Subject: You COULD be a REDNECK HILLBILLY CRACKER

From: "kyrustic"

Many words commonly used in America today have their origins in our Scottish
roots. While the following three terms are associated today with the
American South and southern culture, their origins are distinctly Scottish
and Ulster-Scottish (Scots-Irish), and date to the mass immigration of
Scottish Lowland and Ulster Presbyterians to America during the 1700's.

HILLBILLY

The origin of this American nickname for mountain folk in the Ozarks and in
Appalachia comes from Ulster. Ulster-Scottish (The often incorrectly labeled
"Scots-Irish") settlers in the hill-country of Appalachia brought their
traditional music with them to the new world, and many of their songs and
ballads dealt with William, Prince of Orange, who defeated the Catholic King
James II of the Stuart family at the Battle of the Boyne, Ireland in 1690.

Supporters of King William were known as "Orangemen" and "Billy Boys" and
their North American counterparts were soon referred to as "hill-billies".
It is interesting to note that a traditional song of the Glasgow Rangers
football club today begins with the line, "Hurrah! Hurrah! We are the Billy
Boys!" and shares its tune with the famous American Civil War song,
"Marching Through Georgia".

Stories abound of American National Guard units from Southern states being
met upon disembarking in Britain during the First and Second World Wars with
the tune, much to their displeasure! One of these stories comes from Colonel
Ward Schrantz, a noted historian, Carthage Missouri native, and veteran of
the Mexican Border Campaign, as well as the First and Second World Wars,
documented a story where the US Army's 30th Division, made up of National
Guard units from Georgia, North and South Carolina and Tennessee arrived in
the United Kingdom."a waiting British band broke into welcoming American
music, and the soldiery, even the 118th Field Artillery and the 105 Medical
Battalion from Georgia, broke into laughter.

The excellence of intent and the ignorance of the origins of the American
music being equally obvious. The welcoming tune was "Marching Through
Georgia."

REDNECK

The origins of this term are Scottish and refer to supporters of the
National Covenant and The Solemn League and Covenant, or "Covenanters",
largely Lowland Presbyterians, many of whom would flee Scotland for Ulster
(Northern Ireland) during persecutions by the British Crown. The Covenanters
of 1638 and 1641 signed the documents that stated that Scotland desired the
Presbyterian form of church government and would not accept the Church of
England as its official state church.

Many Covenanters signed in their own blood and wore red pieces of cloth
around their necks as distinctive insignia; hence the term "Red neck", which
became slang for a Scottish dissenter*. One Scottish immigrant, interviewed
by the author, remembered a Presbyterian minister, one Dr. Coulter, in
Glasgow in the 1940's wearing a red clerical collar -- is this symbolic of
the "rednecks"?

Since many Ulster-Scottish settlers in America (especially the South) were
Presbyterian, the term was applied to them, and then, later, their Southern
descendants. One of the earliest examples of its use comes from 1830, when
an author noted that "red-neck" was a "name bestowed upon the
Presbyterians." It makes you wonder if the originators of the ever-present
"redneck" joke are aware of the term's origins?

*Another term for Presbyterians in Ireland was a "Blackmouth". Members of
the Church of Ireland (Anglicans) used this as a slur, referring to the fact
that one could tell a Presbyterian by the black stains around his mouth from
eating blackberries while at secret, illegal Presbyterian Church Services in
the countryside.

CRACKER

Another Ulster-Scot term, a "cracker" was a person who talked and boasted,
and "craic" (Crack) is a term still used in Scotland and Ireland to describe
"talking", chat or conversation in a social sense ("Let's go down to the pub
and have a craic"; "what's the craic"). The term, first used to describe a
southerner of Ulster-Scottish background, later became a nickname for any
white southerner, especially those who were uneducated.

And while not an exclusively Southern term, but rather referring in general
to all Americans, the origins of this word are related to the other three.

GRINGO

Often used in Latin America to refer to people from the United States,
"gringo" also has a Scottish connection. The term originates from the
Mexican War (1846-1848), when American Soldiers would sing Robert Burns's
"Green Grow the Rashes, O!", or the very popular song "Green Grows the
Laurel" (or lilacs) while serving in Mexico, thus inspiring the locals to
refer to the Yankees as "gringos", or "green-grows". The song "Green Grows
the Laurel" refers to several periods in Scottish and Ulster-Scottish
history; Jacobites might "change the green laurel for the "bonnets so blue"
of the exiled Stewart monarchs of Scotland during the Jacobite Rebellions of
the late 1600's - early 1700's. Scottish Lowlanders and Ulster Presbyterians
would change the green laurel of James II in 1690 for the "Orange and Blue"
of William of Orange, and later on, many of these Ulstermen would immigrate
to America, and thus "change the green laurel for the red, white and blue."

Sources

Adamson, Ian. The Ulster People: Ancient, Medieval and Modern. Bangor,
Northern Ireland: Petani Press, 1991.

Bruce, Duncan. The Mark of the Scots: Their Astonishing Contributions to
History, Science, Democracy, Literature and the Arts. Secaucus, New Jersey:
Birch Lane Press, 1997.

Fischer, David Hackett. Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989.

McWhiney, Grady. Cracker Cultu Celtic Ways in the Old South. Tuscaloosa:
University of Alabama Press, 1988.

Personal Interview, Mr. Bill Carr, Ayrshire native and member, Celtic
Society of the Ozarks, January 2001.

Stevenson, James A.C. SCOOR-OOT: A Dictionary of SCOTS Words and Phrases in
Current Use. London: The Athlone Press, 1989.

Walsh, Frank, and the 12th Louisiana String Band. Songs of the Celtic South
album, 1991.

"A vote for Kerry is a de facto vote for bin Laden."
Strider

That was the first usefull post I have seen from you in quite some time.

--
Glenn Ashmore - A Gringo, Redneck, Cracker (but not a hillbilly)

I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack
there of) at: http://www.rutuonline.com
Shameless Commercial Division: http://www.spade-anchor-us.com

In article , Gunner says...

HILLBILLY

I thought the *real* definition was anyone who had their
wife say "Honey, could you please take that transmission
out of the bathtub so I can take a shower?"

Jim

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Must be a 21st century resident of the hills. My grandparents had an
outhouse and a washtub. None of that sissy indoor plumbing. Well on the back
porch (best water I ever tasted, of course).
Karl

"jim rozen" wrote in message
...
In article , Gunner says...

HILLBILLY

I thought the *real* definition was anyone who had their
wife say "Honey, could you please take that transmission
out of the bathtub so I can take a shower?"

Jim

==================================================
please reply to:
JRR(zero) at yktvmv (dot) vnet (dot) ibm (dot) com
==================================================

jim rozen wrote:

In article , Gunner says...


HILLBILLY


I thought the *real* definition was anyone who had their
wife say "Honey, could you please take that transmission
out of the bathtub so I can take a shower?"

That's those wussy flat landers.

With hillbillies, it's the husband that asks the wife to move the tranny.