A little redneck history.

[Plastic Nev]

This was sent to me by a Scotsman friend in an E Mail. Considering there are a good few members here from America, I thought you all might be interested in where the term originated.

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

"Am betting that y'all have heard the term 'redneck' sure enough and the US being such a young country y'all thought that 'rednecks' originated in the deep South...... WRONG!

 

The word redneck is first cited in Scotland, where it referred to supporters of the National Covenant and The Solemn League and Covenant, otherwise known as Covenanters - largely lowland Presbyterians.

The Covenanters in the mid 1600's signed documents that stated Scotland desired the Presbyterian form of church government and would not accept the Church of England as its official state church. To signify their desire, many Covenanters signed the documents in their own blood, would spill their blood to keep this from happening and wore red pieces of cloth around their necks as distinctive insignia - hence the term Redneck

.

These Scottish Presbyterians migrated from their lowland Scottish home to Ulster (the northern province of Ireland) during the 17th Century and soon settled in considerable numbers in North America across the 18th Century. One etymological theory holds that since many Scotch-Irish who settled in what would become the South were Presbyterian, the term was bestowed upon them and their descendants.

 

 

So its och aye the noo to y'all"

[RandyL]

A nice bit of little known history there Nev. It's so hard to pinpoint these things in the great American melting pot since we are a country made up of many countries.