Hillbilly or not?

For a short time of my life I was branded as a hillbilly, when I moved from Princeton, Kentucky to Cincinnati. I certainly thought it was strange considering I never even heard my own accent much less think I was from "the hills." Nonetheless, Bill Cunningham sheds some light on one of the historical uses of hillbilly right at the turn of the 20th century in his book On Bended Knee.
Caldwell County played a central part in the war against the giant American Tobacco Company or simply known to the tobacco farmers as the Duke Trust. James Duke had made a monopoloy in the tobacco industry. Thus, the tobacco farmers in Western Kentucky and Tennessee formed the Dark Tobacco District Planter's Protection Association of Kentucky and Tennessee. The Association banded together under the leadership of Felix Ewing, Charles Fort, and Caldwell County's own, David Amoss. Tobacco farmers joined the association to loosen the stranghold the trust had on tobacco prices that had plummeted from 8-12 cents a pound to 3 cents and less. The Association rallied support throughout the black patch in order to hold out for better prices and not accept any offer until ALL farmers were compensated for their hard year of work. Beginning in 1904, the Association began and turned to dark mearsures in this war with a group known as the Night Riders beating, threatening, and destroying crops of those outside of the Association.
The farmers that did not join the Association were termed hillbillies. Cunningham states,
"The only known explanation for this term was given by a farmer from Trigg County, Kentucky: 'It's this way you see. Most people that live on hills has got goats. Most of those goats is billy goats. And you know what a goat is? No matter how much grub he gets at home he is always wandering around for stuff belonging to other people than his owner. He is forever taking for his own good things he never did nothing for. For that's the way with those here men. They don't do nothing to help the Association if they takes the benefits of the prices the Association makes.'"
Enjoy your lesson on the historical usage of hillbilly. I'm sure you'll think twice the next time someone calls you a hillbilly. Rather than being considered someone from "the sticks", maybe, just maybe, they might be calling you one of those goats that are forever taking things you never did nothing for.