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

[Bonnie Taylor-Blake]

Thanks, John.

I seem to have a thing for “hill billies,” “tar heels,” “rednecks,” and the
like and managed to stumble on the same “white trash” a few years ago.

https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2014-March/131552.html.

Of course, still earlier uses of “[poor] white trash” no doubt lie ahead of
us, so we forge on.

— Bonnie

On Thu, May 30, 2024 at 8:57 PM Baker, John <
000014a9c79c3f97-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

Here is slightly earlier for “white trash” without “poor.”  This is from
> the (Shawnee-town) Illinois Gazette, June 23, 1821, at 1 (Gale Primary
> Sources: Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers):
>
> “[A]ccompanied by her son, who stopped almost opposite where I stood, to
> talk with a white boy nearly her own size. She, the mother, on missing him,
> turned round, and observing how ill he was was [sic] paired, like a fury
> vociferated, with a curse upon her son, _’why do you lag behind? Come
> along, and do not stand there spending your precious time, in company too,
> and conversing with White Trash._
>
> On hearing the phrase _white trash_, as it was altogether new to me when
> taken in her sense, I seemed as if bitten by a tarantula or stung by a
> gallinipper. . . . I was in a short time all serenity again, and believe
> now, that this lady of colour had as good a right and it was as natural for
> her to say _White Trash_ as it would be for myself or any other of my
> colour to say _Black Trash._”
>
>
> John Baker
>
>
> On May 29, 2024, at 6:55 PM, Bonnie Taylor-Blake <b.taylorblake at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> 
> External Email - Think Before You Click
>
>
>
> 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/
> )<
> 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
>

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