The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1896-06-04
SOUTHERN CRACKERS"
Tie Poor Whites Descend from
the Early ColoniSta
Old Lines Wiped Out by the Civil War
A Most Important Labor Ele-
ment of the Industries
of tho South.


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 hnfolk IN 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, or some
time after, the revolutionary war Pc
Rod, as sold passengers" They sold
their services for a time sufficient TO
enable them to work out their passage
money. They were sold, articled &c
masters, in the colonies, for their bread
and fixed wages, 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 tasl
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 q de-
scendant of the lowest grade of human
ity 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 q bitter hatred for the blacks
that were preferred over him. He al
ready hated his domineering white
master. When he was free TO go he
put as many miles as his means and
his safety from Indian murderers per
united 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
sat down on the rich valleys,
river bottoms and rolling savannahs,
and the poor white was made welcome
TO the foot hillsand mountain plateaux
These descendants of the British vii.
lein of the feudal era grew and multi
piled. became almost as distinct peo
pie from the lords of the lowlands as
the Scotch highlander was as related |
TO his lowland neighbor in the six
tenth 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 |
from'the plainsman of the |
south, especially in the foot hills and /
az points where the two have inter- |
in traffic, in the schoolhouse !
and church, and especially where the |
poor whites have been employed at |
mining, iron making. etc; but go into |
Ihe mountain far enough and you find i
the type as clearcut.as it was 100 years |
ago, with it's immitable drawing |
speech and curious dialect; its salIo5y
lanky frame, lazy habits, |
and immorality-all as distinctly |
marked as they were when hundreds /
If these people found Cherokee wives
n Georgia and Tennessee, in the early
part of the country and bleached most
Of the copper out of the skin of tho
Choctaw, as well as out Of the Cherokee.
1t is a pity'that some competent an
historian has not traced
The annals of this interesting and dis
inctive section of our population and
made record of il in the interest OF
science, no less than in the interest of
he proper education and elevation OF
he mountain people. 1t has become es-
)ecially in the Piedmont section of the
outh, most important labor element.
The cotton mill labor BY thousands
ONES from the Cracker of the hills"
ind it is destined to become great
'ower, that labor population, social and
political.
The redemption OF the poor white be-
ran when slavery went down in blood
md destruction, and it has gone on
aster and travelled further than some
II US think.-Chattanooge Times