Carpet Baggers Scalawags

The term carpetbagger was used by opponents of reconstruction the period.

Carpet baggers scalawags.

Pinkney and theodore ropp pp. Carpetbaggers reconsidered in a festschrift for frederick b. A traveler who arrives to a new region with only a satchel or carpetbag of possessions and who attempts to gain control over his new surroundings often against the will of the. Scalawags were white southerners who supported the republican party carpetbaggers were recent arrivals in the region from the north and freedmen were freed slaves.

The term refers to a stranger who travels to a new region for personal gain. Among the most zones of klan activity was south carolina where in january 1871 500 masked men attacked the union county jail and lynched eight black prisoners. Scalawag after the american civil war a pejorative term for a white southerner who supported the federal plan of reconstruction or who joined with the black freedmen and the so called carpetbaggers in support of republican party policies. Some wanted to make money from the south s situation.

Oxford university press 1988. Carpetbagger derogatory term originally used in the u s. Louisiana state university press 2003. Scalawags constituted perhaps 20 percent of the white electorate.

The first klu klux klan was founded in 1866 in pulaski tennessee. Although carpetbagger and scalawag were originally terms of opprobrium they are now commonly used in the scholarly literature to refer to these classes of people. During and immediately after the civil war many northerners headed to the southern states driven by hopes of economic gain a desire to work on behalf of the newly. Carpetbaggers were northerners who entered the region after the war.

During the reconstruction period 1865 77 to denote a northerner who moved to the south. Some wanted to help the freed slaves. White supremacy reasserted its hold on the south as. These people were called carpetbaggers by southerners.

Following the american civil war if someone called you a carpetbagger or scalawag it wasn t meant as a compliment. Carpetbaggers and scalawags were both epithets coined by southern democrats who opposed the social change of reconstruction. It was applied to politicians and financial adventurers whom southerners accused of coming south to use the newly enfranchised freedmen to obtain office or profit. Artz edited by david h.