Carpet Baggers Civil War Term

In general the term carpetbagger refers to a traveler who arrives in a new region with only a satchel or carpetbag of possessions and who attempts to profit from or gain.

Carpet baggers civil war term. Carpetbagger definition is a northerner in the south after the american civil war usually seeking private gain under the reconstruction governments. A northerner who went to the south after the civil war for political or financial advantage. Carpetbagger synonyms carpetbagger pronunciation carpetbagger translation english dictionary definition of carpetbagger. Carpetbagger in the united states a derogatory term for an individual from the north who relocated to the south during the reconstruction period 1865 77 following the american civil war the term was applied to northern politicians and financial adventurers whom southerners accused of coming to the south to use the newly enfranchised freedmen as a means of obtaining office or profit.

Carpetbagger definition a northerner who went to the south after the civil war and became active in republican politics especially so as to profiteer from the unsettled social and political conditions of the area during reconstruction. That is what both sides of the war felt and said about the people who left the north for the south to glean their share. They were perceived as exploiting the local populace the term broadly included both individuals who sought to promote republican politics including the right of african americans to. Scalawag after the american civil war a pejorative term for a white southerner who supported the federal plan of reconstruction or who joined with black freedmen and the so called carpetbaggers in support of republican party policies.

The term carpetbagger is routinely applied to political candidates who run for office in a region where they are recent arrivals. The term came about in the years following the civil war when northerners flocked to the defeated south to do business and were bitterly portrayed as unscrupulous outsiders engaged in political corruption and. The origin of the term is unclear but it was known in the united states from at least the 1840s at first denoting a worthless farm animal and then denoting a. The term carpetbagger was used by opponents of reconstruction the period.

Following the american civil war if someone called you a carpetbagger or scalawag it wasn t meant as a compliment. Carpetbaggers are known as the men and sometimes women who crossed the border from the north into the south.