Do you ACTUALLY know the origin of "Red Neck"? Avoid incorrect insults, please!?

Question

The actual origin will greatly surprise you if you do your research properly.

And slights and insults will be thoroughly condemned. We are looking only for honest academic effort here.

Sigh!!! No and I DO KNOW the answer! Here's a hint--two actually. Think about religion and the Scot borderland. Sorry that so many have just spouted nonsense and opinons instead of reseraching the Web.

The above pair of hints and comment was posted 48 minutes after the question was posed and coveres the first 13 answers ALL OF WHICH ARE WRONG--including the two valiant citations, which are wrong as well. Just goes to show you how unreliable supposed reference materials can be sometimes. And yes, I will post the correct answer at the end of the seven days if no one gets it right first.

Answer 1

In Scotland the Covenanters rejected episcopacy, rule by bishops. They signed documents stating that the Scotland desired a Presbyterian Church government, and rejected the church of England as their official church.
Some of the Covenanters signed the documents using their own blood, and some began wearing red pieces of cloth around their neck to signify their position to the public.

Answer 2

There is some disagreement among scholars of American slang about the origin of this term for the Southern white laboring classes. A couple theories:

(1) Many opt for the simple route. It is merely due to the sunburn on the back of the neck of the Southern white working people laboring in the fields.

(2) The other theory is more interesting. In 1920-21, in southern West Virginia, an armed radical uprising of UMWA coal miners erupted, aimed at stopping the "thug rule" by which armed factions supported by the coal bosses indiscriminately murdered union activists such as pro-union Mingo County Sherriff Sid Hatfield (1920, on the Logan County courthouse steps). Over 15,000 coal miners participated in the uprising, in which a third of the state of WV became under the control of the union, not the companies or the government. The union militants wore red bandannas around their necks, reflecting the post-IWW radicalism of the UMWA, and they became known as "red necks" as a result. By the way, this incident marked the first use of bombs dropped from planes by American military forces on American citizens in history. Eventually, the Federal government had to use troops to suppress the miners but in the process this brought the world's attention to the practice of company-controlled local governments and thug rule. (Films such as the fictional-historical Matewan by John Sales, or the documentary Out Of Darkness do a great job dramatizing this history.)

Thus, it is ironic, or at least interesting, that the term "red neck" originally referred to a rural leftist, whereas today it is used often to suggest an extremist right wing ideology among Southern white working class people.

Answer 3

The term red neck originated during the early American colonial period. The fashion during that time was for men to wear wigs. Often the wigs were made from horse hair, therefore they irritated the back of the neck leaving it red...hence the term red neck.

Answer 4

They were farmers. The sun would burn the back of their necks while working. Now the red necks are in the red states... ignorant Bible-thumpers with bad teeth.

Answer 5

REDNECK. A poor, white, often rowdy southerner, usually one from a rural area. The word, which is sometimes derogatory, has its origins in the sunburned necks of farmers and outdoor laborers, and originally meant a poor farmer.

Answer 6

I thought the term came from farmers who worked in the fields. Also, I have heard that it came from the slaves who worked in the fields. Their neck would be red from where the sun would hit it while they worked. Am I right?

Answer 7

It refers to the "farmer's tan", which is usually forearms and the back of the neck (the skin exposed when wearing a shirt).

Answer 8

And the idea that these people were conservatives by wearing very short hair so their neck was exposed to the sun.

Answer 9

Okay.. I have heard that the origin of redneck came from the sunburn that caucasian people would get as they were working in the fields of their farms... is that correct? I don't believe this is insulting.. just something I heard...

Answer 10

Farmers, working outside, had shirts, overalls and hats, so the sun would just burn the backs of their necks.