“Root, pig. Or Die” - From a story Abraham Lincoln told when asked by a Southern leader what the white population of the South would do without their slave labor.
Excellent reference.
Excellent.
“Root hog, or die” is a common American catch-phrase dating from well before 1834.[1] Coming from the early colonial practice of turning pigs loose in the woods to fend for themselves, the term is an idiomatic expression for self-reliance
****** from wikipedia