Carpetbaggers
Carpetbaggers, a belittling name applied to Northerners who went south to take part in civic and political affairs after the American Civil War. The name insinuated that these Northerners were roving adventurers who carried all their property in carpetbags—cheap satchels made of carpet-like material. Southerners who cooperated with carpetbaggers were called scalawags .
After passage of the Reconstruction Acts of 1867, which put the South under military control, many Northerners came to the former Confederate states. Some were sincere reformers, but others were politicians seeking to take advantage of the situation. Since the Southerners who previously had made up the governing class were disqualified from holding office, some of these carpetbaggers were elected to the national House of Representatives and the Senate in the elections of 1868. Several became governors, and many were influential in drawing up state constitutions. By 1878 all federal troops were withdrawn. Reconstruction state governments fell, and most of the carpetbaggers left the South.