Is it true the term "cracker" is short for "whipcracker" meaning slave master?

Question

And if so why would it be an insult when used by Blacks?

Answer 1

hmmm--never knew that--not insulted--badge of honor now that you mention it

Answer 2

Slavery is nothing to beashamed of///// well, I thing under the circumstances that being a slave master is what people should be ashamed of the way one people treated another, when i read about it i was horrified. And I have heard the term cracker and it seems to be fitting to those who were then and now only verballing today they still are

Answer 3

I tried to find anything on the net about this and was not able to. It seems to make since though if it is true. And it has always been a insult for anyone to call a "white" person a cracker. It don't mean anything to me but I'm sure others may take offense.

Answer 4

it may be true but the most common meaning of the term is

A cracker is pale and salty so the masters were crackers. So in this meaning it is an insult

Answer 5

All of these answers are WRONG. Cracker was a named used to describe immigrants from Scotland and Ireland used in the 17th Century. It later became a term used to describe poor whites in the south in the 18th century. At one point in time these people proudly used this name to describe each other, but then later a derogatory term for whites equal to poor white trash. It had nothing to do with slave owners cracking a whip.

Answer 6

No, cracker is a racist term, used by racist blacks to degrade white people. The term whipcracker was only used in Africa to describe black slavers, who sold their own black people to other black slave merchants. Slavery came from Africa, not America.

Answer 7

It's also used for Hacker and is the real term where as the popular hacker term is media created and actually means someone who hacks around with the code or hardware.
I found a bunch of other terms though in wiki..... and yes one of them was more or less as you say.

Answer 8

Heres what I found
In the African American community, "cracker" is a disparaging term for whites.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cracker_%28pejorative%29

I prefer being called a "White Devil" myself!
But have found little evidence that this term was used by blacks refering to whites.

Answer 9

It would be a way of calling a white person a slave driver (power hungry and violent). Though to my understanding it has more to do with the similarity in color of the skin of a white person to color of your various saltine or club crackers.

Answer 10

I always thought that it meant cracker as in white and flaky piece of dried out bread... so yea still a slur.

Answer 11

i heard the word cracker came from the sound of the whip to the blacks back....ok...moving right along