Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-05-22
POOR WHITES OF THE SOUTH.
Origin of the Distinct Class Living in
the Mountain Regions.
looga CTenn.D Times.


The notion that the poor white element
of the southern Appalachian region is
identical with the POOR people generally
over the country is an error. and all error
of enough Importance to call for correction.
The poor white of the south has some kim
folk in the Adirondack region of New
York and the Blue and Allegheny noun
tains OF Pennsylvania: but he has few rela-
uves any place else about the Mason
Dixon line The states of New York and
Pennsylvania were slave states until the
early pert of this century.
This poor white mountaineer tlescends GI-
rect from those immigrants who came over
in the early days Of the colonies, from 1920
TO about, or some time after. the revolu-
uonary war period, as sold passengers"
They sold their services for u time sufficient
to enable them TO work out their passage
money. They were sold, arti,,led to mas
tiers, in tine colonies, for their board and
fixed age, and thus they earned the cost
Of their migration
The laws under which they were articled
We're severe, as severe as apprentice laws
in those days. The '"sold passenger" viz
tually became the slave of the purchaser OF
his labor. He could be whipped il he did
rot do the task set him, and woe to the
unlucky wight IL he ran AWAY He uss
sure TO be 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 bfr,
an unsatisfactory chattel
From 1920 forward-the year when the
Dutch landed the first cargo of African
slaves on the continent-the sold passen-
ger was first replaced by negroes who
took more naturally and amiabIy to the
slave life. ~ e
The poor white naturally came TO cherish
bitter hatred for the blacks that u,era
preferred over him. He already hated bis
dom1neering white master. When he vas
Tree TO go he put as many miles as his
means ana his safety from Indian murder
700
ne mated 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 oo,n
mental Immigrant who had some means
sat down on the rich valleys river hot
Guns, ana rolling savannahs. and the poor
white was made welcome to the foot hills
and mountain plateaux '
These descendants Of the British yiIIein
OF the 1eudal era grew and multiplied no
came almost as distinct people from the
lords Of the lowlands as the Scotch High
lander was, as related to his T,owIand
neighbor. in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries. A
The stir of the period since tbe c,oea .,
our civil war has made somewhat inffs-
unct the line that separates the nloun,aiu
eer from the plainsman OF the south, espn-
claily In the foot hills and at poiu:s u,hrra
the two have intermingled i'm trafHc IN tbo
school house and church. ami especiaIIv
where the poor whites have been en-
tios W at hiiiliHS IRON making. etc. but
into the mountains far enough and Won
ma the type as clearcut az it was 100
years ago, with Its inmitable drawing
speech. and curious dialect: its sallow com
plexion. lanky frame. lazy habits and inn
morality-all as distinctly marked as they
were when hundreds of these Deople found
Cherokee wives in Georgil and Tennessee,
IN the early part of the century and
bleached most of the copper out 81 the
skin or the Choctaw, as well as out of
the Cherokee.
1t is pity that some competent an
thropological historian has not traced the
annals of this interesting and Distinctive
section of our population and made record
or II in the interest of science, 10 less than
in the interest of the proper education end
elevation of the mountain people. IL has
become, especially in the Piedmont section
of the south, most important labor ele-
ment. The cotton mill labor by thousands
comes from the cracker of The hills" and
II Is destined TO become a great power that
labor population, social and political
The redemption of the poor white be-
gan when slavery went down I'm blood and
destruction, and 1t has gone on faster and
travelled further than some of us think