“On a lighter note, I have yet to figure out what ‘Cracker’ is supposed to mean. As derogatory terms go, that one is kind of weak.”
I’ve heard it comes from miners, who were coal crackers.
See 68.
Nope. Google it. It came from a term for braggarts in Scotland and Ireland. Also, some say it came from Florida cowboys who herded cattle by whipping them. The crack of the whip sound, the employer of the whip then became a cracker. And others say it came from slave masters who would whip their slaves. Finally, some say it came from the food of colonial poor people, cracked corn.
Mostly I heard it used to describe poor, slovenly white trash. In my state (Alabama) there was a lot of class stratification, and "cracker" was more often a term used by richer, landowner whites to describe poor sharecroppers and hillbillies.