Antedating of "White Trash"

[Wilson Gray]

FWIW, the "'correct" form of this term as I heard it used among
East-Texas blacks is as it appears in Fred's citation, to wit, _*poor*
white trash_, and not simply as "white trash." The term was not used
in Saint Louis, to any particular extent, there not being any po'
whites, in the Southern sense, around, that blacks found it necessary
to interact with.

-Wilson

On 11/7/06, Charles Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Antedating of "White Trash"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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
>


--
Everybody says, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange
complaint to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
Whoever has lived long enough to find out what life is knows how deep
a debt of gratitude we owe to Adam, the first great benefactor of our
race. He brought death into the world.

--Sam Clemens

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