Cracker Culture: Celtic Ways in the Old South

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Cracker Culture CRACKERS Clockwise: from Edward King, The Great South . . . (Hartford , 18751,372; Harper's New Monthly Magazine II (18551,189; F. D. Srygley, Seventy Years in Dixie . .. (Nashville, 18911. 89; ibid., 194; ibid., 191; Harper's New Monthly Magazine 16 (1857-581. 173; Srygley, Seventy Years in Dixie, 23 . GRADY McWHINEY Cracker Culture CELTIC WAYS IN THE OLD SOUTH With a Prologue by FORREST McDONALD The University ofAlabama Press TUSCALOOSA Copyright © 1988 The University of Alabama Press Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487-0380 All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America Cover: George Caleb Bingham, American, 1811–1879 The Squatters, 1850 Oil on canvas; 58.74 x 71.75 cm (23 ⅛ x 28 ¼ in.) Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Bequest of Henry Lee Shattuck in memory of the late Ralph W. Gray, 1971.154 ∞ The paper on which this book is printed meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Science—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data McWhiney, Grady. Cracker culture. Bibliography: p. Includes index. “Fire ant books.” 1. Southern States—Civilization—Celtic influences. 2. Southern States—Civilization—1775-1865. I. Title. II. Title: Celtic ways in the Old South. F213.M38 2005 975’.03 86-16052 ISBN 978-0-8173-0458-4 ISBN 0-8173-0458-4 (alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-8173-8452-4 ISBN 0-8173-8452-9 (electronic) In memory of my "Cracker" parentsDad , a native Louisianian; Mother, a Texan Cracker A braggart, liar (16811. One full of conversation (Scottish). A lie (1625). A name for the "poor whites" in the southern United States (1767).- The Oxford Universal Dictionary on Historical Principles One who cracks; a braggart. One of a class of low whites from the southern United States. Crack: To boast; to brag; that is, to utter vain, pompous, blustering words. To chat; to talk freely and familiarly (Scottish1.-Webster's New Twentieth Century Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged The People I refer to are really what you and I understand by Crackers . .. Persons who have no settled habitation, and live by hunting and plundering the industrious Settlers.-James Habersham to Governor James Wright, August 20,1772 Leisure Leisure is an attitude of mind and a condition of the soul that fosters a capacity to perceive the reality of the world. ... Culture depends for its very existence on leisure [but] . . . in our bourgeois Western world total labor has vanquished leisure... . [Unless] we regain the .. . ability for nonactivity, unless we substitute true leisure for our hectic amusements, we will destroy our cultureand ourselves.-Josef Pieper, Leisure: The Basis of Culture, translated by Alexander Dru (New York, 1963), II, 19-21 ...