Where did the term 'Cracker' come from?

Question

Cracker has been used as a supposed 'offensive' term.

I heard that it came from back in the day when slaves worked
and a specific man would come out and 'whip' them,
and from the sound of the 'whip' was a cracking noise.

So from then on they were called the 'crackers'.

Is this true?

(No, not the crackers you eat, silly.)

Answer 1

well, thats part of it, but the word was around before then,,,,,
older uses of it referred to a boasting person,,,, and also the settlers of america,,,, it was a term used for "country folk",,,,,,, but yes, it also refers/comes from the crack of a whip,,,,,, both for slaves and the Florida cattle herders, and for those holding low-paying jobs, such as cracking pecans in Georgia,,,,,,,,, so no its not just from the slave issue

Answer 2

Cracker may refer to:

* Cracker (computing), a person who engages in illegal or unethical circumvention of computer security systems (through passwords, systems or security, or software)
* Cracker (food), a thin, crisp, edible wafer, usually salted or savoury, rather than sweet (also called "biscuit")
* Christmas cracker, a traditional British Christmas favor, which emits a loud 'crack' when opened
* Cracker (pejorative), an abusive or slang term for a white person.
* Cracker (espionage), a term for a person who breaks or "cracks" enemy codes - widely used in WWII. [1]
* Cracker butterflies, a genus of butterfly from the Neotropics
* A short length of twisted twine or string attached to the end of a whip (because of the cracking noise it produces)
* Someone who smokes or sells crack cocaine
* A colloquial abbreviation for firecracker
* A device used for dispensing whipped cream, more commonly known as a whipped-cream charger
* A Catalytic Cracker used to break down large hydrocarbon molecules into smaller ones in the production of Petrochemicals
* In relation to Warcraft III, a "cracker" is anyone that tries to restore files that were corrupted within custom maps in order to prevent their contents from being stolen or edited.
* Water crackers, another name for the hardtack eaten by mariners.

Answer 3

I heard the same thing. I think you're right. However, I don't think it is always consider an offensive term.

I live in Florida and people sometimes refer to themselves as Florida Crackers. They are not referring to themselves as slave owners or decedents of slave owners, but just a Florida native.

I think the meaning of the term is forgotten, but the term has stuck.

Answer 4

There are various theories concerning the origin of the term "cracker".

The term "cracker" was in use during Elizabethan times to describe braggarts. The original root of this is the Middle English word crack1 meaning "entertaining conversation" (One may be said to "crack" a joke); this term and the alternate spelling "craic" are still in use in Ireland and Scotland. It is documented in Shakespeare's King John (1595): "What cracker is this ... that deafes our ears / With this abundance of superfluous breath?"

By the 1760s, this term was in use by the English in the British North American colonies to refer to Scots-Irish settlers in the south. A letter to the Earl of Dartmouth reads: "I should explain to your Lordship what is meant by Crackers; a name they have got from being great boasters; they are a lawless set of rascalls on the frontiers of Virginia, Maryland, the Carolinas, and Georgia, who often change their places of abode". A similar usage was that of Charles Darwin in The Origin of Species, to refer to "Virginia squatters" (illegal settlers) (p. 35).

Historically the word suggested poor, white rural Americans with little formal education. Historians point out the term originally referred to the strong Scots-Irish of the backcountry (as opposed to the English of the seacoast). Thus a sociologist reported in 1926: "As the plantations expanded these freed men (formerly bond servants) were pushed further and further back upon the more and more sterile soil. They became 'pinelanders', 'corn-crackers', or 'crackers'." [Kephard Highlanders]

Other possible origins of the term "cracker" are linked to early Florida cattle herders that traditionally used whips to herd wild Spanish cattle. The crack of the herders' whips could be heard for great distances and were used to round cattle in pens and to keep the cows on a given track. Also, "cracker" has historically been used to refer to those engaged in the low paying job of cracking pecans and other nuts in Georgia and throughout the southeast U.S.

One theory holds that the term dates back to slavery in the antebellum South. Many slaver foremen used bullwhips to discipline African slaves, and the sound the whip made when used was described as 'cracking the whip'. The foremen who cracked these whips were thus known as 'crackers'. [1][2][3]

According to the 1911 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, "cracker" is a term of contempt for the "poor" or "mean whites," particularly of Georgia and Florida. Britannica notes that the term dates back to the American Revolution, and is derived from the "cracked corn" which formed their staple food. (Note that in British English "mean" is a term for poverty, not malice.) [3]

Answer 5

The only definition that I found was a term for low class whites who cracked corn in the south in the seventeenth century. Not the sound of the whip cracking during slavery.

Answer 6

The word cracker is used and originates from ******.

But you are right "whip crackers"

Answer 7

No a cracker is a white white white dork (not someone who whips silly)

Answer 8

Which CRACKER do you want to define:
A type of crispy, cracker-like flat bread prepared with spelt flour that is German in origin. Some recipes are made with additional whole-grain spelt, which gives the flat bread an interesting texture and nutty flavor. Other versions may also contain a number of other whole grains, bran, or seeds. Spelt crackers can be served with jams and jellies as a breakfast item or as a hearty addition to soups and stews.

