The Man

[Tom Kysilko]

Any truth to the following etymological assertion?

[from another listserve]
>These [post civil war southern Democrats] would be the guys who
>owned most of the land that the landless farmers would work as tenants,
>becoming slightly more indebted each year to the "Provisioning Man". This is
>the guy who ran the store where they got all their stuff, bought on credit
>against their crop yields. Curiously most years those crop yields wouldn't
>be enough to wipe out the debt and "The Man" (yes, that's where the phrase
>comes from) would come around looking for payment.
[and in a later post by the same writer]
>Oh yeah, I forgot to say that most of my Populist info/analysis is based on
>reading the peerless "The Populist Moment" by Lawrence Godwyn

I note that Lighter's earliest citations for "The Man" are from 1918 and
refer to a naval officer and a prison warden.

  Tom Kysilko        Practical Data Services
  pds at visi.com       Saint Paul MN USA