Origins of the term.
Define carpetbaggers and scalawags.
Scalawag definition a scamp.
The term carpetbaggers refers to northerners who moved to the south after the civil war during 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.
The term is now used in the united states to refer to a parachute candidate that is an outsider who runs.
The word scalawag originally referring to low grade farm animals was adopted by their opponents to refer to southern whites who formed a republican coalition with black freedmen and northern newcomers called carpetbaggers to.
During the reconstruction period 1865 77 to denote a northerner who moved to the south.
The term carpetbagger used exclusively as a pejorative term originated from the carpet bags a form of cheap luggage made from carpet fabric which many of these newcomers carried.
Scalawags were white southerners who cooperated politically with black freedmen and northern newcomers.
The term is a derogatory epithet yet it is used by many historians anyway as in wiggins 1991 baggett 2003 rubin 2006 and wetta 2012.
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.
Collins english dictionary complete unabridged 2012 digital edition william collins sons co.
Carpetbagger derogatory term originally used in the u s.
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Many carpetbaggers were said to have moved south for their own financial and political gains.
The term came to be associated with opportunism and exploitation by outsiders.
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.