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Carpetbaggers originally referred to Northerners who moved to the South after the Civil War. They formed a coalition with freed slaves and white Southerners, and were successful in taking control of the southern railroad system. Many were well-educated and invested in plantations, but were also seen as arrogant. The term is still used today to refer to outsiders seeking political or economic gain.
The term, carpetbaggers, has changed over the years, especially since the 1900s. Originally, carpetbaggers referred to a group of Northerners who moved to the South during the Reconstruction period after the Civil War in the United States, which lasted from 1865 to 1877. Pejorative in meaning, the word, carpetbaggers, alluded to the low-priced makeshift luggage of the postwar days, which was fashioned from old carpets. The word carpetbagger has entered modern usage to mean any outsider attempting to gain political office or economic advantage.
During their heyday, the carpetbaggers formed a coalition in the united Republican Party with the Freedman’s Bureau, which was made up of free slaves, and the Scalawags who were white Southerners. This gave them some control over the Southern states legislature, and they were very successful in taking control of the southern railroad system. The carpetbaggers’ vision was for a new South which, through education, would rise from its ashes under the promising embrace of industrial capitalism.
Many carpetbaggers were Union Army veterans of middle-class ancestry. They were well educated overall, and many held senior positions in their former northern communities as lawyers, businessmen, and newspaper editors. Carpetbaggers invested their savings in renting or buying plantations and became major landowners, despite the fact that they denounced the evils of the plantation system. Many too were drawn south due to press reports that fortunes could be made from growing cotton.
In a way, the carpetbaggers were like the early 20th century imperialists who were determined to “lift the white man’s burden.” There is no mistaking their genuinely reformatory spirit, and many of them were former abolitionists, missionaries and teachers. But they were also very arrogant. The carpetbaggers saw themselves as the saviors of the Southern regeneration whose people they knew, black and white, lacked initiative and self-discipline. They had the answer, the only solution for the war-torn South.
Some carpetbaggers were exploitative and dishonest and unfortunately this has tarnished the reputation of many who were not. The word carpetbagger strikes a derogatory chord even years after its general usage has changed. Some modern politicians have been accused of being bigots, notably Hilary Clinton and even Bob Kennedy when he ran for Senate.
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