Another wave of mass emigration came in 1792, known as the "Year of the Sheep" to Scottish Highlanders. The people were accommodated in poor crofts or small farms in coastal areas where farming could not sustain the communities and they were expected to take up fishing. In the village of
Badbea in
Caithness the conditions were so harsh that, while the women worked, they had to tether their livestock and even their children to rocks or posts to prevent them being blown over the cliffs.[SUP]
[3][/SUP] Others were put directly onto emigration ships to
Nova Scotia (
Antigonish and
Pictou counties and later
Cape Breton), the
Glengarry and
Kingston areas of
Ontario and the
Carolinas of the American colonies. There may have been a religious element in these forced removals since many Highlanders were
Roman Catholic. This is reflected by the majority representation of Catholics in areas and towns of Nova Scotia such as Antigonish and Cape Breton. However almost all of the very large movement of Highland settlers to the
Cape Fear region of
North Carolina were
Presbyterian. (This is evidenced even today in the presence and extent of Presbyterian congregations and adherents in the region.)[SUP][
citation needed][/SUP]