What is the origin of the term "redneck"?

zbeckabee

Those more southern and closer to Texas will consider the term to relate more to popular historical characters and therefore worthy of respect. The term originated there as a description of the red bandanna's worn by a group of outlaws or heroes, depending on whose side you are on. http://webpages.marshall.edu/~davis23/rampage.htmlx Jul 25 06, 6:41 PM

peasypod

What? No mention of Scotland and of the Presbyterian Church Government, and the Church of England? The Covenanters would be most disappointed, I'm sure. And lookie here, who would have thought the answer to one of my most recent questions would be laying on this page, too. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redneck Jul 25 06, 7:39 PM

CaroSun

"Here in my part of the country, "rednecks" were those that worked the fields and gardens and consequently developed permanently red roughened skin on the back of their necks." is from the same website that zbeckabee found and is the meaning I have always known. Jul 25 06, 8:02 PM

smitty9736

http://www.rootsweb.com/~wvcoal/red.html I live in the mountains on the Kentucky, West Virginia border and I have been told the origin for 'redneck' was because of the Redneck War of 1921. I don't know if they were Scottish, Irish or what. I do know that they wore red neckerchiefs, bandandas, or scarves if you dare call them that, due to the fact that they were miners, and the red clothes around their necks were a form of early dust masks. Hatfields and McCoys were involved, but the rest is in the history books. Jan 31 08, 6:50 PM

jrgates54

If you can catch the program on the History Channel, 'Hillbilly, The Real Story.' This program will tell you in detail where the term 'Redneck' came from. Briefly, it involved unionized West Virginia coal miners going up against the coal company thugs. This was as close to a war as you could get. The unionized coal miners wore red handkerchiefs around their necks to identify themselves. Thus the term 'Redneck.' This is a conflict that not too many people are aware of. Eventually, the US president ordered federal troops in to bring the conflict to a halt. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3732/is_200601/ai_n17174894 http://tvlistings.zap2it.com/tvlistings/ZCProgram.do?method=getDetail&pgmId=SH009473950000&lineupId=NY31519:X&zipcode=10010 [Links added Feb. 24, 2008 by Zbeckabee] Feb 23 08, 10:29 PM