Carpetbaggers And Scalawags Effects On The South

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.

Carpetbaggers and scalawags effects on the south.

White southerners ex confederate officers and the social elite were denied political power and replaced by the scalawags the scalawags sought allies with carpetbaggers and freedmen to form the republican party in the south. Proposing short term policies that were profitable to. Origins of the term. In most cases the carpetbaggers won out and many scalawags moved into the conservative or democratic opposition.

Scalawags were people who the democrats believed who had betrayed the south by voting for the republican party. Scalawags are also referred to as greedy rascals. Both the alien carpetbaggers and the renegade scalawags had the same objectives during the. Most of the 430 republican newspapers in the south were edited by scalawags 20 percent were edited by carpetbaggers.

Republican rule in the south. Confederate military and political leaders were temporarily prohibited from participating in the political process. Meanwhile white southerners who supported reconstruction era republicans were called scalawags by their political enemies who considered them traitors to the south and just as bad if not worse. Carpetbaggers in the context of u s.

The scalawags had a significant impact and effect during the reconstruction era. Carpetbaggers were people who had rushed to the south carrying all their possessions in bags made of carpeting. White businessmen generally boycotted republican papers which survived through government patronage. During and immediately after the civil war many northerners headed to the southern states driven by hopes of economic gain a.

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. The scalawags turned on their own kind and were deemed as traitors to the south cooperating with the republicans for the same reasons as the carpetbaggers to get rich by exploiting southerners or gaining power through political advancement. How did scalawags affect reconstruction. In most cases the carpetbaggers won out and many scalawags moved into the conservative or democratic opposition.

Republican governments filled the void and were able to retain control by depending upon the votes of the newly enfranchised blacks.