CARPET+BAG




 * CONTACT PERSON - DR. CHARLES CHAMBERLAIN, LOUISIANA STATE HISTORIAN ||

The Republicans in the South consisted of three key groups: (1) blacks; (2) previous Northerners, who became known as carpetbaggers; and (3) Southern whites, who were referred to as scalawags by their opponents. The carpetbaggers were for the most part former Union soldiers who had been engrossed by economic opportunities in the South. Many carpetbaggers bought cotton land or opened businesses in the cities. More than 60 carpetbaggers won election to Congress, and 9 served as governors. Others included missionaries and teachers who wanted to assist blacks. Agitated white Southern whites created the term carpetbagger to propose these Northerners could fit all their belongings in a carpetbag (suitcase) when they came south. Most of the main legislative and executive positions were held by Northern white Republicans who had moved to the South and by their white Southern associates. Peop le hauling carpetbags were known as carpetbaggers. Carpetbaggers, as the south called them, were Northerners active in the republic party in the south after the civil war. The party gained control of Southern state governments and granted civil rights to blacks, including the right to vote. It also worked to establish public schools and to increase opportunities for ordinary Southern whites.  T he South's traditional leaders feared that these policies would further reduce their power and change their way of life. They charged that the Northerners were people of little ability and lowly origins whose personal possessions were so small that each had carried them south in a single carpetbag. Carpetbags, suitcases made of carpet material, were widely used at the time. They had very intricate colorful patterns and different designs. They also had locks on them just like suitcases to keep all materials inside safe.  Some of the people called carpetbaggers were unprincipled and corrupt. But most were not, and many came to the South for honorable reasons. Some were Union soldiers who after the war decided to stay in the South to begin a new life as farmers or as operators of small businesses. Others worked in the South for the Freedmen's Bureau, a federal agency that aided former slaves. Another group consisted of people experienced in Northern politics who felt they could be useful and influential in the Republican Party in the South. Today, the term carpetbagger is still used to describe outsiders who try to exert influence where they are not wanted.