The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1896-06-13
SOUTHERN "CRACKERS." +"
The Poor Whites Descend nom
the EARLY Oolonists.
Ola Lines Wiped Out by the Civil War
A Most Important Labor Ele.
ment OK tho industries
Of the South.

A Most Important Labor Ele.
ment OF tho Industries
Of the South.
The notion that the poor white ele-
naent 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 to
call for correction. The poor white OF
the south has some kinfolk III the
Adirondack region of New York and
the Blue and Allegheny mountains of
Pennsylvania; but he has few rela-
tives any place else about the Mason
Dixon line. The states of New York
and Pennsylvania were slave states un-
til the early part of this century.
This poor white mountaineer de-
scends direct from those immigrants
who came over in the early days of the
colonies, from 1920 to about, OF some
time after, the revolutionary war Pc
riod. as ''sold passengers" They sold
their services for time sufficient to
enable them to work out their passage
money. They were sold, articlcd to
masters, in the colonies, for their bread
and fixed wages, and thus they earned
she cost of their migration.
The laws under which they were ar
ticled were severe, as severe as appren-
ice laws in those days. The ''soid pas
-;cnger" virtually became the slave o.
he purchaser of his labor. He could
ne whipped, if he did not do the task
set him, and woe to the unlucky wight
# he ran away. He was sure to be
caught and cruelty punished.
And though he was usually a de-
-;cendant Of the lowest grade of human
ty on the British islands, he still had
.nough of the Anglo-Saxon spirit about
him to make him an unsatisfactory
rhattel.
From 1920 forward-the year when
the Dutch landed the first cargo of
african slaves on the continent, the
sold passenger" was fast replaced by
negroes, who took more naturally and
:lniably to the slave life.
The poor white naturally came to
that were preferred over him. He al
ready hated his domineering white
master. When he was free to go he
lut as many miles as his means and
:lis safety from Indian muEderers per-
mitted between 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. Scottish, Irish and con-
tinental immigrants who had some
means sat down on the rich valleys.
river bottoms and rolling savannahs.
and the poor white was made welcome
to the foot hills and mountain plateaux.
These descendants of the British vii
lein of the feudal era grew and multi
nlied, became almost as distinct peo-
,le from the lords OF the lowlands as
he Scotch highlander was as related
10 his lowland. neighbor in the six
seenth and seventeenth centuries.
The stir of the period since the close
If our civil war has made somewhat in
distinct the line that separates TIL,
rnountaineer from the plainsman of tn.
;outh. especially in the foot hills and
at points where the two have inter
mingled in traffic, in the schoolhouse
and church, and especially where the
poor whites have been employed at
mining, iron making. etc.: but go ints,
the mountain far enough and you find
the type Us clearcut rs it was 100 years
ago, with it's inimitable drawlinc
speech and curious dialect; its sallow
complexion, lanky frame, lazy habits.
and immorality-ail rs distinctly
marked as they were when hundreds
If these people found Cherokee wives
IN Georgia and Tennessee, in the early
part of the country and bleached most
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 dig
tinctive section of our population and
made record of it in the interest of
no less than in the interest of
the proper education and elevation OF
the mountain people,. It has become es-
oecially in the Piedmont section of the
south, most important labor element.
The cotton mill labor by thousands
comes from the Cracker of the hills"
and it is destined to become great
power, that labor population, social and
political.
The redemption Of the poor white be-
gan when slavery went down in blood
and destruction, and it has gone on
faster and travelled further than some
Of us think.--Chattanoog Times.