Florida cracker
Encyclopedia
Thirteen Colonies
The Thirteen Colonies were English and later British colonies established on the Atlantic coast of North America between 1607 and 1733. They declared their independence in the American Revolution and formed the United States of America...
-era English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
pioneer settlers
Settler
A settler is a person who has migrated to an area and established permanent residence there, often to colonize the area. Settlers are generally people who take up residence on land and cultivate it, as opposed to nomads...
of what is now the U.S. state of Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, and their descendants. The first Florida crackers arrived in 1763 when Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
traded Florida to Great Britain. The British divided the territory into East Florida
East Florida
East Florida was a colony of Great Britain from 1763–1783 and of Spain from 1783–1822. East Florida was established by the British colonial government in 1763; as its name implies it consisted of the eastern part of the region of Florida, with West Florida comprising the western parts. Its capital...
and West Florida
West Florida
West Florida was a region on the north shore of the Gulf of Mexico, which underwent several boundary and sovereignty changes during its history. West Florida was first established in 1763 by the British government; as its name suggests it largely consisted of the western portion of the region...
, and began to aggressively recruit settlers to the area, offering free land and financial backing for export-oriented businesses. The territory passed back to the Spanish crown in 1783, and then to the US government in 1819. Spanish rule in the late 18th and early 19th centuries was only nominal and the territory was wild and lawless. The etymology of the word "cracker" in this usage is disputed.
Historical usage
The term "cracker" was in use during the Elizabethan eraElizabethan era
The Elizabethan era was the epoch in English history of Queen Elizabeth I's reign . Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history...
to describe braggarts. The original root of this is the Middle English
Middle English
Middle English is the stage in the history of the English language during the High and Late Middle Ages, or roughly during the four centuries between the late 11th and the late 15th century....
word crack meaning "entertaining conversation" (One may be said to "crack" a joke); this term and the Gaelicized spelling "craic" are still in use in Northern England
Northern England
Northern England, also known as the North of England, the North or the North Country, is a cultural region of England. It is not an official government region, but rather an informal amalgamation of counties. The southern extent of the region is roughly the River Trent, while the North is bordered...
, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
and Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
. It is documented in William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
's King John (1595): "What cracker is this ... that deafes our ears / With this abundance of superfluous breath?"
By the 1760s the English, both at home and in the American colonies
Thirteen Colonies
The Thirteen Colonies were English and later British colonies established on the Atlantic coast of North America between 1607 and 1733. They declared their independence in the American Revolution and formed the United States of America...
, applied the term “cracker” to Scots-Irish and English American
English American
English Americans are citizens or residents of the United States whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in England....
settlers of the remote southern back country, as noted in a passage from a letter to the Earl of Dartmouth
Earl of Dartmouth
Earl of Dartmouth is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1711 for William Legge, 2nd Baron Dartmouth. The Legge family descended from Edward Legge, Vice-President of Munster. His eldest son William Legge was a Royalist army officer and close associate of Prince Rupert of the...
: "I should explain to your Lordship what is meant by Crackers; a name they have got from being great boasters; they are a lawless set of rascalls on the frontiers of Virginia, Maryland, the Carolinas, and Georgia, who often change their places of abode
Abode
Abode may refer to:*House, a human-built dwelling with enclosing walls, a floor, and a roof**Right of abode*World of Two Moons aka Abode, a fictional Earth-type planet featured in the comic book Elfquest...
." The word was later associated with the cowboys of Georgia and Florida, many of them descendants of those early frontiersmen.
The term "cracker" in Florida usage relates to the whip that cowboys used to "crack" cattle out of the swamps and scrub.
Quáqueros
The Spaniards in Florida called the Anglo-settlers "Quáqueros," a corruption of the English word “Quaker,” which the Spanish used to contemptuously refer to any Protestant. When Florida was annexed by the US in 1819, an estimated 20,000 Anglo-Floridians (mainly English AmericanEnglish American
English Americans are citizens or residents of the United States whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in England....
s and Scotch-Irish Americans) lived alongside 40,000 more Spanish Floridians and about 10,000 African slaves, brought by the Anglo-Floridian farm owners in the northern part of Florida, but most of the slaves escaped and later joined the Seminole Indians, who used southern Florida as a safe haven away from approaching Anglo-American settlers in the 1820s.
The Florida peninsula was a battleground of Indian wars, slave rebellions and border skirmishes between the last days of New Spain
New Spain
New Spain, formally called the Viceroyalty of New Spain , was a viceroyalty of the Spanish colonial empire, comprising primarily territories in what was known then as 'América Septentrional' or North America. Its capital was Mexico City, formerly Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire...
and its subjugation by the United States army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
in the 1820s and 1830s, when the Seminoles were defeated and forcibly expelled. Florida officially became a US state in 1845, but remained a mostly rural backwater for nearly a century until the real estate boom of the 1920s. In the course of the 20th century, much of the formerly rural wetland and ranching lands of the Anglo-Floridian "crackers" and cowboys was sold to real estate developers.
Cracker Cowboys
Cowboy
A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the vaquero traditions of northern Mexico and became a figure of...
and the Western cowboy
Cowboy
A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the vaquero traditions of northern Mexico and became a figure of...
