USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -In practice, the term carpetbagger was often applied to any Northerners who were present in the South during the Reconstruction Era (1865–1877). The term is closely associated with “scalawag", a similarly pejorative word used to describe native white Southerners who supported the Republican Party-led Reconstruction.

Detailed explanation-2: -Carpetbaggers sought allies with Scalawags and Freedmen to form the Republican Party in the South. Republican Carpetbaggers obtained power and influenced Reconstruction in the South by serving as constitutional convention delegates, representatives, judges, sheriffs and as other local and state government officials.

Detailed explanation-3: -Answer: The term “carpetbaggers” refers to Northerners who moved to the South after the Civil War, during Reconstruction. Many carpetbaggers were said to have moved South for their own financial and political gains. Scalawags were white Southerners who cooperated politically with black freedmen and Northern newcomers.

Detailed explanation-4: -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, supposedly in an effort to get rich or acquire political power.

Detailed explanation-5: -These “carpetbaggers”–whom many in the South viewed as opportunists looking to exploit and profit from the region’s misfortunes–supported the Republican Party, and would play a central role in shaping new southern governments during Reconstruction.