DC> On 14 Nov 04  03:55:17, Nancy Backus got back to Danny Ceppa
 DC> -> Re: song (was: Chocolate)

 NB>> It's part of the chorus of a ballad-type song from the South.  It
 NB>> tells the story of a slave who was freed when his "massa"
 NB>> (master) died from the effects of a fall from a horse bitten by a
 NB>> blue-tailed fly.  I call it ballad-type since it tells a story,
 NB>> but is told quite light-heartedly with very jolly music.

 DC>> I didn't know that...

 NB>> Which part didn't you know?

 DC> The whole story behind it!


 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"!

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

The term is generally of a derogatory nature, and seems to be resident to the
South. Despite its negative connotations, it is sometimes seen as a term of
endearment, especially among White Georgians, although many Southern whites do
not use nor do they approve of the term. "Cracker" has specific ethnic
connotations, directed towards White Southerners, and more frequently, poor
ones. Of its peculiar dual nature, Irving Allen writes, "'Cracker' is a
positive or at least a humorous self-label for many Georgians. But in and
beyond Georgia it was and remains a class epithet, and is more recently a
black term for any white, Southerner or Northerner, who is thought to be a
racist" (59). Peculiarly, in the book Black Jargon in White America by David
Claerbaut, the latter, more negative racist definition of cracker is listed
first (Claerbaut 61).

The origins of the term are uncertain, though there are a few conjectures.
Dave Wilton, who studies etymology as a hobby, presents the idea that the term
may have come from the word corncracker, which describes someone who cracks
corn for liquor, a common practice especially in early Appalachia. Wilton
writes, "The song lyric 'Jimmy Crack Corn' is a reference to this. In the
song, a slave sings about how his master got drunk, fell, hit his head, and
died. And the slave 'don't care.' (This was a pretty subversive song for its
day.) This usage, however, is probably not the origin of the ethnic term
cracker" (Wilton, par. 1). Wilton also suggests that the term may have come
from 16th century Old English, where "to crack" meant to boast. There isn't
much to reinforce this belief, however.

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


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


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