The Backwoodsman

As the Yankee grew in popularity in the bustling East, the Western boundaries of the nation were constantly being pushed into new regions.  The circumstances of life on the frontier were of a completely different nature than life in the already conquered East.  Thus it would be expected that the satire would be of a different nature as well.  People of the frontier were of a different composition due to the harshness of pioneering outside the domain of social organization.

"New England papers welcomed stories of Western atrocities; they dilated upon the dangers to which the emigrants would be subjected--dangers from savages red and white, from beasts and snakes, from the rigors of climate, from pestilent fevers" (Mody C. Boatright, Folk Laughter on the American Frontier, p. 5).

On a different note, many observed the frontiersman as a humble and virtuous character.  "His general motive for coming here is to be a freeholder, to have plenty of rich land, and to be able to settle his children about him" (Boatright, p.12).  But surely underneath this simple purposed character lay a lonesome individual terrified of the uncertainty of nature.  Fear of the unknown was ingrained in psyche and was overcome through attacking it full force.  In the same manner that a person will damn something because it is foreign to what is familiar, the frontiersmen sought to either domesticate or exterminate all trepidation.  Paintings such as "The Oxbow" by Thomas Cole illustrate this fear of of the backwoods and of nature in general.

What I believe developed as a remedy for this grim frontier experience was a type of humor that sought to surmount and suppress all its fears in the same way that it cultivated them.  A character who demonstrated this humor came to be known as the "backwoodsman."  The name refers to a typical rustic American character who could be found in the remote areas of the Western expansion.  His insecurity of life in the backwoods was veiled by a macho type of humor through which he showed dominance over his environment. He was dubbed "the game-cock of the wilderness," and showed off his obsession with strength and authority over beast and nature.  Characters such as Davy Crockett exemplified this character. Although Crockett was not a comedian, this "King of the wild frontier" attitude was often found humorous in the insecurities of the frontier.  That is to say, that the only place joy and laughter could be found in the uneasy life of the frontier in domination over it.  The omnipresent fear in everyone's' mind found refuge in the humor of the backwoodsman which led to his popularity.

"It was the wilderness with its impenetrable depths, the wild storms of the West, the great rivers, the strange new wonders on every side, that produced the content of the stories--those natural elements that had brought terror and suffering to earlier pioneers and still belonged to the farther, unknown West, but now were apprehended with an insurgent comic rebound and a consciousness of power" (Rourke, American Humor, p. 49).

Today's Backwoodsman

It is hard to see this type of humor illustrated today since the experience of the frontier is so unfamiliar to us.  However, instead of looking in a natural setting, I think this humor persists in social interactions; in particular, interactions between someone from a rich neighborhood when entering a poor minority neighborhood.  Fear of crime, gangs and poor culture seems to scare many people who come from wealthy areas where this sort of thing doesn't exist.  A poor neighborhood (often prejudged as a "bad neighborhood") would be rather driven through in the protection of a car as opposed to walking.  Making a subtly racist remark about an observation, locking the car door while driving out of distrust, or crossing the street at the sight of a group of minority kids are all commonly observed signs of feeling scared in an unfamiliar environment and then feeling elite to compensate for the insecurity.  The backwoodsman of the eighteenth century would boast about how many Indians and bears he killed.  Of course we have laws which govern such action, but I think this sentiment still persists.  Just as we see the environmental and social effects of cultivating nature and brutally robbing the American Indians of life and land, I think this fear seems to perpetuate social problems of racism and classism.  It is baffling to me that we have heroes like Davy Crockett who exemplify this sentiment.