Hey! Check Out That Cooter!

No no no……That’s not what I meant. The word means Turtle. Now growing up on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, I of course had heard the term being referenced to the exact same thing you were thinking of.

The early settlers who lived in the Carolinas, first added the word to the English language because the name was derived from the African word, kuta or nkuda. The term quickly became prevalent across the whole Southern Colonial States.



In the early 1970’s, I was in the Navy and stationed in Charleston, SC. This is when I learned that the origin of the word “Cooter” was the name for a “Box” Turtle; or any hard shell or soft shell turtle in general for that matter. It could also mean the other also.



During the early Colonial to mid- 1800’s history, the Maryland terrapin was considered a delicacy and at one time they were so plentiful on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, that great numbers were shipped to New York in boxes filled with straw or hay until the turn of the century when over harvesting devastated the population. Local watermen were making a good lucrative profit catching and shipping terrapins to all the northern seacoast cities. These local watermen’s greed even had enough influence within Maryland State Government, that they got a law passed restricting feeding them to the slaves at that time.



Now I can honestly say, I wanted to challenge myself to see if I could post what could be considered a sexually obscene message….but still have plausible deniability. I think I pulled it off. (I also have a Vette) (;D