Carpetbagger

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In the history of the United States, carpetbagger is a largely historical pejorative used by Southerners to describe opportunistic or disruptive Northerners who came to the Southern states after the American Civil War and were perceived to be exploiting the local populace for their own financial, political, or social gain. The term broadly included both individuals who sought to promote Republican politics (including the right of African Americans to vote and hold office) and individuals who saw business and political opportunities because of the chaotic state of the local economies following the war. In practice, the term carpetbagger often was applied to any Northerners who were present in the South during the Reconstruction era (1865–1877). The word is closely associated with scalawag, a similarly pejorative word used to describe white Southerners who supported the Republican Party-led Reconstruction. White Southerners commonly denounced carpetbaggers collectively during the post-war...

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