Well, they sure came out of the swamps to talk about the term “Swamp Yankee.”

My column last week about whether the term is derogatory brought a bunch of e-mail, both from proud Swampers and friends of Swampers — and a vigorous defense of the notion that it’s a putdown from the fellow whose letter to the editor sparked the whole discussion.

It also had brought 132 responses by yesterday evening at projo.com/southkingstown/, from folks giving their definition of “Swamp Yankee” or talking about the question. (You can still serve up your own opinion there, by the way, or just read the ones already posted.) And it had spurred the band Foxtrot Zulu to offer us a one-minute sample of their horn-driven 1997 song “Swamp Yankee,” which we’ve also posted at projo.com.

“We have always felt that the title was a badge of honor,” wrote the band’s trumpeter-vocalist, Jeff Light. “Even though all seven of us are transplants to Rhode Island, it was always the ‘Swampahs’ who we felt drawn to. Perhaps that is why almost all of us have stayed here in South County since coming to town in 1991.”

The pride Light mentions is shared by a genuine Swamper, Eric Scantlebury of Richmond, who describes himself as “a descendant of original Swamp Yankees on my mother’s side (through the Crandall and Tucker lines).”

“I definitely do not find that term derogatory in the least,” he wrote. “In actuality, it is quite the opposite. One should find themselves proud to be able to call themselves a Swamp Yankee, as its connotations have historical significance dating back to the founding of the state.”

Scantlebury also offered an explanation of the term’s origin that views the “Yankee” part of the term as the real insult: “It was a derogatory name used to refer to the colonists in the New England states by more ‘enlightened’ New Yorkers. This is perhaps why people may still consider the term Swamp Yankee in a derogatory nature, as the Swamp Yankee is, indeed, a subset of a Yankee — or, more to the point, a Yankee that was born and bred to a certain part of the Colonies ... those who farmed and owned the land near the Great Swamp of Rhode Island.”

Certainly the term Yankee, standing by itself, is still offensive to many a Red Sox fan. Maybe Scantlebury is onto something here.

THERE WERE MORE theories as to where the term came from, some of them attesting to the cleverness of the Swamp Yankee. One was offered by Amy S. Knowles of South Kingstown.

“Having come from a family that dates back to at least 1646 in South Kingstown alone, and married to a Tucker, I’ve heard that Swamp Yankee was a term that came from when the tax man would come around,” she wrote. “These ‘swampers’ would drive all or most of their cattle into the swamp, knowing the tax man wouldn’t trudge through the swamps to count cattle.”

Jim Mageau, the controversial Charlestown Town Council vice president, offered a different perspective.

“It seems that the American Revolutionary War was not supported by a majority of the colonists,” he wrote. “One-third were loyal to the crown and were referred to as ‘Loyalist,’ one-third supported the war effort and were referred to as ‘Yankees,’ and one-third did not care either way. It is believed that many of the one-third that did not care either way — who refused to get involved — would often flee and hide in the swamps when the fighting came their way. The colonists who did that were then referred to as ‘Swamp Yankees.’ ”

Perhaps in an effort to avoid alienating the colonial-descendant vote, Mageau added in a later e-mail: “It’s important to note that many so-called ‘Swamp Yankees’ with family names that date back to the Revolutionary War have served this country with distinction in all of its wars.”

SOME READERS offered fond reminiscences of Swamp Yankee friends.

“I knew a wonderful person who was very proud to be called a Swamp Yankee, the late Forrest Hoxsie of Narragansett,” wrote John Ruscito, of Naples, Fla. “In fact, a wooden engraving with the name ‘Swampa’ adorns the front porch of his home where his widow, Carolyn, lives. …

“He ran a small engine-repair business, and he could fix just about anything. … He had an interesting life: pilot, fisherman, garage owner, gardener, hunter, and most important, husband, father, grandfather, and my friend.

“To me, Forrest defined ‘Swamp Yankee.’ He loved the term, loved to be called ‘Swamp.’ ” And, says Ruscito, “if this term was good enough for him, it is good enough for me.”

Charlie Hovanesian of South Kingstown has similar memories.

