Origin of the pejorative term "cracker"

Factual Questions
1

So I want to know what the origin of the pejorative term “cracker” is.

I always thought it came from the North Georgia mountains in the Southern U.S. The people there were dirt poor and all they could afford was cheap food such as cracked corn and I believe a type of cracker (maybe) like a saltine.

I don’t really buy the idea of it describing the slave master cracking his whip - that may be what people think today, but IIRC the word was not used in that manner 100 years ago.
Any ideas?

2

See this thread: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=88614

3

I thought he was referring to the term that is used to decribe people who break into other people’s computers.