You never know who will turn up where.
Perusing some old books, I was looking through
A History of Georgia for Use in Schools
by Lawson B. Evans, American Book Company, 1908
when I ran across this on page 191:
``... The driver of each wagon carried a whip, which he often popped
and cracked as he drove along. With the handle in both hands, he would
pop his large whip from side to side until it sounded like the rapid
firing of a pistol. From this practice the name `Georgia Cracker'
is said to have originated, the cracker being a man from the country,
who, in driving to market, cracked his whip as he went along.
``[Other explanations of the origin of `Georgia Crackers' are as follows:
From the Century Dictionary-- `One of an inferior class of white hill
dwellers in some of the Southern United States, especially in Georgia
and Florida. The name is said to have been applied because cracked corn
is their chief article of diet: it is as old in Georgia and Florida as
the time of the Revolution.'
``Richard Malcolm Johnston says, that among the followers of Gen.
Francis Marion in his guerrilla warfare, during the war of the Revolution,
were some Georgians, who were especially expert in the use of the rifle,
the `crack' of which got to be much dreaded by the British, who gave
these riflemen the name of Georgia Crackers. After the war the name
changed from a military to a social significance.
``A theory of Charles H. Smith (Bill Arp) is that the hardy and
industrious Scotchmen who settled in Georgia, and who came into conflict
with the rough and uncultured settlers from other sections, called them
`crackers,' which is a Scotch term, and means `boasters,' `idlers,'
who talk much and work little. Cracked and crack-brained may have
the same origin.]''
Note the Swamp Fox turning up in the middle of all this.
It makes me wonder if any of our Georgia ancestors who
fought with him were riflemen....
John S. Quarterman <jsq@quarterman.org>
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