Even when the name is being used in a positive context, some notions about exactly who is Cracker are just plain wrong, says Ste. Claire, who is writing a book on the subject. Crackers are not simply native Floridians. For example, Ste. Claire was born in Ocala and spent all of his 40 years in the state, but he doesn t consider himself a Cracker.
Crackers live in rural areas.
Historically, they have been self-sufficient, growing their own vegetables, hunting or raising their own meat and building their own houses. A real Cracker house most likely would have been a small log cabin. Often, the houses looked like two cabins, connected by a roofed-over porch called a dog trot. Sometimes, the houses were built like a small dormitory one hallway with rooms branching off from it. That style was called a shotgun house, because it would be possible to shoot through the front door and have the shot pass out the back without hitting the wall of a room.