain the identity of such groups as the Acadians, the Irish, and various European communities.
