cracker

[Beverly Flanigan]

I'm forwarding a comment on "cracker," as in Southern cracker, from a
student whose father is a self-proclaimed Florida cracker.  We may have
discussed this before, and I don't have DARE handy, but is there anything
to Bob Vila's etymology for the term?

>...
>Speaking of my dad, he always told me he was a "piney woods Florida
>cracker," but
>he couldn't tell me why the word "cracker" came to be.  I heard the story
>the other
>day, from Bob Vila, of all people.  He was in Florida working on a house
>called a
>"cracker cottage" and said that the name "cracker" came from the fact that
>many
>poor whites who moved to Florida were cattle drivers (ranching in
>Florida?) and
>were called "crackers" because of the sound their whips made when they
>were coming
>along the road.  Interesting, huh?
>...






_____________________________________________
Beverly Olson Flanigan         Department of Linguistics
Ohio University                     Athens, OH  45701
Ph.: (740) 593-4568              Fax: (740) 593-2967
http://www.cats.ohiou.edu/linguistics/dept/flanigan.htm