Scalawags, Rednecks, Mudsills and Swamp People: 400 Years on America’s Fringe – Rural America

Before rednecks, trailer trash and swamp people, there were squatters,
crackers, clay-eaters and white niggers. Before that, there were the
lubbers, bogtrotters, scalawags and offscourings—Britain’s “waste
people” sent by London’s elite to set up shop in the colonies. All
terribly regrettable in hindsight, but, in addition to slavery and the
slaughter of this continent’s indigenous people, our equality-themed
“land of opportunity” also required (and still does) a persistent class
of poverty stricken white people.