Georgia Cracker refers to the original American pioneer settlers of the Province of Georgia (later, the State of Georgia), and their descendants. In the late 1800's and the early part of the 1900s, Georgia ranchers came to be know as Georgia Crackers by Floridians when they drove their cattle down into the grassy flatlands of Central Florida to graze in the winter, stopping at where the citrus groves began. Instead of firing into the air as many "cowboy films" showed to get the cattle's attention they became very good at cracking a bullwhip over their heads.
The term "cracker" was in use during Elizabethan times to describe braggarts. The original root of this is the Middle English word crack1 meaning "entertaining conversation" (One may be said to "crack" a joke); this term and the alternate spelling "craic" are still in use in Ireland and Scotland. It is documented in Shakespeare's King John (1595): "What cracker is this... that deafes our eares / With this abundance of superfluous breath?"
By the 1760s the English, both at home and in the American colonies, applied the term “Cracker” to Scotch-Irish settlers of the remote southern back country, as noted in a passage from a letter to the Earl of Dartmouth: "I should explain to your Lordship what is meant by Crackers; a name they have got from being great boasters; they are a lawless set of rascalls on the frontiers of Virginia, Maryland, the Carolinas, and Georgia, who often change their places of abode." The word was later associated with the cowboys of Georgia and Florida, many of them descendants of those early frontiersmen.[1]
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Usage
The term is used as a proud or jocular self-description. Since the huge influx of new residents into Georgia from the northern parts of the United States in the late 20th century, "Georgia cracker" has become used informally by some white residents of Georgia to indicate that their family has lived there for many generations. The term is also occasionally used as a pejorative to refer to whites; see Cracker (pejorative).
The “Cracker Party” was a Democratic Party political machine that dominated city politics in Augusta, Georgia for over half of the 20th century.[2][3][4][5]
Notable Georgia Crackers
- Bill Arp, Georgia’s foremost 19th-century humorist[6]
- Roy Vincent Harris, “Cracker Party” boss[7]
- Doyle Lawson, Musician known for his mandolin piece "Georgia Cracker"[8]
See also
- Atlanta Black Crackers, a Negro League professional baseball team (1919-1952)
- Atlanta Crackers minor league teams (1901-1965)
- Florida cracker
- Georgia (U.S. state)
References
- ^ http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?path=/Folklife/CustomsandLocalTraditions&id=h-552
- ^ http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/110799/opi_124-1871.shtml
- ^ http://www.augusta.com/leaders/slideshow_local/slide14.html
- ^ http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-955
- ^ http://www.augusta.com/leaders/slideshow_local/slide10.html
- ^ http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~cescott/billarp.html
- ^ http://www.augusta.com/leaders/slideshow_local/slide10.html
- ^ http://www.ibiblio.org/fiddlers/GEO_GH.htm
External links
Further reading
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