Green’s Dictionary of Slang

to cheek, to be impudent; thus back-talker n.

1929		‘Max Brand’ Rustlers of Beacon Creek (1935) 42: I won’t back talk.
1932		J. Peterkin Bright Skin 67: Don’ back-talk me, Cricket. I know what I’m sayin’.
1933		R. Tate Doughman 75: You’re a crawling little loafer and a dirty back-talker.
1953		B. Appel ‘Dock Walloper’ in Pronzini & Adrian Hard-Boiled (1995) 252: Don’t you back-talk me!
1957		J. Thompson ‘The Frightening Frammis’ in Fireworks (1988) 107: He wished she would back-talk him a little, give him some reason to put the slug on her.
1967		(con. 1920s) J. Thompson South of Heaven (1994) 113: A character who backtalked and roughed up a cop.
1999		J. Ridley Love Is a Racket 88: Some boulevard whore too stupid to know she shouldn’t backtalk her pimp.
2011		G. Hayward Corruption Officer [ebk] cap. 41: That ain’t all. He’s back-talking his mother, too!