Florida cracker

For other uses, seeFlorida cracker (disambiguation).

A Bit of Cow Country,byFrederic Remington,published inHarper's Weeklyin 1895

Florida crackerswerecolonial-eraBritish Americanpioneer settlersin what is now theU.S. stateofFlorida;the term is also applied to their descendants, to the present day, and their subculture amongwhite Southerners.The first crackers arrived in 1763 afterSpaintraded Florida to Great Britainfollowing the latter's victory over France in theSeven Years' War,though much of traditional Florida cracker folk culture dates to the 19th century.

Historical usage

The termcrackerwas in use during theElizabethan erato describe braggarts and blowhards. The original root of this is theMiddle Englishwordcrack,meaning 'entertaining conversation' (which survives as a verb, as in "to crack a joke" ); the noun in theGaelicizedspellingcraicalso retains currency inIrelandand to some extent inScotlandandNorthern England,in a sense of 'fun' or 'entertainment' especially in a group setting.Crackeris documented inWilliam Shakespeare'sKing John,Act II, Scene I (1595): "What cracker is this same that deafs our ears / With this abundance of superfluous breath?"

By the 1760s, the ruling classes, both in Britain and in theAmerican colonies,applied the termcrackertoScots-Irish,Scottish,andEnglish Americansettlers of the remote southern back country, as noted in a letter to theEarl of Dartmouth:"I should explain to your Lordship what is meant by Crackers; a name they have got from being greatboasters;they are a lawless set of rascalls on the frontiers of Virginia, Maryland, the Carolinas, and Georgia, who often change their places ofabode."

The word was later associated with the cattlemen of Georgia and Florida,many of them descendants of those early colonists who had migrated south. Afolk etymologysuggests that the namecrackerinstead derives from the cracking of cattle-drovers' whips.

Cracker cowmen

A Cracker Cowboy(1895) byFrederic Remington,illustrating crackerBone Mizell(1863–1921)

In Florida, those who own or work cattle traditionally have been calledcowmen.In the late 1800s, they were often calledcow huntersorcowhunters,a reference to seeking out cattle scattered over the wooded rangelands during roundups. At times, the termscowmanandcrackerhave been used interchangeably because of similarities in their folk culture. However, thewesterntermcowboywhich is often used for those who work cattle is not the common Florida vernacular as iscowmanorcowhunter.

The Florida "cowhunter" or "cracker cowman" of the 19th and early 20th centuries was distinct from the Spanishvaqueroand the Westerncowboy.Florida cattlemen's primary tools were dogs and cow whips to herd or capture cattle while also utilizinglassos.Florida cattle andhorseswere smaller than the western breeds. TheFlorida Cracker cattle,also known as the "native" or "scrub" cow, averaged about 600 pounds (270 kg) and had large horns and large feet.

Modern usage

Among some Floridians, the term is used as a proud orjocularself-description. Since the huge influx of new residents into Florida in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, from the northern parts of theUnited Statesand fromLatin America,the termFlorida crackeris used informally by some Floridians to indicate that their families have lived in the state for many generations. It is considered a source of pride to be descended from "frontier people who did not just live but flourished in a time before air conditioning, mosquito repellent, and screens" according to Florida history writer Dana Ste. Claire.

Cracker Storytelling Festival

Since the late 20th century, the Cracker Storytelling Festival has been held annually in the fall at Homeland Heritage Park inHomeland, Florida.The year 2013 marked the 25th anniversary of the festival. The Cracker Storytelling Festival includes many storytellers from around Florida who come to share their stories with visitors. The majority of visitors who attend this event are students,because storytelling is part of the Florida educational curriculum. The festival also incorporates local crafts and artwork, food vendors, a whip-cracking contest,andliving-historyre-enactment of 19th-century homestead life.

Notable Florida crackers

• Jacob Summerlin(1820 – 1893), aka the King of the Crackers and King of the Cracker Cow Hunters.
• Francis A. Hendry(1833 – 1917) Florida cattle rancher, politician, and military officer in the ConfederateCow Cavalryduring the American Civil War.
• Bone Mizell(1863–1921) – the best known of the Florida cracker cowhunters, made famous as the subject of aFrederic Remingtonpainting
• Ben Hill Griffin Jr.(1910–1990) – "Cracker millionaire fromFrostproof, Florida"
• Al Burt(1927–2008) – journalist atThe Miami Herald,and chronicler of contemporary Florida cracker subculture.
• Lawton Chiles(1930-1998) - 41stGovernor of Floridaand self-described Florida cracker fromPolk County, Florida.

See also

• Cracker (term)– about use of the term as a slur
• Cracker Country– a living-history village at the Florida State Fair
• Florida cracker (disambiguation)– lists things named after the Florida crackers (architecture, trail, cattle and horse breeds, etc.)
• Florida Western– a film and novel genre set in 19th-century Florida
• Georgia cracker– the related subculture of the US state of Georgia, just to the north of Florida

Further reading

Fiction

• Many works byMarjorie Kinnan Rawlings:South Moon Under(1933),Golden Apples(1935),The Yearling(1938),Cross Creek(1942), and numerous short stories are set amidst early-20th-century Florida cracker subculture
• Strawberry Girl(1945) – children's novel byLois Lenskiset in mid-20th-century cracker Florida
• Seraph on the Suwanee(1948) – novel by African-American novelistZora Neale Hurston,and her only work that focuses primarily on white characters
• A Land Remembered(1984) – a multi-generational novel about a Floridian family from 1858 to 1968, byPatrick D. Smith

External links

• Cracker Cowboys,documentary film by Victor Milt
• Florida Crackers: The Cattlemen and Cowboys of Florida(2011), documentary film by John Michie
• Butch Harrison, Florida cracker storytellerArchived2009-03-27 at theWayback MachineArchived2009-03-27 at theWayback Machine