Carpetbaggers

Carpetbaggers, term of contempt applied by the people of the Southern states mainly to government agents, politicians, businessmen, and adventurers from the Northern states who traveled to the South during the Reconstruction period following the American Civil War (1861-1865). The term was coined to suggest that northerners could stuff everything they owned into a carpetbag, a satchel made of carpet. Some carpetbaggers were representatives of the Freedmen's Bureau and other Reconstruction agencies; some were humanitarians intent on aiding the blacks; and others were opportunists seeking to exploit the political and financial problems of the South. Because the Congress of the United States had temporarily banned former Confederate political leaders and soldiers from voting or holding political office, many carpetbaggers were able to become politicians with the support of newly emancipated slaves. Although a few carpetbaggers established corrupt and wasteful governments, many were able to broaden black voting activity, improve education, and aid in the restoration of Southern cities and roads. Carpetbaggers generally cooperated with native southern Unionists known as scalawags, and both groups were bitterly resented by most white Southerners. Secret terrorist societies such as the Ku Klux Klan were formed to terrorize the blacks and drive the carpetbaggers out. Today the term carpetbagger refers to roving opportunists or politicians.