The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1896-06-22
THE POOR WHITES.
ORIGIN OF A DISTINCT GLASS LIVING
IN THE SOUTH.

The 'CrAcIssr Of the HIIIsS Il the Direct
Descendant OF the asOld Passengers who
Came to This Country In the Seventeenth
Century.
The notion that the poor white ele-
ment of the southern Appalachian re-
gion is identical with the poor people
generally over the country is an error,
and an error of enough importance 20
call for correction. The poor white cf
the south has some kinfolk in the Ad-
irondack region Of New York and the
Blue and Allegheny mountains of Penn
sylvania, but he has few relatives any
place elsO about the Mason-Dixon line.
The states Of New York and Pennsylva-
part Of this century.
This poor white mountaineer descends
direct from those immigrants who came
over in the early days Of the colonies,
from 1920 TO about or some time after
the Revolutionary war period, as "sold
passengers They sold their services
for tilno sufficient to enable them to
were sold, articled to masters, in the
colonies fer their board and fixed wage,
and thus they earned the cost Of their
migration.
The laws under which they were ar
ticled were severe, as severe as appren-
tice laws in those days. The "sold pas.
senger" virtually became the slave Of
the purchaser of his labor. He could he
whipped if he did not do the task set
him. and woe to the unlucky wight il
he ran away. He was sure to be caught
and cruelty punished
And though he was usually descend
ant of the lowest grade of humanity ON
the British islands. he still had enough
Of the Anglo-Saxon spirit about him TO
make him an unsatisfactory chatteL
From 1920 forward-the year when
the Dutch landed the first cargo of Afri-
can slaves OH the continent-the ''sold
passenger" was fast replaced by negroes,
who took more naturally and amiably
TO the slave life.
The poor white naturally came to
cherish bitter hatred for the blacks
that were I referred over him. He al
ready hated his doInineering white mas
ter. When he was free TO 20, he put as
many miles as his means and his safety
from Indian murderers permitted be-
tween himself and those he hated and
hoped he might never see again. In
that early time the mountain region
was not even surveyed, let alone owned
by individual proprietors
The English, Scotch, Irish and con-
tinental immigrant who had some means
sat down ON the rich valleys, river bot
toms aud rolling savannahs, and the
poor white was made welcome to the
foothills and mountain plateaus-
These descendants Of the British vii
lein of the feudal era grew and multi
piled. became almost as distinct peo-
pie from tie lords of the lowlands as
the Scotch Highlander was, as.related to
his lowland neighbor. in the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries.
The stir Of the period since the close
of our civil war has made somewhat in
distinct the line that separates the
mOuntaineer from the plainsman Of the
south. especially in the foothills and at
points where the two have intermingled
in traffic, in the schOolhouse and church,
and especially where the poor whites
have been employed at mining, iron
making, etc. But go into the mountains
far enough and you find the types as
clear cut as it was 100 years ago, with
its inimitable drawling speech and Gu
rious dialect, It's sallow complexion.
ihnky frame, lazy habits and immoral
ity-all as distinctly marked as they
were when hundreds Of these people
found Cherokee wives in Georgia and
Tennessee IN the early part of the CEN
tury and bleGched mcst of the copper
out Of the skin Of the Choctaw as well
as out of the Cherokee.
1t is a pity that some competent an.
thropological historian has not traced
the annals Of this interesting and dis
tinctive section Of our population and
made record of it in the interest of sci
| ence, no less than in the interest Of the
proper education and elevation Of the
mountain people 1t has become. espe-
cially in the Piedmont section Of the
south. u most important labor element
/ The cotton mill labor by thousands
comes from the Cracker of the Hills. ="
and it is destined to become a great
power. that labor population, social and
political
4 The redemption Of the poor white be
gan when slavery went down In blood
and destruction, and it has gone ON fast
er and travelled farther than some OF uE
think. Chattanooga TimeA
Early Mention Of Tobacco.