The Floridians extracted resin from pine trees that was converted into something, maybe turpentine. The conversion process was called cracking.
The people doing the job were thus crackers
‘zactly, from Ocala National Forest near Daytona Beach, all the way west to the Cedar Key on the Gulf, up to Big Bend and more. Awesome Backwoods Florida
Watch out for bears and skeeters.
It goes back further.
“The first reference to a cracker in Florida appears in 1790, when the Spanish governor of East Florida wrote that the crackers in Florida were wild, nomadic and would not heed government authority.”
Gradually it became a turn applied to Florida cow hunters who cracked whips when rounding up the pretty much wild free roaming cattle in Florida.