. Florida cowboys did not use lasso
Lasso
A lasso , also referred to as a lariat, riata, or reata , is a loop of rope that is designed to be thrown around a target and tighten when pulled. It is a well-known tool of the American cowboy. The word is also a verb; to lasso is to successfully throw the loop of rope around something...
s to herd or capture cattle. Their primary tools were bullwhip
Bullwhip
A bullwhip is a single-tailed whip, usually made of braided leather, which was originally used as a tool for working with livestock.Bullwhips are pastoral tools, traditionally used to control livestock in open country...
s and dogs. Florida cattle and horses
Florida Cracker Horse
The Florida Cracker Horse is a breed of horse from Florida in the United States. It is genetically and physically similar to many other Spanish-style horses, especially those from the Spanish Colonial Horse group. The Florida Cracker is a gaited breed known for its agility and speed...
were small. The "cracker cow
Florida Cracker cattle
The Florida Cracker is a breed of cattle developed in the state of Florida, and named for the Florida Cracker culture in which it was kept. Also known as the Florida Scrub or just as the Cracker cow, these cattle are one of the criollo-type breeds originally brought to the Southern U.S. by the...
", also known as the "native" or "scrub" cow averaged about 600 pounds (272.2 kg) and had large horns and large feet.
Modern usage
The term is used as a proud or jocular self-description. Since the huge influx of new residents into Florida from the northern parts of the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and from Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
and Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the term "Florida Cracker" is 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."
Notable Florida crackers
- Doyle E. CarltonDoyle E. CarltonDoyle Elam Carlton was the 25th Governor of Florida.-Early life:Doyle Carlton the son of Albert and Martha Carlton was born in Wauchula, Florida. He had one younger brother, Leland Francis Carlton. He received his primary education in Wauchula and, as there was then no local high school, he then...
- 25th governor of Florida (1929–1933) - Lawton ChilesLawton ChilesLawton Mainor Chiles, Jr. was an American politician from the US state of Florida. In a career spanning four decades, Chiles, a Democrat who never lost an election, served in the Florida House of Representatives , the Florida State Senate , the United States Senate , and as the 41st Governor of...
- 41st governor of Florida (1991–1998) - LeRoy CollinsLeRoy CollinsThomas LeRoy Collins was the 33rd Governor of Florida.-Early life:Collins was born and raised in Tallahassee, Florida, where he attended Leon High School. He went on to attend the Eastman Business College in New York and then went on to the Cumberland School of Law in Birmingham, Alabama to...
- 33rd governor of Florida (1955–1961) - Fred P. ConeFred P. ConeFrederick Preston Cone was the 27th Governor of Florida.He was born in Benton, Florida in Columbia County. In 1892, he was admitted to the Florida bar and began practicing in Lake City, Florida. He served in the Florida Senate from 1907 to 1913, serving as the senate president in 1911. He became...
- 27th governor of Florida (1937–1941) - William CooleyWilliam CooleyWilliam Cooley was one of the first American settlers, and a regional leader, in what is now known as Broward County, in the U.S. state of Florida. His family was killed by Seminoles in 1836, during the Second Seminole War...
- Florida pioneer - Ben Hill Griffin Jr. - "A Cracker millionaire from Frostproof, Fla."
- Spessard HollandSpessard HollandSpessard Lindsey Holland was an American lawyer, politician and elected officeholder. He was the 28th Governor of Florida from 1941 until 1945, during World War II. After finishing his term as governor, he was a United States Senator from Florida from 1946 until 1971...
- 28th governor of Florida (1941–1945), U.S. Senator (1946–1971) - Bill NelsonBill NelsonClarence William "Bill" Nelson is the senior United States Senator from the state of Florida and a member of the Democratic Party. He is a former U.S. Representative and former Treasurer and Insurance Commissioner of Florida...
- member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1979–1991), NASA payload specialist (STS-61-C), U.S. Senator (2001–present) - Adam PutnamAdam PutnamAdam H. Putnam is the current Florida Commissioner of Agriculture and the former U.S. Representative for , serving from 2001 until 2011. He is a member of the Republican Party.-Early life, education and career:...
- member of the U.S. House of Representatives for Florida's 12th congressional district (2001–present) - Fuller WarrenFuller WarrenFuller Warren was the 30th Governor of Florida.Born in Blountstown, Florida, he attended the University of Florida in Gainesville. While at the University of Florida, he was one of the early members of Florida Blue Key and was a member of the Tau Chapter of Theta Chi Fraternity...
- 30th governor of Florida (1949–1953)
See also
- A Land RememberedA Land RememberedA Land Remembered is a best-selling novel written by author Patrick D. Smith, and published in 1984 by Pineapple Press. It is historical fiction set in pioneer Florida...
- Cracker (pejorative)Cracker (pejorative)Cracker, sometimes white cracker, is a pejorative term for white people. It is an ethnic slur that is especially used for the white inhabitants of the U.S. states of Georgia and Florida , but it is also used throughout the United States.-Etymology:One theory holds that the term comes from the...
- Florida cracker architectureFlorida cracker architectureFlorida cracker architecture is a style of woodframe home used somewhat widely in the 19th century in Florida, United States, and still popular with some developers as a source of design themes...
- Florida Cracker TrailFlorida Cracker TrailThe Florida Cracker Trail runs from just east of Bradenton, and ends in Fort Pierce, a total distance of approximately 120 miles. In years past, this route was used for both cattle and horses. Today it includes parts of State Road 66, State Road 64, and U.S. Highway 98.On November 20, 2000, the...
- Georgia crackerGeorgia crackerGeorgia Cracker refers to the original American pioneer settlers of the Province of Georgia , and their descendants. It is different from the pejorative term for southern whites...
- VaqueroVaqueroThe vaquero is a horse-mounted livestock herder of a tradition that originated on the Iberian peninsula. Today the vaquero is still a part of the doma vaquera, the Spanish tradition of working riding...
External links
- Victor Milt's Documentary Film: Cracker Cowboys
- Butch Harrison Florida Cracker Storyteller
- Example of a Florida Cracker Homestead
- Florida Cracker Trail Association
- Florida Cracker Horses
- "FLORIDA CRACKERS:The Cattlemen and Cowboys of Florida" the Movie