Hillbilly

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Hillbilly_Bears,_The :: Hillbilly_Cousin_Luke

Hillbilly is a term for people who dwell in remote, rural, mountainous areas. In particular the term refers to residents of Appalachia and later the Ozarks in the United States. Usage of the term "Hillbilly" generally differs from other terms referring to rural people in the United States in that it can be used for mountain dwelling people anywhere but is generally not used to refer to rural people in non-mountainous areas. Further, terms like redneck and cracker, often connote rejection of, or resistance to assimilation into the dominant culture, while hillbillies theoretically are merely isolated from the dominant culture. Nevertheless, the term is sometimes considered derogatory depending on the manner in which it is used or the attitude of the target.

History

The term "Hill-Billies" is first encountered in documents from 17th century Ireland. Roman Catholic King James II landed at Kinsale in Ireland in 1689 and began to raise a Catholic army in an attempt to regain the British throne. Protestant King William III, Prince of Orange, led an English counter force into Ireland and defeated James II at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. A significant portion of William III's army was composed of Protestants of Scottish descent (Planters) who had settled in Ulster in northern Ireland. The southern Irish Catholic supporters of James II referred to these northern Protestant supporters of King William as "Hill-Billies" and "Billy Boys"--Billy being an abbreviation of William; the term "Billy Boy" is still used today, mainly in Northern Ireland. The Catholics and Protestants were at war and the terms were not spoken in kindness. Supporters of King William more generally came to be known as Orangemen.

It is believed that the term "hillbilly" in the United States was conferred during the early 18th Century by the occupying British soldiers as a carry over from the Irish term, in referring to Scots-Irish immigrants of mainly Presbyterian origin, dwelling in the frontier areas of the Appalachian Mountains. These Protestant Irish colonists brought their cultural traditions with them when they immigrated. Many of their stories, songs and ballads dealt with the history of their Ulster and Lowland Scot homelands, especially relating the tale of the Protestant King William III, Prince of Orange.

Alternatively, it is also speculated that the term emerged as a derogatory nickname given by the coastal plain dwelling Anglo-Saxon Southerners for the hill-dwelling settlers of Eastern Tennessee, Western Virginia, northern Arkansas and Eastern Kentucky, many of whom were ambivalent to the Confederacy during the American Civil War. Billy Yank was the common term for Union soldiers, the nemesis of the Confederate Johnny Reb.

The use of the word was probably most apt (and relatively inoffensive) during the period between the western expansion of the early-to-mid nineteenth century and the post-war period of the 1940s. The advent of the interstate highway system and television brought many previously isolated communities into mainstream United States culture in the 1950s and 1960s. The Internet continues this integration but many communities with relatively traditional lifestyles remain throughout the region. Strangely enough, early editions of Websters Dictionary include a definition of hillbilly as "a Michigan Farmer".

Historically, there were conflicts between the mountain-dwelling "hillbillies" and the planters who lived on the coastal plains. During the American Civil War, many residents of western Virginia were pro-Union in that they generally did not own slaves and resented the political dominance of planters who did. This resentment was a contributing factor to the creation of the state of West Virginia. This affiliation may also be observed in the pro-Union names of many rural Appalachian areas, e.g. Lincoln County or Union County.

Country and Western music was originally called hillbilly music, even by its fans, until the late 1950s. However, the older name is now deemed offensive (and inappropriate) and is hardly ever used. However, the term "Hillbilly music" is now sometimes used to describe Old-time music. The first tune that contained the word "hillbilly" was "Hillbilly Boogie" by the Delmore Brothers in 1946. However, in 1927, the Gennett studios in Richmond, Indiana, made a recording of black fiddler Jim Booker with other instrumentalists; their recordings were labeled "made for Hillbilly" in the Gennett files, and were marketed to a white audience. By the late forties, radio stations broadcast music described as "hillbilly", originally to describe fiddlers and string bands, but was then used to describe the traditional music of the people of the Appalachian Mountains. The people who actually sang these songs and lived in the Appalachian Mountains never used these terms to describe their own music. Popular songs of the early 1950s whose style bore characteristics of both "hillbilly" and rock-and-roll genres was referred to as "rockabilly". The versatile (to put it mildly) Elvis Presley was a prominent member of that genre. When the Country Music Association was founded in 1958, the term "hillbilly music" gradually fell out of use. However, the term "rockabilly" is alive and well. ^*

