Term for Scottish emigrant descendants?

[Phil]

Actually the term "cracker", as applied to a boaster or barggart, is first noted in the English language in c. 1509-- the first (early 18th century) reference to the word "cracker" in Scots that I have thus far encountered referred to a pistol. "Craic", in Irish, does not mean "to talk" (that word is "caint"), but rather refers to a gathering or group of people-- "The 'craic' at the pub is brilliant."

"Cracker", in the North American sense, probably refers to "corn crackers" (those who shuck corn) and/or "whip crackers" (drovers herding cattle) and is a contemptuous term (like hillbilly) used to describe "poor white trash", as well as the native whites of Georgia and Florida. Its first recorded use in North America seems to be c. 1784 as reported in the London Chronicle when describing "banditti" in the former Maryland Colony.

Cracker - http://www.dsl.ac.uk/dsl/index.html - is a lowland Scots word. Scottish merchants operated illegally in the then English colony and Scottish settlers started arriving as early as the 1680's to the Southern and Atlantic states where the majority of teachers and doctors were trained in Scotland. Ulster Scots didn't start arriving in the second wave of immigration until some time later, around 1717 following famine in Ulster and the Highland Scots arrived later again, after the failed '45 rebellion and their persecution following it.