Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1897-08-27
SOUTHERN "CRACKERS.'
The Poor Whites Descend from
the Early Colonists.
Old Lines Wiped Out by the Civil War
A Most Important Labor Eie-
Went Of the Industries
of the south.

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 nor,
and an error of enough importance to
call for correction. The poor white OF
the south has some kinfolk in the
Adirondack region Of New York and
he Blue and Allegheny mountains OF
iennsyl, but he has few rela-
ives any place else about the Mason
)iNon line. The states of New York
nd Pennsylvania were slave states un-
i the early part of tins century.
This POOR white mountainecr de-
ends direct from those immigrants
j.. no came over in the early days OF the
Dlonies, from 1920 to about, OF some
me after. the revolutionary war PEE
cd. as "sold passengers" They sold
.aelr services for u time sufficient to
enable them to work out their passage
money. They were sold. articlcd 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 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
he 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.
| All I Nv, 1a.
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 bitter hatred for the blacks
that were preferred over HIM. lie al
ready hated ii's doInineering 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 Oh 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 a.
the Scotch highlander was as related
to his lowland neighbor in the six
tenth 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 thu
: south, especially in the foot hills ant
at points where the two have inter
, mingled in traffic, in the schoolhous'
and church, and especially where TIN
poor whites have been employed a
mining, iron making, etc; but go int,
the mountain far enough and you fnt
the type as clearcut us it was 40 year
ago, with its inimitable drawing
speech and curious dialect; its sallos
complexion, lanky frame, lazy habits
and immorality-all as distinct.
marked as they were when hundred
of these people found Cherokee wive
in Georgia and Tennessee, in the earl
part of the country and bleached mos
of the copper out of the skin of tn
: Choctaw, as well as out of the Cherokee
! 1t is a pity that some competent an
thropologieal historian has not TRACED
the annals OF this interesting and dis
tinctive section of our population an
made record of it in the interest O
science, no less than in the interest o
J. the proper education and elevation O
the mountain people. 1t has become es
I pecially in the Piedmont section of tn
| south, most important labor element
: The cotton mill labor by thousand
comes from the "craeker of the hills;
and it is destined to become a grea
power, that labor population, social an
political.
The redemption of the poor white be
gan when slavery went down in bloo
!, and destruction. and it has gone o.
: faster and Travelled further than som
: OF us think.-Chattanooga Times.