Literally describing an unwelcome stranger with no more property than could be carried in a satchel (carpetbag), the epithet later came to refer to anyone perceived as an interloper who came to a region to exploit it against the wishes of the inhabitants.
Full Answer
What is a carpetbagger?
In the history of the United States, a carpetbagger was any person from the Northern United States who came to the Southern states after the American Civil War and was perceived to be exploiting the local populace.
What is a carpet bag?
A carpet bag is a top-opening travelling bag made of carpet, commonly from an oriental rug. It was a popular form of luggage in the United States and Europe in the 19th century, featuring simple handles and only an upper frame, which served as its closure.
What is carpetbagger's YouTube channel?
Welcome to the Carpetbagger's Youtube Channel. Here you will find a Yankees unique perspective on living in the South. I am obsessed with Southern Cultures... Welcome to the Carpetbagger's Youtube Channel. Here you will find a Yankees unique perspective on living in the South.
What is another word for carpetbagging?
In French politics, carpetbagging is known as parachutage. ^ Davidson, Gienapp, Heyrman, Lytle, Stoff. Nation of Nations: A Concise Narrative of the American Republic, 3rd edition, New York: McGraw Hill, 2002
What is a carpetbagger?
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 ...
What is a scalawag?
scalawag. …black freedmen and the so-called carpetbaggers in support of Republican Party policies. The origin of the term is unclear, but it was known in the United States from at least the 1840s, at first denoting a worthless farm animal and then denoting a worthless person. Its association with Southern-born or….
What does "carpetbagger" mean?
But "carpetbagger" did not merely mean someone who traveled and carried a carpetbag.
What was the classic carpetbagger?
The classic carpetbagger was, in the eyes of defeated southerners, a conniving northerner appearing in the South to take advantage of circumstances. Southern society during Reconstruction was a complicated landscape of competing interests.
Who was the carpetbagger?
A classic example of someone called a carpetbagger was Robert Kennedy when he announced his run for the U.S. Senate in New York State. Kennedy had lived in suburban New York for part of his childhood, and could claim some connection to New York, but he was still criticized.
What is a scalawag?
The term was used to describe a White southerner who worked with members of the Republican Party and supported Reconstruction policies. To White southern Democrats, scalawags were perhaps even worse than carpetbaggers, as they were viewed as betraying their own people.
What is a carpet bagger?
carpet bagger. 1. Purveyor of goods which are not what they purport to be , north american post civil war . 2. Politician striving for popularity in a remote ward. 'gather round for I have a panacea for all ailments such as dropsy, feeble spirit and malingerance' The tale of the carpet bagger, Mark Twain 1875.
Why were carpetbaggers called carpetbaggers?
They were called "carpetbaggers" to imply that they were such poor, transient characters that they merely moved south carrying all their possessions in a carpet-bag.
Who is the most famous carpetbagger?
The most famous modern-day Carpetbagger is Joseph Stack, the guy who rammed his plane into the IRS building in Austin. Get out of Texas, carpetbagger! by nbakuchev June 06, 2010. Flag. Get the Carpetbagger neck gaiter and mug.
Where did carpetbaggers move to?
Later Carpetbaggers moved to the South in the 1970s when the big 3 automakers in Detroit started to fail. Modern-day Carpetbaggers primarily move to 5 cities in Texas (El Paso, Houston, San Antonio, Austin, and Dallas) to escape the wretched economic prospects of their home states (usually California and Yankee states).
What was the role of a carpetbagger?
A carpetbagger was portrayed as a lower-class schemer with little education who could carry everything he owned in a cheap carpet bag.These new arrivals supported the Republicans (the party of Abraham Lincoln) and were said to be corrupt profiteers who took advantage of the financial and political instability in the devastated postwar South.
What does it mean when someone calls you a carpetbagger?
Following the American Civil War, if someone called you a carpetbagger or scalawag, it wasn’t meant as a compliment. The term carpetbagger was used by opponents of Reconstruction—the period from 1865 to 1877 when the Southern states that seceded were reorganized as part of the Union—to describe Northerners who moved to the South after the war, ...
Roots in Reconstruction
Examples in Modern Politics
- In the modern era, the use of carpetbagger endures to denote someone who has moved into a region and run for office. The modern usage of the term is far removed from the deep bitterness and racial aspect of the Reconstruction era. Yet the term is still considered to be an insult, and it often features in negative campaigning. A classic example of someone called a carpetbagger w…
Associated term: Scalawags
- 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. To White southern Democrats, scalawags were perhaps even worse than carpetbaggers, as they were viewed as betraying their own people.
Sources
- Netzley, Patricia D. "carpetbaggers." The Greenhaven Encyclopedia of The Civil War, edited by Kenneth W. Osborne, Greenhaven Press, 2004, pp. 68-69. Gale Ebooks.
- Foner, Eric. "What It Meant to Be Called 'Carpetbagger.'" New York Times, 1988 September 30. Section A, page 34.