==Social and political history==
After the Civil War the status of the independent white farmers (called "[[Yeoman]]") fell drastically in the South. Many became sharecroppers or tenants—they worked land owned by landowners in town. In the towns the rising southern middle class rejected the celebration of rural life associated with the yeoman. They denounced as "demagogues" the radical leaders who appealed to the poor farmers, for example [[Ben Tillman|"Pitchfork Ben Tillman]] who was governor and senator from South Carolina. As the poor farmers Democrats endorsed lynching of [[uppity ]] blacks, the middle class townsfolk denounced lynching in the name of [[Law and order]]. Some poor farmers moved to mill towns, especially to work in the textile mills of the Carolinas. The money was much better than on the hard-scrabble farms, but this again represented a fall in social status. By the end of the century the middle class was ridiculing the former yeomen as "rednecks" and "hillbillies."<ref>"Hillbillies" lived in remote mountain areas. Stephen A. West, ''From Yeoman to Redneck in the South Carolina Upcountry, 1850–1915.'' (2008)</ref>
Appeals to the redneck vote angered the middle class but they were a minority, and redneck oratory proved successful in stirring resentment against cities like Charleston, South Carolina. A major breakthrough came in the 1899 Democratic primary campaign for U.S. Senator in Mississippi between the last of the middle class [[Redeemers]], Congressman John Mills Allen (1846-1917), and Governor Anselm Joseph McLaurin (1848-1909). Supported by the railroads, landowners and bankers, Allen won support because of his effective humor, clean political record, and reputation as a persuasive speaker. But McLaurin ignored Allen's attacks and skillfully reinforced his image as a poor dirt farmer sacrificing himself for his own people to fight single-handedly the organized corporate and political powers. Allen lost partly because of voting frauds, and, mostly because he did not understand the power of the new redneck rhetoric. He did not think that oratory which fanned the flames of class hatred could withstand criticism, and he was wrong.<ref>Clyde J. Faries, "Redneck Rhetoric and the Last of the Redeemers: The 1899 Mc Laurin-Allen Campaign." ''Journal of Mississippi History'' 1971 33(4): 283-298 0022-2771</ref>