white trash history

White trash is an American English pejorative term referring to individual or groups of lower social class white skinned people that the speaker considers to lack cultural capital. It is most frequently used as a slur to describe financially, economically or culturally disadvantaged Caucasians. It may also be used self-referentially by white North Americans with higher socio-economic status to jokingly describe limitations they sense in their culture[citation needed] and may also be used as a within-group expression among disadvantaged white Americans to express solidarity. "White trash" should be differentiated from the term redneck, as each has a unique historical etymology and context in modern usage with the latter generally a bit more socially acceptable.

The term white trash originated in the Baltimore and Washington, DC area during the 1820s post-revolutionary war reconstruction boom. During that period, many poor people migrated to the area, and white and black semi-skilled workers were competing for the same jobs, resources and marriage partners.[1] The term white trash first came into common use in the 1830s as a pejorative used by upper-class United States southerners of all races against financially disadvantaged caucasians.[citation needed] It was synonymous with the slurs sand hiller, "sandlapper", and clay eater. The last term was because Upper-class Southerners assumed poor white farmers farmed ineptly on poor land, and consequently had nothing to eat but clay.[citation needed]
In 1854 Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote the chapter "Poor White Trash" in her book A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin. Stowe tells the reader that slavery not only produces "degraded, miserable slaves", but also poor whites who are even more degraded and miserable. The plantation system forced those whites to struggle for subsistence. Beyond economic factors, Stowe traces this class to the shortage of schools and churches in their community, and says that both blacks and whites in the area look down on these "poor white trash".[1] Sociologist Max Weber described white trash as "[those] not owning slaves".