Define Carpetbaggers Us History

The term is now used in the united states to refer to a parachute candidate that is an outsider who runs.

Define carpetbaggers us history. In united states history a carpetbagger was a northerner who moved to the south after the u s. A great many contemporary observers believed that the real purpose behind radical reconstruction was to secure the domination of the republican party in national political life through the newly freed population in the south. Summary and definition of carpetbaggers summary and definition. 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.

The republicans took for granted that the freed slaves would vote republican. To white southern democrats scalawags were perhaps even worse than carpetbaggers as they were viewed as betraying their own people. 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. A term often associated with carpetbagger was scalawag the term was used to describe a white southerner who worked with members of the republican party and supported reconstruction policies.

The term came to be associated with opportunism and exploitation by outsiders. Carpetbaggers was the highly derisive name given to northerners who went south after the fall of the confederate states of america csa seeking personal financial gain or political advancement during the reconstruction era following the american civil war april 12 1861 may 10 1865.