red-headed stepchild

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>I can find a 1910 cite in Newspaperarchive that uses this metaphor about
>the South.
>
>Is there anything earlier? I can understand that a stepchild might be
>treated poorly, but why the red-headed?  Were red heads thought less of in
>history?

I don't know of anything earlier.

Why "red-headed"? My speculation is that this intensifier reflects a
traditional superstitious aversion to redheads. Often a redheaded or
cross-eyed or left-handed person was regarded as being a jinx ... along the
lines of a black cat.

Here are a couple of examples from N'archive:

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_Steubenville Herald_, Steubenville OH, 30 Nov. 1896: p. 3(?):

<<It is strange, and yet true, that nearly all great athletes have their
superstitions. .... / The bane of Charley Mitchell's life is either a cross
eyed or a redheaded woman. He will walk a mile to avoid either. ....>>

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_Lincoln Star_, Lincoln NE, 13 April 1934: p. 1:

<<JINX DAY. / CHICAGO, April 13 -- (AP) -- This being Friday, the 13th,
members of the Anti-Supersitition [sic] society of Chicago proposed to: Run
for blocks just to let black cats cross their paths' [sic] spill salt,
smash mirrors, raise umbrellas indoors and search diligently for cross-eyed
red-headed girls. ....>>

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And consider this variant:

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_Reno Evening Gazette_, Reno NV, 28 April 1943: p. 2:

<<The war shipping administrator urged as a post-war slogan, "travel and
ship American," and said that never again must "we allow our merchant
marine to become the nation's cross-eyed stepchild.">>

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-- Doug Wilson