I was always given the impression that the etymology of “cracker” was the crack of the overseer’s whip during slavery. And it developed to mean a low-status White person in general who took on the task of striking fear into the hearts of Black people. That, I had been taught, was a cracker. But I have been told in Florida it refers to the sound of the whip on cattle, not chattel slaves, wielded in the Florida backcountry. Maybe.