A poor, white person in some parts of the southern United States who, perhaps, could only afford to eat crackers.
The most common explanation for the origin of this phrase is that it is from corncracker, or someone who distills corn whiskey (cracking corn is to crush it into a mash for distillation). The song lyric "Jimmy Crack Corn" is a reference to this. In the song a slave sings about his master got drunk, fell, hit his head, and died. And the slave "don't care." The usage, however, is probably not the origin of the term cracker.
More likely is that it is from an early sense of crack meaning to boast. This sense dates to the 16th century. A 1766 quote in the OEO2 gives the origin of cracker as boastful. (The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language)
a small firework
a slang term used by 19th century Georgian slaves to refer to the cracking of the slavemaster's whip.
a white person (Dictionary of Afro-American Slang by Clarence Major)

Don West's poem "Look Here, America" is powerfully assertive and unorthodox, declaring the absence of racism in the hills of Appalachia. Furthermore, West shows his sadness that this racism still exists in other parts of the country. According to the poem, while people are wasting their time worrying about the color of a person's skin, the residents of Appalachia are embracing each other and shamelessly working together. West urges the citizens of America to investigate this problem, and to view Appalachia as an example of triumph. Interestingly enough, "Look Here, America" was published in 1946, some 15 years before sentiments of civil rights became widespread.

In his poem, West refers to himself and White southerners as "crackers." The term is generally of a derogatory nature, and seems to be resident to the South. Despite its negative connotations, it is sometimes seen as a term of endearment, especially among White Georgians, although many Southern whites do not use nor do they approve of the term. "Cracker" has specific ethnic connotations, directed towards White Southerners, and more frequently, poor ones. Of its peculiar dual nature, Irving Allen writes, "'Cracker' is a positive or at least a humorous self-label for many Georgians. But in and beyond Georgia it was and remains a class epithet, and is more recently a black term for any white, Southerner or Northerner, who is thought to be a racist" (59). Peculiarly, in the book Black Jargon in White America by David Claerbaut, the latter, more negative racist definition of cracker is listed first (Claerbaut 61).

The origins of the term are uncertain, though there are a few conjectures. Dave Wilton, who studies etymology as a hobby, presents the idea that the term may have come from the word corncracker, which describes someone who cracks corn for liquor, a common practice especially in early Appalachia. Wilton writes, "The song lyric 'Jimmy Crack Corn' is a reference to this. In the song, a slave sings about how his master got drunk, fell, hit his head, and died. And the slave 'don't care.' (This was a pretty subversive song for its day.) This usage, however, is probably not the origin of the ethnic term cracker" (Wilton, par. 1). Wilton also suggests that the term may have come from 16th century Old English, where "to crack" meant to boast. There isn't much to reinforce this belief, however.

Going along with the cracked corn theory, Delma Presley, a noted scholar, believes that "cracker" came from as far back as the 18th Century, where cracked corn was actually consumed by the Scots-Irish (Allen 50). As those settlers came to Appalachia, the practice of cracking corn to produce liquor became popular, and the term thus followed them. Then, while the Scots-Irish and several other ethnic groups populated Appalachia, cracker was applied to all of the white inhabitants.

Clarence Major, in his Dictionary of Afro-American Slang, lists two rather interesting ideas about the origin of the term. The first is that a "cracker" was a slang term used by 19th Century Georgian slaves to refer to the slavemasters. If this were in fact, true, then the term would come directly from the cracking of the slavemaster's whip. This is quite a peculiar theory, because it would immediately explain the negative connotation that the word has taken. However, there seems to be little or no support for this theory, and no other source that was studied mentions it.

The other theory Major suggests is that, in light of the extreme racial tension of the 19th Century, "cracker" came straight from "the white soda cracker as opposed to say, ginger cookies" (Major 42). Again, this would explain where the derogatory undertones could originate. But as with Major's first explanation, there seems to be no reinforcement for this, and this was the only source that made any mention of such an origin. The former of Major's etymologies does seem to somewhat hint back to the popular cracked corn theory, but it is the only theory investigated that gave such an assertion. Major's definition of cracker is simple: "a white person" (Allen 42). One particular thing to note is that Major's Dictionary was published in 1970, towards the end of the civil rights era, which, along with years of Reconstruction, mark arguably the two most tense ages with concern to relations between Blacks and Whites.

Why Georgia is listed so many times as an assumed origin for "cracker" is not known.

As one can see, there are many possible origins for cracker, and no one seems to have a definitive idea as to where it exactly received its current meaning. As stated before, despite the fact that it was once and still is used as an insult, white Southerners, to however small an extent, have embraced the term, and use it even jokingly among themselves, much like ******, chink, ****, and redneck have been inverted. As another example of this, Irving Allen tells us that "the term redneck was... applied to any working-class Southerner in the genteel view" (Allen 58). George Wallace and Jeff Foxworthy are two people who were instrumental in this reversal of redneck's connotations.

So, one final question is, just why did Don West decide to refer to himself and White Appalachians as crackers in his poems? West was making a statement, further strengthening his anti-racism theme in "Look Here, America." By calling himself a "cracker," he debases himself in order to figuratively put himself on the same level as his black counterpart, to emphasize that he holds no qualms in holding a black man's hand, and calling him his brother (West, 3.5-8). It's strikingly ironic that many view Appalachia as an extremely prejudiced region, and West surprises America by declaring his happiness to interact with blacks.