Carpetbagger
Carpetbagger is a term from the United States political history. A carpetbagger was a northerner who moved to the South after the American Civil War. This post-war era was called "Reconstruction". White southerners feared that carpetbaggers would loot and take over the defeated South.[1]
Sixty carpetbaggers were elected to Congress.[source?] Most Republican governors in the South during Reconstruction were northeners.[source?] One historian wrote:
Carpetbaggers generally supported measures aimed at democratizing and modernizing the South – civil rights legislation, aid to economic development, the establishment of public school systems.[2]
Name
[change | change source]"Carpetbagger" referred to the cheap carpet bags (a form of luggage) which many of the newcomers carried. The term came to be associated with opportunism and exploitation by outsiders. It is used today for a "parachute candidate": a political candidate for public office in an area far from home.