We have had a request from a new reader
to define the terms Hillbilly, Appalachian and Redneck. I know that
I have mentioned the origins of these labels in other articles as
have some of the other Appalachian websites but I cannot recall
seeing them listed all in one place and compared. Certainly one can
find listings on Wikipedia and they are still fairly accurate
although the entry for hillbilly leaves out the most likely origin
for the term.
Beyond hillbilly,
Appalachian and redneck we encounter cracker, briar, white trash and
a rarity from my home area: hillacan. I will examine all of these
terms and their esoteric-exoteric connections.
Hillbilly is
certainly the label that I am most comfortable with and the one that
is most accurately understood in relation to the other terms. If I
had to assign one informal label to the traditional culture of
Appalachia, hillbilly would be that label.
As to the origin
of the term hillbilly we can never be 100% certain but my educated
guess (and I have a master's in Hillbilly Studies) is that the term
comes from the Scots word for a member of a brotherhood. One can see
an example of this in Robert Burns' Tam O' Shanter.
When chapman
billies leave the street,
And drouthy neibors, neibors, meet;
As
market days are wearing late,
And folk begin to tak the
gate,
While we sit bousing at the nappy,
An' getting fou and
unco happy,
We think na on the lang Scots miles,
The mosses,
waters, slaps and stiles,
That lie between us and our hame,
Where
sits our sulky, sullen dame,
Gathering her brows like gathering
storm,
Nursing her wrath to keep it warm.'
Of course a
chapman was a peddler and a chapman billie or billy would simply be a
man who works as a peddler or for a peddler. I would go so far as to
guess that the term “buddy” is derived from the Scots “billie”
probably changing pronunciation due to a
vowel shift. Just think of the way we use buddy? “He is my buddy
from work.” “He is an old army buddy.” “I was just talking
to one of my buddies from college.
The entry in the
Wikipedia and in many other sources incorrectly guess that hillbilly
and billie-boys have something to do with William of Orange. This is
probably not the case as explained on the Ulster-Scots Agency
website.
So in its most
simple form “hillbilly” means one of a brotherhood from the hills
or one who labors in the hills. This is a fairly accurate
description of a traditional Appalachian.
Of course the term
is not so simple in its use. To some it is a pejorative and to
others it is a label to be accepted with pride. As I stated the
esoteric-exoteric value of the word “hillbilly” is what causes
the confusion. Let's face it ANY word or phrase can be given a
negative connotation if the intent of the speaker is to use the word
as a weapon. I have heard ma'am used as a synonym for bitch, but I
always use it to show my respect toward all women of any age.
Ignorant outsiders and even native Appalachians often incorrectly
assume that being a hillbilly has something to do with lifestyle or
lifestyle choices. This is patently absurd since all native
Appalachians are hillbillies. It does not matter what your
socio-economic background, if you were born and raised in Appalachia
in a traditional Appalachian family you will most certainly be
considered a hillbilly by most outsiders.
There is a racist
joke I have heard targeted at a number of different groups but it
illustrates the esoteric-exoteric dynamic of the term hillbilly.
Q: What do you
call an Appalachian who has a PhD?
A: A Hillbilly
Inside our
Appalachian communities we fool ourselves that our efforts to improve
our economic plight make a difference to those on the outside but in
reality the only way we will gain acceptance is if we can hide our
backgrounds and remove any trace of our southern highland accent.
Non-Appalachian America will say that the term hillbilly describes a
certain unfortunate lifestyle but just let them know you are from
West Virginia or eastern Kentucky and THAT lifestyle will be stuck to
you regardless of your personal qualities.
So for me
hillbilly is an informal label that means a member of traditional
Appalachian culture.
Appalachian is a
bit more problematic. I think that the difficulties with this term
comes from its geographic basis. True, Appalachia is the home region
for the “hillbilly culture” but we aren't talking a one to one
comparison like that of the United States. In American law any
person who is born in the United States is an American. Not everyone
who was born in Appalachia is a hillbilly or traditional Appalachian.
And this is not because of an arbitrary designation given to the
Appalachian counties by the Appalachian Regional Commission.
Contrary to the “more hillbilly than thou” attitudes of some
purists, most of the counties designated Appalachian by the ARC are
indeed Appalachian and not just because of the mountain range.
Granted, I have a hard time with all of the counties that are
included in the far south and in New York and some in Pennsylvania
and Ohio, but I know that most of the 399 or 400 or whatever counties
are Appalachian. As a native of Appalachian Ohio I will threaten
physical violence on anyone who would say that there are no
Appalachian counties in Ohio.
The Appalachian
culture is certainly informed by the geography but only
superficially. I am not sure what the mountains have to do with how
Country music sounds. Certainly the subject matter of the lyrics are
affected such as The Carter Family singing of their Clinch Mountain
home, but the mountains don't explain the fiddling style or the use
of the dulcimer. The Scots-Irish and German heritage is responsible
for these deeper cultural elements.
Of all of the
other traditional cultures in America, I think that the understanding
of the traditional Appalachian culture benefits from a comparison to
the Cajuns. The swamps and bayous of Acadiana don't magically cause
the Cajuns to speak French or explain their Catholic religion. It
does impact how they make a living as it is the physical world around
them. Hunting, whiskey, tobacco and coal have become a part of the
traditional Appalachian culture because of the benefits and
limitations of the land in which the original Appalachian settlers
found themselves but the land did not create their attitudes and
beliefs. Those deeper elements of the culture were formed by the
traits that these people brought with them. Hillbillies didn't
become “fatalistic” because they were living in a hardscrabble
existence in the mountains. Hundreds of years on the borders of
Scotland and England and the plantations to Ulster had already done
that. We are however and according to academics, to believe that a
diverse group of settlers from all over Britain and Rhineland Germany
got to a remote area of America ( a remote area that had constant
traffic ) and created an entirely new culture within a generation.
