The Controversial History of the Word ‘Hillbilly,’ Which Was First Defined in Print 125 Years Ago

In 1900, a political writer described the “hill-billie” as someone who “talks as he pleases, drinks whiskey when he gets it and fires off his revolver as the fancy takes him.” Since then, the label has been used in both mockery and pride

Alice George - Museums Correspondent

April 23, 2025

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In our nation’s early years, those who lived in isolated areas of the Appalachian Mountains were called mountaineers. However, as the industrial revolution brought more people into towns and cities, the mountain dwellers began to seem more divorced from coveted middle-class culture, and a new name took hold: “hillbillies.”

The first printed definition of hillbillies appeared 125 years ago, on April 23, 1900, in the New York Journal. Julian Hawthorne, a political writer, used the word eight times in one short article. He offered the following description: “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 word undoubtedly became part of spoken language before it appeared in print. “It is closely associated with people living in Appalachia and other rural areas with hills and hollers,” says John Troutman, a curator at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. “Its adoption exploded in the early 20th century in parallel with the country’s rapid growth of migrant populations into Northern and Midwestern cities—fueled in large part by white and Black people migrating often from desperate conditions in the rural South, all in hopes of jobs, wellness for their families and a fresh start.” The “hillbilly” name set the new white migrants apart from the other residents who shared their skin color.

At the end of the 19th century, those who would later be identified as hillbillies were often associated with two illegal practices, contributing to exaggerated stereotypes about their communities: the making of moonshine to quench a thirst for alcohol and the engagement in violent feuds between families. In fact, farmers had long set aside part of their corn crop to be transformed into alcohol. And some families did feud, the Hatfields and McCoys being one famous, sensationalized example. The accelerating indulgence in these crimes reflected the desperation of the late 1890s, when white men struggled for control of liquor production, all while they suppressed Black communities with Jim Crow laws.

The hillbilly label was most often applied to white farmers who moved into urban areas. Black farmers “had to navigate their own universe of disparaging stereotypes that was then trafficked within one of the most popular entertainments of the time, blackface minstrelsy,” Troutman says.

Comic strips often added to the ridicule of those known as hillbillies. “Li’l Abner” and “Take Barney Google, F’rinstance,” which was later renamed “Barney Google and Snuffy Smith,” portrayed mountain folk as ignorant and sloppy. Esquire magazine also featured a regular cartoon, “The Mountain Boys,” casting mountain dwellers as people living outside of modern culture. In 1925, H.L. Mencken, a columnist and editor at the Baltimore Sun who covered the infamous Scopes trial, led the way in critiquing rural Southerners by describing those around Dayton, Tennessee, as “gaping primates from the upland valleys.” He said they “sweated freely and were not debauched by the refinements of the toilet.”

Movies also played a role in portraying so-called hillbillies, with some depicted as unintelligent and unsophisticated and others pleasant and charming. Hundreds of Southern mountain films appeared between 1904 and 1920, according to Jerry Williamson, a leading scholar of Southern representation on the big screen. These films highlighted mountain people in the Ozarks as well as Appalachia. During the late 1940s and 1950s, a series of films about “Ma and Pa Kettle” told the story of a rural family, not well-educated but relatively innocent, who move out of poverty in the country and into a new large home after winning a contest.

Television shows of the 1960s found quaintness among those who lived in or once inhabited the Southern mountains. “The Andy Griffith Show” told stories of the inhabitants of Mayberry, a small fictitious town in North Carolina. Some plots involved the unruly but harmless Darling family, depicted as hillbillies who seemed alien to even the small-town residents of Mayberry.

The most famous “hillbillies” on television were the Clampetts of “The Beverly Hillbillies,” a family who migrated from their rustic home to California’s Beverly Hills after oil was found on their property. This newfound wealth introduced many opportunities to Jed Clampett, his mother-in-law Granny, cousin Jethro and daughter Elly May. The Clampetts refused to give up their mountain ways, even while living in a mansion. The show was one of the nation’s most popular during its run from 1962 to 1971, and some looked behind the humor to see that the Clampetts’ simple ways managed to provide a social critique of their wealthy neighbors’ fondness for “things.”

