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I am always and forever amused by the use of the word "Cracker" as a putdown for whites...

The origin of the word? During slavery days, the taskmaster in charge of the working group of slaves in the field carried a whip to "encourage" good work performance. Hence the name "cracker" as in whip cracker.
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Cracker refers to Florida cowboys who used
whips to help herd cattle. They would crack
the whip and the noise would encourage the cattle to move. These crackers were Indians,
Blacks, and Whites.
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Really?

You had slave owners in your family tree?

I did...
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Here is a reference:
Editorial Reviews
The publisher, University Press of Florida ([email protected]) , June 15, 1999
A map to the Cracker state of mind--
The crack of the old-time cow hunter's whip gave the native Floridian a nickname, but Al Burt's Tropic of Cracker is a state of mind shared by those who love "what remains of the Florida that needed no blueprint or balance sheet for its creation, that was here before there was a can opener or a commercial or a real-estate agent." In his years of roving the state as a Miami Herald columnist, Al Burt mapped Florida's Tropic of Cracker, not with lines of latitude and longitude but with stories. The Crackers Burt tells of are men and women from Apalachicola to the Everglades, from Tallahassee to the Keys. They lived in the late 1800s, and they live today--along the Ocklawaha and in the floodplains of Lake Okeechobee. They were cow hunters, Conchs, and alligator men. They grew oranges, sugarcane, and muscadine grapes. They made moonshine. They drove mules, ate fried mullet, and told yarns in a Cracker creole about Florida's panthers, snakes, alligators, and hurricanes. There are luminaries among them--Zora Neale Hurston, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Virgil Hawkins, John DeGrove, Harry Crews--but mostly they are just regular folk who mark the borders of the elusive and magical Tropic of Cracker. For anyone who loves the old Florida and still has hope for the new one, Tropic of Cracker is the state's truest road map and Al Burt its most eloquent cartographer

Mr Hangfire:
Your rep precedes you, so I will not engage in a pointless further debate on this subject.

Since you have already called me an idiot once before, I have no interest in adding credence to your label.

Thanks!

P389

[url]http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Plains/1953/cracker.html[/url]

The "Florida Crackers"


What is that you say?....What on earth is a "Cracker"??  Well the Pioneers of Florida, were known as "Florida Crackers".  "Crackers" got their name from the crack of the cow hunter's whips.  Today, the term "Cracker" is used for all native Floridians.


Brief History:

Cracker Cattle for hundreds of years roamed the Florida scrub, the swamps and the prairies much like the western plains buffalo.  They belonged to no one, except to the land and the wide open spaces.  If a man could get a rope on one, or drive one into an enclosure, it was his to keep, but it wasn't a job for the faint-hearted.  It meant dealing with storms, floods, drought, breath-stealing heat and biting insects for days on end.  As time passed some became quite proficient at their capture and substantial herds were accumulated and branded.


And so began the "Cracker" Lanier Family..now eight generations in Florida!.


So, grab a big o' glass a tea and pull ya up a cane back rocker
Visit with a real Florida Cracker Family:

My Piney Woods Rooters

Moonshiners, Gator Hunters.. Cracker Tales

Don't get Bear caught!.. Say what?  Unique Cracker Expressions

Hungry? Try some Swamp Cabbage or other Cracker Fixins'

Florida Cowhunters play hard:   PRCA RODEO

Back to Sawgrass Country

The term "Florida Cracker" in truth, has nothing to do with slavery, but is in fact a term used for the cowboys and mule drivers who rode the "Cracker Trail."  But, the origin of the term "Cracker" as used by some black folk, is entirely different.  The term is actually a simile,(in origin), attributed to whites by some blacks.
White, like a [b]cracker.[/b]  Bland, like a [b]cracker.[/b]  Square, like a [b]cracker.[/b] Brittle, (uptight), like a [b]cracker.[/b]  

Or, maybe I just made all this shit up.                                                             [rolleyes]

Just a couple of references to show
I am NOT TALKING OUT MY ASS LIKE
SOME PEOPLE.