The hillbilly stereotype

Stereotypical characteristics of hillbillies as portrayed in popular media, such as Li'l Abner, are that they:

smoke a corncob pipe.
are often moonshiners with a ^* still on their property. *often drink from traditional moonshine clay jugs marked "XXX".
often wear a worn out floppy hat.
own a shotgun. They use the shotgun in social situations when they believe a male hillbilly has had sexual relations with a female hillbilly--they will force this male to marry the female, either to save her status among the hillbilly clan or to ensure that the male remains responsible to any offspring from this relationship. This is termed a "shotgun wedding."
often fight each other along family lines. This is known as a "feud." A historically important fight between hillbilly clans was the Hatfield-McCoy feud.
are often barefoot.
have poor personal and dental hygiene (sometimes portrayed with few or no teeth at all).
are not motivated by money or attempt in any way to improve their social status in comparison to the outside world; are content with their lives; do not generally leave their clans to see other parts of the world.
are poorly educated.
Engage in inbreeding
drive vintage Ford and Chevrolet (occasionally Dodge) pick-up trucks, for lack of a newer vehicle.

Modern usage

Today, in urban areas, "hillbilly" has increasingly insulting connotations--especially as rural people are increasingly marginalized.

To the people of the Appalachian Mountains, the term "hillbilly" is complex. It can be both embraced as a reference to heritage and hegemonic resistance, and/or seen to carry a negative connotation that has been greatly emphasized by how Hollywood movies and films portray the "hillbilly" as impoverished, ill-educated, toothless, shoeless, unstylish, inbred, etc. While such stereotyping is generally offensive, socio-economic realities have left much of the Appalachian region impoverished, although the economy has been steadily improving since the 1990s.

Since the mid 1970's the Applachian town of Pikeville, Kentucky has been home to the annual Hillbilly Days Festival. The large festival, which raises money for the Shriner's Hospitals for Children, pokes fun at the local Hillbilly stereotype and celebrates Applachian culture and art. The festival is the second largest festival in the state of Kentucky often drawing nearly 100,000 people.

In fiction

Hillbillies have often been characterized as ignorant hicks.

The hillbilly lifestyle of the Ozarks was gently parodied in the comic strip Li'l Abner, which inspired a Broadway musical and movie by the same name.
Ma and Pa Kettle were very popular characters in comedic movies of the 1940s and 1950s.
In the 1960s American sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies, the Clampett family were supposed to have come from the hills near a fictionalized hamlet in the Ozarks known as Bugtussle.
Festus, a prominent character on the TV series Gunsmoke, belonged to a hillbilly clan.
An episode of The Dukes of Hazzard saw Bo and Luke rescuing Daisy from being forced to marry into a family of sociopathic hillbillies.
Tom Sawyer, a southern-Missourian in the novel Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain.
A recurring character on The Simpsons, Cletus Spuckler (aka the "Slack-Jawed Yokel") and his family are stereotypical hillbillies.
The 1960s American sitcom The Andy Griffith Show has two contrasting stereotypes of recurring hillbilly characters: The ignorant but kindly, impoverished but generous Darling family, portrayed by bluegrass band The Dillards and Denver Pyle; and the belligerent, paranoid, frankly violent buffoon, Ernest T. Bass, portrayed by Howard Morris.
In 1970, the author James Dickey published the novel Deliverance, a story about four men going for a canoe-trip on a river in the mountains of Georgia. They encounter several sociopathic hillbillies and are subsequently attacked, captured, tortured, and raped by them. (Based on a real canoe trip in which he was actually helped by friendly mountaineers.)
On Nickelodeon's The Amanda Show, starring Amanda Bynes, a recurring skit titled "Hillbilly Moment" would be featured. Amanda Bynes and Drake Bell would appear as stereotypical hillbillies and behave accordingly.
A popular television comedy-variety show "Hee Haw" starred several well-known country singers and regularly lampooned the stereotypical hillybilly lifestyle.
Rob Zombie's 1998 album, Hellbilly Deluxe, Hellbilly is a direct derivative of Hillbilly.
In ABC's mystery drama Lost, the spokesman for the Others, Mr. Friendly, is called 'Zeke' by Sawyer—Zeke is a derogatory hillbilly name, and Mr. Friendly resembles the stereotypical hillbilly.
In the popular late-night comedy show Saturday Night Live, hillbillies are portrayed in the skit Appalachian Emergency Room, with injuries only associable with the common media representation of hillbillies.
The Arkansas Chuggabug, driven by Luke & Blubber Bear - hillbillies in a wooden buggy driven by a coal-fired range in Wacky Races is an American animated television series from Hanna-Barbera Productions.
The Adult Swim show, Squidbillies, focuses on a family of hillbilly/redneck squids and their stereotypical misadventures.

References

Hillbilly, A Cultural History of an American Icon by Anthony Harkins
Rural IQ

Pejorative terms for people | Social groups | Appalachian culture | Stereotypes | Irish American history

Hillbilly | Caipira | Hillbilly | Hillbilly

Gourt Home::Gourt :: Hillbilly

History

The hillbilly stereotype

Modern usage

In fiction

See also

References