Other shows of the time, such as “Petticoat Junction” and “Green Acres,” also highlighted hillbilly life. The homegrown characters on these series often knew more about day-to-day existence than puzzled outsiders, but they were, nevertheless, ignorant about modern inventions. In the 1970s, “The Waltons” provided a more neighborly and learning-oriented view of life in the Southern mountains. The 1972 thriller film Deliverance showed rural residents in a much harsher light, turning them into criminal, deviant villains.

The negative pop-culture portrayals angered some. Ozarks historian Brooks Blevins bemoaned the stereotype of “a barefoot, rifle-toting, moonshine-swigging, bearded man staring out from beneath a floppy felt hat or a toothless granny in homespun sitting at a spinning wheel and peering suspiciously at strangers from the front porch of a dilapidated mountain cabin.”

But for others, the lives of “hillbillies” were in line with an adventuresome nature that could be seen as a reflection of an American “pioneer spirit.” Many in these communities were viewed as people who maintained close extended families as well as traditional gender roles. And because they were farmers or recent descendants of farmers, they appreciated what nature had to offer and are often seen as people who relied on common-sense wisdom and individualism to build their lives. As some rural families moved into urban areas, Troutman says, “they doubled down in their embrace of values they associated with their rural past.”

Regional music would give “hillbillies” a place to form positive images. The National Museum of American History has many items in its collection that spotlight Americans who have contributed to “hillbilly” music through its evolution to country western and finally to country. The museum has country comedian Minnie Pearl’s hat and dress as well as pants and suspenders worn by Grandpa Jones, a banjo-playing star of the Grand Ole Opry.

Over time, their unique music became one field in which mountain folk attracted attention by exercising their buying power. In the 1920s, as jazz, swing and pop records gained popularity, music producers and broadcasters learned that Southerners, whether they remained in the mountains or struggled to get by in manufacturing cities like Detroit or Chicago, offered a receptive audience to a music of their own. Black Southerners as well as their white neighbors cherished music that said “home” to them. Following the practice of racial segregation at the time, music catalogs often offered the “old time” genre of white performers and the “race records” of Black performers on separate but facing pages. This was the music they embraced, from “the dare-you-not-to-dance tunes of white Atlanta fiddle champions, uproarious Black hokum blues musicians, to humorous songs and stories relayed by string and jug bands,” says Troutman. At the same time, this music attracted a growing audience in urban areas.

In the 1920s, a string band was formed in Galax, Virginia. The session’s producer, Ralph Peer, eventually called them the Hill Billies. Gradually, the genre took that name. “Hillbilly musical acts, whether on record, onstage or soon on the radio, often embraced rube humor and just as often were performed by musicians with extraordinary, sophisticated skill on their fiddles, guitars, banjos, Hawaiian steel guitars and double basses,” says Troutman. “If there was a joke—and there were many of them—they proved that they were in on it and had the last laugh.”

Hillbilly music became a strong contributor to American popular culture after World War II, and singer and songwriter Hank Williams became known as the “Hillbilly Shakespeare.” Though he died in 1953 at the age of only 29, Williams significantly expanded the reputation of what was then called hillbilly music.

“This music formed the bedrock of what later became marketed as country music and launched the nationwide popularity of radio programs like Nashville’s WSM Grand Ole Opry, or Chicago’s WLS National Barn Dance,” Troutman says.

Official Trailer | Country Music | A Film by Ken Burns | PBS

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Today, the word hillbilly has been adopted by many musicians, authors and organizations. Vice President JD Vance titled the 2016 memoir of his youth Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis. With Hillbilly Trails, Hillbilly Days, a hillbilly beverage brand and much more, the word is in widespread use.

“Its usage can be deployed with scorn as quickly as it can be embraced as a badge of honor,” Troutman explains. “Its power lies in its fervent embrace or repulsion by all those who use it, on either side of the coin.”

Alice George | | Read More

Alice George, Ph.D. is an independent historian with a special interest in America during the 1960s. A veteran newspaper editor, she is recently the author of The Last American Hero: The Remarkable Life of John Glenn and has authored or co-authored seven other books, focusing on 20th-century American history or Philadelphia history.