Whats a hillbilly

We all know that ordinary rural Appalachian suffers from deprecating stereotypes, as in "THe Beverly Hillbillies," "Hee-Haw, " "Lil-Abner", and "Snuffy Smith". Of course, it's not the "hillbillies" themselves who see the profit of these stereotypes.

According to Wikipedia "The origins of the term "hillbilly" are obscure. According to Anthony Harkins in Hillbilly: A Cultural History of an American Icon, the term first appeared in print in a 1900 New York Journal article, with the definition: "a Hill-Billie is a free and untrammeled white citizen of Alabama, who lives in the hills, has no means to speak of, dresses as he can, talks as he pleases, drinks whiskey when he gets it, and fires off his revolver as the fancy takes him." The site goes on to explain, "The Appalachian region was largely settled in the 1700s by the Scotch-Irish, the majority of whom originated in the lowlands of Scotland. Harkins believes the most credible theory of the term's origin is that it derives from the linkage of two older Scottish expressions, "hill-folk" and "billie" which was a synonym for "fellow", similar to "guy" or "bloke"."

Beyond stereotypes, regional historians have assigned four regional characteristics of the Apalachian people: Individualism, Traditionalism, Fatalism, and Fundamentalism.

In 1996, a grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission enabled the Center for Appalachian Studies at East Tennessee State and the UT Press to create an Encyclopedia of Appalachia, the goal of which was to fight stereotypes and to reveal the true complex and revealing nature of the region: http://utpress.org/Appalachia/

Check it out for more info...I gotta go fill up my coffee.