“I was born in Pawtucket, moved to South Kingstown in 1960, married a local girl who is a Swamp Yankee and never left,” he wrote. “One of the first adults I met in Wakefield — I was 15 when I arrived here — was a man named Orrin ‘Sonny’ Kenyon. He owned Kenyon’s Department Store, on the corner of Kenyon Avenue and Main Street.

“He was one of the nicest people I have ever met. He gave me my first rifle, a .22-caliber that I have to this day. He was the epitome of Swamp Yankee, and it is unfortunate he is no longer with us, as he would have gone along with the notion that being called a Swamp Yankee was a badge of honor to be worn proudly.

“I have met many more proud Swampers in my 48 years of residence, but one more comes to mind. His name was George Gardiner.” Gardiner, a coworker who was in his late 70s when Hovanesian met him, “was opinionated to a fault, but never took issue with another person’s stand.

“One day I said to him, ‘Mr. Gardiner, what exactly is a SwampYankee?’ as he had used the phrase many times in describing himself. He said without hesitation, ‘A Swamp Yankee is a cross between a bull dog and a barbed-wire fence.’

“How true that is. I sure miss that guy.”

THEN, INTO THIS warm bath of good feeling splashed the cold water of Gary E. Pacheco of Lincoln.

It was Pacheco who had inspired me to write about Swamp Yankees in the first place, with a letter to the editor complaining that an earlier letter writer had used the term to refer to North Kingstown residents.

“For those not familiar with the term,” Pacheco wrote in that letter, “it’s a derogatory name used by the so-called ‘enlightened’ city dwellers in reference to people who live in more rural settings in this part of the country. Though it may not strike people as offensive as the ‘n’ word, it ought to.”

Now Pacheco, having read my column, wrote again. He sounded more conciliatory, but he wasn’t backing down.

“Obviously, people from South County feel passionate about the term,” he wrote. “Here’s the rub for me, though.

“It was definitely a derogatory term in the past, and used to denigrate people. It was a term that denoted both hatred and prejudice. … So how exactly is it different from the ‘n’ word? Because people decided to embrace it as a term of endearment?

“The notion that something ‘negative’ can become something ‘positive’ has a foul odor to it. At least from my rocking chair.”

BUT PACHECO MADE it clear in a second note that he intended his letters not as a putdown of Swamp Yankees, but as a defense of South County folk from West Bay insult.

“You need to keep in mind what instigated this conversation about the term ‘Swamp Yankee,’ ” he wrote. “The term was used in a letter to the editor by a woman from Cranston who absolutely, positively blasted the entire population of South County. She labeled the entire region ‘racist’ due to the dearth of blacks down there. A statement I find to be quite asinine, by the way.

“Anyway, we know the term ‘Swamp Yankee’ can have two meanings — one positive, one negative. In light of the context of the Cranston woman’s letter, do you really think for one minute she meant the positive meaning (resourceful people, people of the land, etc.)? I doubt it.

“I suggest she chose that term knowing it had a negative connotation. I further suggest she used that term thinking that most people in South County didn’t even know the term had a negative connotation. That’s the ultimate insult: dissing people without them even knowing it.

“And that is why I wrote my letter in the first place. She wrote a letter about perceived prejudice in South County and then used a prejudicial term in describing those people. It’s the pot calling the kettle black, don’t you think?”

I ASKED PACHECO why somebody from Lincoln felt so drawn to the defense of South County.

He explained that he’s enjoyed extended stays in friends’ and relatives’ beach houses, has “warm memories of my parents taking me and my brother down there every summer,” and recalls “impressing some dates when I took them to the Theatre By The Sea, which, I understand, has gotten a second act (a well-deserved one, I might add).

“Then there were my old URI buddies who I had stayed with off campus over the years. I really enjoyed Mama Rosa’s (no longer in operation). Great pizza.”

And, he said, he and his wife “go down there periodically with our son. I am constantly reminded of my youth whenever I am down there.

“So, even though I was raised in Lincoln, I do have a special place in my heart for South County. It has changed over the years, but it’s still a wonderful area. And the people are great.”

Indeed they are, both the Swamp Yankees and non-Swampers I’ve met since coming here. And maybe even a guy from the Blackstone Valley who tried to come to their defense.

arosenbe@projo.com