Some great laughs Charon, thanks. Especially like the one about making sure the injured person was dead, ha.
For those, like me, who are interested in the history of stuff, I'll include a brief summary of the term: "redneck" I've cobbled. I've looked it up before.
There are are a number of citations of the origin of the term, dating to way-back Scottish history, including the use of a red band by Scots of the 17th century who refused to accept the new Church of England as the official church.
In contemporary usage "redneck" is generally a derogatory term, referring to a rural poor white person of the Southern United States. Its usage is similar in meaning to an uneducated cracker, or hillbilly. Course, now it used to connote more generally to uneducated, worker type of questionable intelligence. I always thought it referred to the red neck of sunburn seem on field workers or outside workers, like I was for many years.
But, the most often cited origin in modern times refers to coal miners of West Virginia who participated in the Blair Mountain rebellion.
"The term redneck comes from the West Virginia Coal Miners March (aka Battle of Blair Mountain) when coal miners wore red bandanas around their necks to identify themselves as seeking the opportunity to unionize."
This was in late August, early September of 1921.
From Wikipedia:
"The Battle of Blair Mountain was the largest labor uprising in United States history and one of the largest, best-organized, and well-armed uprisings since the American Civil War.[1] For five days in late August and early September 1921, in Logan County, West Virginia, some 10,000 armed coal miners confronted 3,000 lawmen and strikebreakers, called the Logan Defenders,[2] who were backed by coal mine operators during an attempt by the miners to unionize the southwestern West Virginia coalfields. The battle ended after approximately one million rounds were fired,[3] and the United States Army intervened by presidential order."
The catalyst for the organizing and battle was the murder of Matewan police chief Sid Hatfield of the famous Hatfield/McCoy feud. He was shot of the steps of the McDowell County courthouse on August 1st, in 1921. In a very good movie starring lots of people including Chris Cooper called "Matewan" that early segment of the uprising is covered. Sid, played brilliantly by David Strahain was a bad ass in the movie, and probably even more of a bad ass in life.
Sorry this is so long. But it does cover the most often listed origin of "redneck" and represents one of the most interesting instances of armed and bloody fights for the humanization of coal mining in the history of the country.
Spank
For those, like me, who are interested in the history of stuff, I'll include a brief summary of the term: "redneck" I've cobbled. I've looked it up before.
There are are a number of citations of the origin of the term, dating to way-back Scottish history, including the use of a red band by Scots of the 17th century who refused to accept the new Church of England as the official church.
In contemporary usage "redneck" is generally a derogatory term, referring to a rural poor white person of the Southern United States. Its usage is similar in meaning to an uneducated cracker, or hillbilly. Course, now it used to connote more generally to uneducated, worker type of questionable intelligence. I always thought it referred to the red neck of sunburn seem on field workers or outside workers, like I was for many years.
But, the most often cited origin in modern times refers to coal miners of West Virginia who participated in the Blair Mountain rebellion.
"The term redneck comes from the West Virginia Coal Miners March (aka Battle of Blair Mountain) when coal miners wore red bandanas around their necks to identify themselves as seeking the opportunity to unionize."
This was in late August, early September of 1921.
From Wikipedia:
"The Battle of Blair Mountain was the largest labor uprising in United States history and one of the largest, best-organized, and well-armed uprisings since the American Civil War.[1] For five days in late August and early September 1921, in Logan County, West Virginia, some 10,000 armed coal miners confronted 3,000 lawmen and strikebreakers, called the Logan Defenders,[2] who were backed by coal mine operators during an attempt by the miners to unionize the southwestern West Virginia coalfields. The battle ended after approximately one million rounds were fired,[3] and the United States Army intervened by presidential order."
The catalyst for the organizing and battle was the murder of Matewan police chief Sid Hatfield of the famous Hatfield/McCoy feud. He was shot of the steps of the McDowell County courthouse on August 1st, in 1921. In a very good movie starring lots of people including Chris Cooper called "Matewan" that early segment of the uprising is covered. Sid, played brilliantly by David Strahain was a bad ass in the movie, and probably even more of a bad ass in life.
Sorry this is so long. But it does cover the most often listed origin of "redneck" and represents one of the most interesting instances of armed and bloody fights for the humanization of coal mining in the history of the country.
Spank