The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1896-06-11
THE POOR WHITES WHITES.
ORIGIN OF A DISTINCT CLASS LIVING
IN THE SOUTH.

ORIGIN OF A DISTINCT CLASS LIVING
< IN THE SOUTH.
The sCrsckef Of the Hillsr II the Direct
Descendant Of the ''sold Passenger 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 to
call for correction. The poor white Of
the south has some kinfolk in the Ad-
irondack region Of New York and the
Blue and Allegheny mountains Of Penn
.gylvania, but he has few relatives any
place else about the Mason Dixon line.
The states Of New York and Pennsylva-
mia were slave states until the early
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 time sufficient to enable them to
work out their passage money. They
were sold, articled to masters, in the
colonies for 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 be
whipped if he did not do the task set
him, and woe to the unlucky wight if
he ran away. He was sure to be caught
and cruelty punished.
And though he was usually a 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 on the continent-the "sold
passenger" was fast replaced by negroes,
who took more naturally and amiably
o.the slave life.
The poor white naturally came to
cherish bitter hatred for the blacks
that were preferred over him. He al
ready hated his domineering white mas
ter. When ne was free to go, 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 and 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 q peo
pie from the lords of the lowlands a.
the Scotch highlander was, as related tt
his lowland neighbor, in the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries.
The stir Of the period since the clost
Of our civil war has made somewhat in
distinct the line that separates th'
mountaineer from the plainsman Of tn
south. especially in the foothills and a
points where the two have interminglet
in traffic, in the schoolhouse and church
and especially where the poor white
have been employed at mining, irol
making, etc. But 60 into the mountain
far enough and you find the types a
clear cut as it was 100 years ago, will
it's inimitable drawling speech and Gu
rious dialect, its sallow complexion
lanky frame, lazy habits and immoral
ity-all as distinctly marked as the.
were when hundreds Of these peopl
found Cherokee wives in Georgia ant
Tennessee in the early part Of the cen
tury and bleached most Of the cope
out of the skin Of the Choctaw as vel
as out Of the Cherokee.
It is pity that some competent an
thropological historian has not trace
the annals Of this interesting and dis
tinctive section Of our population AM
made record Of it in the interest of sci
ence, no less than in the interest Of tn
proper education and elevation Of tn
mountain people 1t has become, espe
cially in the Piedmont section Of tn
south, most important labor element
The cotton mill labor by Thousand
comes from the Cracker Of the Hills.
and it is destined to become grea
power, that labor population. social an
political.
The redemption Of the poor white be
gan when slavery went down in bloc
and destruction, and it has gone on fast
er and travelled farther than some of u
think. k.-Chattanooga Times
Early Mention of Tobacco.
The first account in which the tobak
~ plaut WAS minutalv Described wa