Antedating of "White Trash"

[Charles Doyle]

And just what, I wonder, it that bit of "dialect" inside the quotation marks supposed to represent?  The defendant's words?  The accuser's (of what ethnicity)?

--Charlie
___________________________________________________

---- Original message ----
>Date: Tue, 7 Nov 2006 07:56:55 -0800
>From: Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
>Subject: Re: Antedating of "White Trash"
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
>Rather late for  a witchcraft trial (though there was a resurgence in the 1980's) as well as the single-g spelling {niger}.
>
>  JL

>
>Fred Shapiro <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU> wrote:
>
>white trash (OED 1831)
>
>1822 _Bangor Register_ 1 Aug. 1/4 (19th Century U.S. Newspapers) _Georgetown, D C May 4. A very novel and whimsical trial_ came on in our Circuit Court on Thursday last, Nancy Swann, a lady of color whose mighty powers of witchcraft have made "_de black nigers, and de poor white trash_" tremble, was indicted for practising in and upon one Peter Belt.
>
>Fred Shapiro

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org