They were first classified as a social caste[2][3] in the Antebellum South,[4] consisting of white, agrarian, economically disadvantaged laborers or squatters, who usually owned neither land nor slaves.

In context, the Poor White refers to a distinct sociocultural group, with members who belong to families with a history of multi-generational poverty and cultural divergence.

They have been known as "rednecks" (especially in modern context), "hillbillies" in Appalachia, "crackers" in Texas, Georgia, and Florida, "Hoosier" in St. Louis, Missouri, and "white trash".

Rather than provide wealth as it had for the Southern planter class, in stark contrast, slavery considerably hindered progress of whites who did not own enslaved individuals by exerting a crowding-out effect, eliminating free labor in the region.

This effect, compounded by the area's widespread lack of public education and its general practice of endogamy, prevented low-income and low-wealth free laborers from moving to the middle class.

[13][14] In her novel Dred, Harriet Beecher Stowe illustrates a commonly held stereotype that marriage to them results in generic degradation and barbarism of the better class.

[14] During the American Civil War, the Poor White comprised a majority of the combatants in the Confederate Army; afterwards, many labored in the rural South as sharecroppers.

During the nadir of American race relations at the turn of the 20th century, intense violence, defense of honor and white supremacy flourished[15] in a region suffering from a lack of public education and competition for resources.

The Civil War also caused poor whites to experience intense dire economic conditions and was brought into poverty along with enslaved African-Americans.

[22] The drafting and recruitment of physically fit individuals in the First World War revealed the first practical comparisons between the Appalachian region, the South, and the rest of the country.

[28] The Poor White survived by small-scale subsistence agriculture,[7] hunter-gathering,[7] charity,[29] fishing,[7] bartering with enslaved individuals[7][30] and seeking what employment they could find.

A broad characterization of the culture, of the descendants of the Poor Whites, includes such elements as strong kinship ties, non-hierarchical religious affiliations, emphasis on manual labor, connection to rural living and nature, and inclination toward self-reliance.