I understand the word to be from Florida ranchers cracking their whips to move cattle.
Florida was pretty much free range when I was a kid, people earmarked their hogs and cattle and turned them loose. When they wanted one they would go catch it. People with no land could get permission to run livestock on timber company land and many did.
Every so often there would be a roundup to count and earmark new calves and pigs.
I feel fortunate to have known some of those old timers personally.
“I understand the word to be from Florida ranchers cracking their whips to move cattle.”
‘Lots of meanings. The one associated with the term most is the slavemasters who “cracked” the whip on their slaves. More than a little offensive to those who owned no slaves and to those who fought to have the slaves freed. Biting the hand that freed you is as ugly as the N word.
It is derived from farmers who gathered the sap from pine trees to make turpentine
The sap was cracked into the turpentine used in naval equipment