Where does the term redneck come from?

Where does the term redneck come from?

The term is thought to have a simple origin. If you picture labourers working long days in the fields, bent over crops, it’s not difficult to imagine how sunburned the back of their necks would get, making them literal red necks.

Similar to how people of noble birth in Europe came to be known as ‘blue blooded’, this visual marker of a burned neck was a telltale way of spotting a person’s social status. It marked them as a poor labourer in 19th-century America.

When did the term redneck become a slur?

The meaning of redneck as a pejorative emerged around the turn of the 20th century; to be a redneck was to be a communist or a trade union agitator. It was bandied around by employers to attack their workers, especially troublemakers calling for greater rights and better pay.

Yet these labourers, farmers, coal miners – anyone belittled by being called a redneck – embraced the sobriquet. They chose to wear red neckerchiefs and bandanas as a demonstration of unity within the workforce, be they white, black or immigrant.

That symbolism lives on: in 2018, when tens of thousands of teachers in West Virginia went on strike over better pay and healthcare, many wore red as a nod to the state’s political past.

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The Redneck Army and the battle of Blair Mountain

When coal miners in Appalachia, particularly West Virginia, rose up against their bosses in the so-called Coal Wars, they became the ‘Redneck Army’. Taking up arms, they fought for the right to form and join unions, and against low wages, dangerous working conditions and the stranglehold of the coal companies.

Miners had to live in company towns where everything was controlled – including schools, churches and doctors – and they had to buy everything from company shops using a special currency called scrip. Those who defied their bosses were either kicked out or faced violence from the company’s mercenary enforcers.

Labourers, farmers, coal miners – anyone belittled by being called a redneck – embraced the sobriquet. They chose to wear red neckerchiefs and bandanas as a demonstration of unity within the workforce

The Coal Wars culminated in the battle of Blair Mountain in 1921, the largest armed labour uprising in the history of the US.

For five days in August and September, more than 10,000 coal miners in West Virginia clashed with lawmen under the command of the Logan County sheriff Don Chafin and the company’s goons, all the while wearing red bandanas around their necks.

Eventually, on the orders of President Warren G Harding, federal troops were called in and the miners defeated. Casualty figures are difficult to ascertain, but it is estimated that up to 100 people may have died.

It was in the aftermath that the term redneck was cemented in the American consciousness.