On 14 Nov 04  19:34:30, Raymond Yates got back to Danny Ceppa 
-> Re: song (was: Chocolate)

 DC>> Do you have any idea about where the "cracked corn" part comes
 DC>> from or is about?
 
 NB>> I think that the cracked corn was a staple food, especially for
 NB>> the slaves.  I don't remember for sure whether it was the dried
 NB>> corn that would have been used in cooking, or the hominy made
 NB>> from corn, or what...  Maybe an annotated folk song book would
 NB>> know?  
 
 DC> Hominy sounds like it might be right.  But, for some reason, I
 DC> suspect it has to do with "shine"!

 RY> Ahem.. a small amount of casual research provided the following
 RY> paste... 

Thanks for doing the research!  


 RY> The origins of the term are uncertain, though there are a few
 RY> conjectures. Dave Wilton, who studies etymology as a hobby, presents
 RY> the idea that the term may have come from the word corncracker, which
 RY> describes someone who cracks corn for liquor, a common practice
 RY> especially in early Appalachia. Wilton writes, "The song lyric 'Jimmy

It's still prevalent there!  

 RY> Going along with the cracked corn theory, Delma Presley, a noted
 RY> scholar, believes that "cracker" came from as far back as the 18th
 RY> Century, where cracked corn was actually consumed by the Scots-Irish
 RY> (Allen 50). As those settlers came to Appalachia, the practice of
 RY> cracking corn to produce liquor became popular, and the term thus
 RY> followed them. Then, while the Scots-Irish and several other ethnic
 RY> groups populated Appalachia, cracker was applied to all of the white
 RY> inhabitants 

 RY> So, there you go.. it's a distillery. However, Cracked corn as a sedd
 RY> is plentiful on the Net, it's birdseed, and has other interesting uses.

Now to find that copper pot...  



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