This culture was of course a degenerate version of all of those
diverse British and German elements. I don't think so.
The hillbilly
culture transcends the Appalachian region.
The Ozarks are usually lumped in with the Appalachian region. To
some these separate cultures would prove that it is the remoteness
and isolation that leads to this degeneration of civilization.
Horseshit! The hillbillies of the Ozarks are the same people as the
hillbillies of the Appalachians. They just moved west to other
familiar territory that none of the elite population wanted and would
allow these “white savages” to take. We find hillbillies as
Hoosiers and Illinois Egyptians. The
volunteers of the Alamo were hillbillies as were many of the cowboys
of the old west.
Today we recognize
Appalachian ghettos in most mid-west cities. Some of these ghettos
have been in existence since the Great Depression. If hillbilly
culture is caused by isolation in the mountains how come there are
3rd and 4th generation hillbillies living in
communities within cities of over a million population?
It's the culture
stupid!
All that ranted, I
must admit that the bumper sticker on my truck reads: I am
Appalachian. Even though I know that the term Appalachian is
imperfect for describing who I am, I also know that hillbilly has a
connotation that may be counter productive to our cause. Appalachian
is also formal and does not confuse outsiders with that “lifestyle
choice” issue. Being a true hillbilly I am prone to cut off my
nose to spite my face but when it comes to promoting our culture, I
will play by the rules of polite society in hopes that I will one day
be given the chance to explain in detail.
Appalachian is a
formal if slightly inaccurate term to describe a traditional native
of the Appalachian region.
The term Redneck
which is found in the name of our website has perhaps the most
negative connotation but is perhaps the
oldest and most accurate label used on this site given the three
common etymologies of this word. All three etymologies are correct
but obviously the oldest and first is the “most” correct and the
later two merely added to the currency and permanence of the label in
their time period. The term redneck was first applied to the members
of The National Covenant and The Solemn League and Covenant otherwise
and collectively known as the Covenanters.
I will not bother
going into detail as Wikipedia's entry is about as accurate an
etymology for redneck as one could hope for. The documented wearing
of a red cloth by the Covenanters should be enough evidence for one
to accept this etymology but nicknames related to the fashion of the
head were popular for the other two groups involved in the English
Civil War should bolster the case for this etymology. We have all
heard of the Cavaliers and the Round Heads. The term Cavalier means
knight and was obviously the label for the royalists. At the time it
was the fashion for the aristocracy to wear wigs of long, curly hair
usually of a dark color. In contrast the Puritans, among them
Cromwell's New Model Army, cut their hair relatively short and were
known as the Round Heads. One can see that in keeping in this theme
the public and media of the day would have selected a similar name
for the third faction the Covenanters.
I personally find
it interesting that of these three labels, two remained in usage in
the United States. I am unaware if any Puritans in New England were
referred to as Round Heads but the University of Virginia isn't
called the Cavaliers at random.
Some centuries
later during and after the American Civil War, the term was used as
it had always been used as a label for poor whites who where often
descendants of the Scots-Irish settlers.
As is often the case folk etymologies arise when the actual history
of a word has been forgotten by the general public. It is quite
understandable that redneck would be attributed to the fact that a
white person working in the fields would have a sunburned neck. Rich
white folks did not work in the fields so there was a obvious class
distinction which no doubt led to the term being used as a
pejorative.
By the 1920s the
use of the red bandannas by the United Mine
Workers at the Battle of Blair Mountain was certainly a self
conscious action which further entrenched
the term redneck in the American experience.
As far as a
geographic limit, the term redneck has traditionally included most if
not all of Appalachia, the south and much of the west. It thus has a
much greater range of individuals for which it would be a likely
label. Now the range of the word has seemed to have grown to
encompass all of north America. This changes the meaning of the word
a bit in those cases. It is my understanding that when used in such
a manner the term takes on a meaning similar to hick which is
generally rural but with an attitude.
The term Redneck
today is enjoying a positive transformation. It remains a negative
term in the minds of the people who are likely to dislike any
individual who would normally be labeled a redneck. Only urban,
suburban and non-white groups are now likely to use the term as a
slur. Among the targeted population the label is becoming more
accepted even by the folks who would have been embarrassed
by the term not too many years ago.
It still carries
some unfortunate connotations of racism and violence with less of the
connotation of ignorance that may be associated with “cracker”.
Rednecks may be mainly working class but as the term is used today,
economic situation does not seem to be important. There are indeed
many wealthy rednecks. In contrast to hillbillies, rednecks are more
likely to be fiscally conservative And while they may express a
public conservatism, rednecks may tend to raise hell more than their
mountaineer cousins. These are all certainly generalizations and it
may be that hillbillies are a subset of rednecks.
To be honest the
inclusion of redneck in our title Rednecromancer is mostly for humor
and shock value. The idea of a hillbilly necromancer calling on the
spirits of his dead kin to guide the region back to prominence
and prosperity was something that I hoped would appeal to the college
age crowd and be seen as a clever play on words. I would have to say
that the majority of media attention we have received has indeed been
due to the provocative name. I must admit that as a Christian I was
concerned that folks would get the wrong idea about the site but that
does not seem to have happened.
So to answer the
original question, I would define a redneck as a member of southern
or Appalachian working class that can also be found in parts of the
west. While this group contains wide diversity the core is largely
white of British heritage and of a
Calvinist religious background. Rednecks are also more likely to be
self aware in relation to their status as a redneck as opposed to
poor white trash.
I hope that this
answers the question posted by our friend and I would like to
continue this discussion of labels, pejoratives and epithets by
examining some other terms that we often see applied to Appalachians,
hillbillies and other rednecks.
To be continued.
