What was a carpetbagger civil war

Southern Democrats alleged that the newcomers were corrupt and dishonest adventurers, whose property consisted only of what they could carry in their carpetbags suitcases made of carpeting , who seized political power and plundered the helpless people of the South.

This assessment of the carpetbagger became standard in late-nineteenth-century histories and retained its currency among some historians as late as the s. Since the s, however, revisionist historians have challenged the validity of the traditional view and assessed the carpetbaggers more favorably.

For Texas, the revised characterization appears to be more appropriate than the traditional one. Carpetbaggers played only a minor role in the state's Reconstruction history. In part this was because few Northerners who arrived after the Civil War held political offices. In the Constitutional Convention of —69 , seven of the ninety-three delegates were carpetbaggers.

In the subsequent administration of Governor Edmund J. Davis , Northerners held only the positions of state adjutant general and chief justice of the Supreme Court.

Eight of sixty district court judges were carpetbaggers. In the Twelfth Legislature just twelve of state legislators were postwar immigrants from the North. At the county level the actual number of carpetbaggers also was small. One scholar has placed their number at no more than 11 percent. In addition to their numerical insignificance, Texas carpetbaggers generally do not fit the stereotypical pattern.

The most important Northern immigrants to hold major political offices in Texas were congressman William T. Clark from Connecticut, state senator George T. They later became an object of much scorn, as many southerners saw them as low-class and opportunistic newcomers seeking to get rich on their misfortune.

Many were former Union soldiers. In addition to economic motives, a good number of carpetbaggers saw themselves as reformers and wanted to shape the postwar South in the image of the North, which they considered to be a more advanced society. Though some carpetbaggers undoubtedly lived up to their reputation as corrupt opportunists, many were motivated by a genuine desire for reform and concern for the civil and political rights of freed blacks.

Many were former Whigs conservatives who saw the Republicans as the successors to their old party. The majority of the scalawags were non-slaveholding small farmers as well as merchants, artisans and other professionals who had remained loyal to the Union during the Civil War.

Many lived in the northern states of the region, and a number had either served in the Union Army or been imprisoned for Union sympathies. The term scalawag was originally used as far back as the s to describe a farm animal of little value; it later came to refer to a worthless person. For opponents of Reconstruction, scalawags were even lower on the scale of humanity than carpetbaggers, as they were viewed as traitors to the South. Scalawags had diverse backgrounds and motives, but all of them shared the belief that they could achieve greater advancement in a Republican South than they could by opposing Reconstruction.

Taken together, scalawags made up roughly 20 percent of the white electorate and wielded a considerable influence. Many also had political experience from before the war, either as members of Congress or as judges or local officials. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present.

One of the most important aspects of Reconstruction was the active participation of African Americans including thousands of formerly enslaved people in the political, economic and social life of the South.

The era was to a great extent defined by their quest for autonomy and Reconstruction , the turbulent era following the Civil War, was the effort to reintegrate Southern states from the Confederacy and 4 million newly-freed people into the United States. Carpetbagger is always a negative word, implying or accusing someone of exploiting a situation for personal gain. During the U. Most experienced Southern politicians were either dead or would have no chance of being elected by new Republican Black voters and Northern sympathizers.

White Southerners saw these candidates as trespassing opportunists. Carpetbagger is used more generally to mean any politician seeking office in a geographic area they have no connection to, as in The native Texan running for office in California was criticized by many locals as being a carpetbagger.

Carpetbagger is also used more generally to mean any opportunistic outsider, as in The foreign celebrity was called a carpetbagger on social media after he took selfies with local disaster victims and left without helping anyone.

Example: Because the candidate had just moved to Minnesota, he was accused of being a carpetbagger and using Minnesota to get a political position.

The first records of the term carpetbagger come from around Carpetbagger refers to the fact that some Northerners brought their belongings in a carpetbag when they went to run for political office in the South. During Reconstruction, the American South was socially and politically unstable, and some white Northerners did go South to run for office under the Republican Party.

While the Republicans did end up winning most of the Southern elections held during Reconstruction, local Southerners did regain political offices throughout most of the South.

What are some other forms related to carpetbagger? What are some words that share a root or word element with carpetbagger? Carpetbagger is a serious accusation when made against a politician.