[firemed]

I think this is where the different areas make a different in how you think the term Cracker is used, Now remember I'm from a cattle background,

Different areas of the state embrace different theories. For example, the corncracker theory prevails in the Panhandle and along the Georgia border. In those areas, Cracker is considered an insult.

Meanwhile, the whip cracker theory is popular in Central Florida. Cattle raisers in particular are proud to identify themselves as Crackers.

But a variation of the braggart theory developed during the Civil Rights movement of the late 1950s and 60s. Cracker began to be associated with opinionated, ignorant whites who could easily be incited to violence. In many urban areas throughout the state, "Cracker " still means "bigot."

[firemed]

And I forgot this one----Cracker is not some one that buys CRACK !!!!!!!

[SouthFloridaNative]

Originally Posted by tallrick

I thought the swamp cabbage festival was this weekend? It's held annually in labelle.

Yes, it was this weekend. There was a massive turn out also.

[Caribe704]

I remember in the late sixties we used to see families in station wagons and vans with a bundle of cane poles on the roof and many times a propane bottle or two strapped to the bumper parked along the roads near canals usually like a small camp set up, thats my recollection of what we called Florida Crackers. they could be black or white families, but usually followed the tomato, and orange picking seasons across the state to survive.

[FSU_Alum]

Isn't Jax Cowtown?

[poolgirl51]

Jacksonville used to be known as Cowford because of a crossing at the St. Johns near what is now downtown.

[Magnulus]

Before the 1920's Florida was very sparsely populated. The few "cracker" that were here were mostly in the panhandle. Central and South Florida had a few small towns like Sanford that concentrated on agriculture, particularly cattle. The turn of the century Miami and South Florida became important military bases for the Carribean. There was also phosphate mining, particularly near Lakeland. In the 20's you had an insane Florida real estate bubble that helped contribute to the great depression and northerners bought up lots of land. During WWII the area got a boost from military bases, after WWII air conditioning became cheap enough that retirees started settling in Central Florida, but it wasn't until Disney and the Baby Boomers started retiring that Florida really started taking-in lots of people.

When I was a kid living in Hillsborough for a while in the mid 80's Florida was sparsely populated and stuff wasn't being built up too fast (but still built up more than before I came around, no doubt). Now it is packed with people and is one of the largest states in the country. "Florida Crackers", as I understood it, is basicly a term used now days for a white Florida native, and doesn't really have any connection to agriculture, which has been a shrinking part of the state for a long time. The term may come from cattle whips, that's the one I heard in school (outside Florida it is used as a derisive term for "white people").

[FSU_Alum]

I think the whole mass migration to Florida is what helped the term spread to other parts of the country and led to it being misused as a term for any old white Southern (or other) person. People moved down, heard the term and then just applied it willy-nilly and in a derogatory fashion.


I was taught that the term came from the cattle whips and those who came down with the herds, but that it can be used to describe any of Florida's first settlers and their descendants.

A lot of folks disagree on the cut-off date for who can be determined a Cracker. Some say pre-1950, others pre-1920s, still others pre-1900.

When the students at FSU voted on a mascot, the runner-up name was Cracker....we would have been the Florida State Crackers. Though I'm a Cracker, I'm thankful they went with the Seminoles.