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consisted of cracked corn. Regardless of which legend you choose to believe, the term was meant to be derogatory. That didn’t matter to the early settlers, as they embraced the term with pride.
The Crackers and early settlers lived on ranches. These ranches were often isolated from each other, so the Crackers had to be self-sufficient. Because homesteads were miles apart, people would often go for a long time without interacting with anyone outside their immediate family. Crackers lived off the land. They raised cattle, hogs and chickens. They planted crops adapted for the Florida soil. These crops included beans, corn, melons, pumpkins, squash and sweet potatoes.
Many of the Crackers were cowboys who spent their day rounding up cattle. During the pioneer days, cattle were left to roam the woods and prairies. Cracker cowboys would be tasked with rounding up and driving cattle to market. They would search the woods and drive the cattle back using cattle dogs and whips.
Not all of Florida’s first pioneers settled inland. Some chose to live along the coast. Those who lived near the shores of the Gulf were the poorest settlers, people without the resources to start their own farms. They often didn’t have enough money to buy even a mule. These dirt-poor families set up makeshift camps on the barrier islands along the Gulf of Mexico, small plots of land with a thin layer of topsoil. There, they could grow a few crops, fish and hunt game. In those early Florida days, ships ran the trade route from Fort Myers to the large port in Key West. The boats would stop at these island homesteads and buy winter produce, dried fish and pelts to ship to northern markets. The coastal pioneers lived a transitory life. When hurricanes washed ashore, the storm surge would cover the land in saltwater, souring the earth. If a family didn’t have enough provisions to last out the many months until the soil became arable again—and most didn’t—they’d be forced to move on to another plot of land.
Crackers and Early Settlements
Southwest Florida remained virtually uninhabited until after the Civil War when farmers and squatters made their way south.
The roads that once served as supply arteries during the Seminole Wars soon became wagon trails, bringing settlers into Florida. According to historical records, the region’s first pioneers were poor farmers from Georgia and South Carolina. These early settlers became known as Crackers. Legend has it that the name “Cracker” came from the cracking sound their whips made. It might have also come from their diet, which
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