I am not saying that overseers did not
use whips on slaves. They have done so
for thousands of years.

You are the one that stated the
"origin of the word cracker"......
Where are your references?
Can you show some proof of
what you stated so authoritatively
or are you running off at the mouth.
Your CREDIBILITY IS ON THE LINE.

PS
Both Florida and Georgia had
Cowboys called crackers.[smoke]

SOMEBODY is off their meds again...

Swamp cabbage and soft shell turtle are never to be eaten together.
Not many people know, but if you see a raccoon in low tide mangroves, it is really the spirit of a dead Seminole chieftan.
Manatees are the protectors of the spirits of the men who have died in the water. They are there to make sure that they aren't disturbed.
If you shoot a Armadillo during a full moon, you will have a year of bad luck.
Gators are friends with the snakes. That's why they live together.
The turtles are the wiseman of the swamp.
Live Oak contains the soul of the Forest. You can only cut down a live oak so long as it's limbs don't resemble the arms of a man. If you do, you will be haunted by the Live Oak everytime you enter the woods.
Sea Oats are signs for the salt turtles to find their way home. They talk to the baby salt turtles, and tell them to turn back in case they get lost when they hatch.
The dunes were made by the earth, to protect it against the sea. If you carry sand from a dune in your pocket, your ships will never sink, and you can never drown.

There are also many ways to tell if a Hurricaine is coming.

When you see all the baby salt turtles running to the ocean at once,
If you see Armadilos playing with Opposoms,
If you can't find a snake anywhere in the woods,
If the cows circle tightly together,
If the waves kiss the dunes on a sunny day at low tide
If the palm branches are wet, though it didn't rain.
If the leaves from the tops of the trees fall.

Welcome DOCTOR"the pill pushing" TROLL[smoke]
I guess the above is all Dr. TROLL has to
say on the subject of CRACKERS.[V]

Very poetic Landon[smoke]

WHAA?
Would somebody please explain what
P389 is saying.[:)]

Once, there was a shy Seminole warrior named Cheemawkwi (chee-maw-kwee)-
He was sent out by his tribe to hunt in the swamp for Alligators. As he napped under next to a tree, he was awoken by a friendly giant Aligator who told him that a rival tribe was on it's way, and would be passing by soon. Having no place to hide, and fearing that if he was captured he would be killed, Cheemawkwi made a deal with the Alligator. If the Alligator would allow him to take over his fierce body in order to scare off the rival tribe, he promised he would never harm another Alligator so long as the sun shined, and the wind blew.
The Gator agreed, so Cheemawkwi became the giant beast, and the beast became Cheemawkwi. Cheemawkwi the Alligator hid behind some swamp brush, and waited for the tribe to pass, as the gator who was in his body scurried off back to Cheemawkwis tribe. When he rival tribe passed, Cheemawkwi grabbed one of the tribesman in his giant jaws, and shook him until he didn't move. The rival tribesman charged him with spears and knives, but Cheemawkwi now had the mind of a man, and the powerful body of an Alligator, so they were no match. He rolled his giant body, and knocked them down. He lashed them with his giant tail, and bit them as they tried to flee. He killed all of them, and returned home to tell his people that he had defeated the rival tribe single handedly. But he forgot that he wasn't Cheemawkwi anymore, but was now a giant Alligator.
As he walked into the village, the people screamed and ran. The warriors grabbed their spears, and chased after him, including the Alligator who was in his body....
Cheemawkwi ran for his life, from his own people, back to the place where he had met the gator.
Soon, the Alligator in his body arrived.
"Please Alligator. I want to become Cheemawkwi again. You can have your body back now"

But the Alligator decided to stay in his body. Cheemawkwi pleaded, but the Alligator wouldn't listen.
"Now shoo you pesky Alligator" the Alligator Man said to Cheemawkwi...
Cheemawkwi was sad, and entered the swamp to begin his life as an Alligator.
He vowed from that day, that he would eat every man he could, on the chance that one of them might be the Alligator who stole his body.

I like Townhouse and Ritz--especially the mock apple pie...