The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1896-07-08
The Origin Of the Poor Whites Of the
Southern Mountain Regions.

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 to
call for correction. The poor white of
the South has some kinfolks in the
Adirondack region Of New York and
the Blue and Allegheny mountains Of
Pennsylvania; but he has few rela
tives any place else above the Mason
and Dixon line. The States Of New
York and Pennsylvania we're slave
States until the early part of this cen
tnry.
This poor white mountaineer de-
sends direct from those emigrants
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 a time sufficient
to enable them to work out their pass
age money. They were sold, articled
to masters in the colonies for their
board and fixed wages, and thus they
earned the cost of their immigration
The laws under which they articled
we're severe, as severe as apprentice
laws in these days. The "sold pass
engers" virtually became the slave Of
the purchaser Of his labor. He could
be whipped if he did not do the task
set him, and woe to the unlucky wigh,
if he ran away. He was sure to b.
caught and cruelty punished. And
though he was usually a descendant 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
African slaves On 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 a bitter hatred for the blacks
that were preferred over him. he al
ready hated his donineering white
master. When he WAS free to go he
put as many miles as his means and
his safety from Indian murderers per
mitted between himself and those he
hated and hoped he might never see
again. In that early time the noun
tain region was not even surveyed, let
alone owned by individual proprietors.
The English, Scottish, Irish and
continental immigrant who had some
means sat down in the rich valleys,
river bottoms and rolling %savannahs,
and the poor white was made welcome
to the foothills and mountain pla-
teaux. These descendants Of the
British of the feudal era grew and
multiplated, became almost as dis
tinct a people as the Scotch highlander
was, as related to his lowland neigh
Dor, in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries.
The stir of the period since the close
of our civil war has made somewhat
indistinct the line hat separates the
mountaineer from the plainsman Of
the South, especially in the foothills
and at points where the two have in
termingled in traffic, in the school
house and Church, and especially
where the poor whites have been en-
ployed at mining, iron-making, etc.,
but go into the mountains far enough
and you will find the type as it was 100
years ago, with its inimitable drawing
speech and curious dialect; its sallow
complexion, lanky frame, lazy habits
and immorality-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 century, and bleached
most of the copper out of the skin Of
the Choctaw, as we'll as out Of the
Cherokee.
1t is a pity that some competent
unthropological historian has not
traced the annals of this interesting and
distinctive section of our population
and made record of it in the interest
of science, no less than in heinterest of
the proper education and elevation OF
the mountain people. 1t has become,
especially in the Piedmont section of
the South, a most important labor ele-
ment. The cotton mill labor by thou
sands comes from the "cracker of the
hills" and it is destined to become a
great power, that labor population,
social and political.
The redemption of the poor white
began when slavery went down in
blood and destruction, and it has gone
on faster and travelled further than
some of US think Chattanooga
Times.