[Ads-l] Slight Antedating of "Poor White Trash"

[Bonnie Taylor-Blake]

A very minor note, one really not much worth sharing.

As Fred's find (
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-portland-gazette-poor-white-trash/148335934/)
indicates, the anecdote -- with its "poor white trash" -- had originally
appeared in a The Metropolitan, a D.C. newspaper.

Just to flesh things out, here's the publication info for the original
article.

-- Bonnie

A very novel and highly laughable 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?], in the peace of
God and the said United States ...

(Text within asterisks is italicized.)

[The Metropolitan and Georgetown [D.C.] National Messenger, 4 May 1822, p.
2. Via America's Historical Newspapers database.]

On Wed, Dec 27, 2023 at 6:59 PM Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:

poor white trash (OED 1822 [1 Aug.] )
>
> 1822 _Portland Gazette_ 2 July 1
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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