The Republican., 1896-06-11
POOR WHITES OF THE SOUTH.
origin of the Distinct Glass Living in the
Mountain Regions

origin of the Distinct Glass Living in the
Mountain Regions.
The notion that the poor white eIe-
ment of the Southern Appalachian re-
glon is identical with the poor people
generally over the country is an error,
..hnd an error of enough Importance to
Gall for correction. The poor white of
The south has some kinfollt in the
adirondack region of New York and
fthe Blue and Allegheny mountains of
! pennsylvania; but he has few rela-
Rtives any place else about the Mason
kDiXon line. The states of New York
and Pennsylvania were slave states un-
/ til the early part of this century.
h This poor white mountaineer de-
tscends 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 a time sufficient to
enable them to work out their passage
money They were sold, articled to
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 We're severe, as severe as appren-
! tice laws in those days. The sold pas
ssenger" virtually became the slave OF
the purchaser of his labor. He could
be whipped, if he did not do the task
set hiTG, and woe to the unlucky wight
f:gn away. He was sure to be
RIGHT and cruelty punished.
y / And though he was usually a de-
pscendant 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
:miably to the slave life.
The poor white naturally came to
cherish bitter hatred for the blacks
! that We're 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
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
piled, became almost as distinct Il peo-
pie from the lords of the lowlands as
the Scotch highlander was as related
! to his lowland neighbor in the six
teenth 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
mountaineer from the plainsman of the
south, 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
INnining, iron making etc; but go into
! the mountain far enough and you find
the type as clearcut as it was 100 years
ago, with its inimitable drawing
speech and curious dialect; it's 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 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 dis
tinctive section of our population and
made record of it in the interest of
science, no less than in the interest of
the proper education and elevation of
the mountain people. 1t has become es-
pecially 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 a 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.-Chattanoo Times.
She Managed Well.
Apropos of the facility with which
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