The history of the USA is full of different events and participants. Being a multicultural country, it is impossible to deny that a lot of tribes and different nations inhabited the United States. There were periods of out-migration when people moved to other regions of the countries to get a better life. The cases, when people from other countries moved to the USA, were not single. The situation became uncontrolled after the Civil War. “Carpetbaggers” and “scalawags” terms appeared exactly after the Civil War when people looked for a new better life.
Carpetbaggers were people who moved to the South after the Civil War intending to make free for their knowledge and intentions. Carpetbaggers were named mostly people who were of Northern or European origin, who were “government political appointees, teachers, entrepreneurs, and self-serving opportunities and con-artists who moved into a defeated and dysfunctional South” (Flora, MacKethan, & Taylor, 2002, p. 127). New black and white inhabitants of the South hoped to make a quick profit from the undeveloped South. Their ideas and intentions were directed on the rebuilding of the South, its economic and political restoration. The attitude to newcomers was double: some people hated Northern ones, the others saw that it could be profitable to use the Northern capital and financial and educational injections (Flora, MacKethan, & Taylor, 2002).
Summarizing the Carpetbaggers’ influence on the life of the Southern region, it should be mentioned that their interference to the Southern people’s life led to great success. First of all, the South began to be regarded as the “internationally recognized cliché” (Flora, MacKethan, & Taylor, 2002, p. 128). The level of people’s life increased, meaning that education and working places were created, as Carpetbaggers created new enterprises and educational establishments. In general, avoiding the information that Southerners hated Carpetbaggers, their impact on the region’s wellbeing was great.
Scalawags, like Carpetbaggers, were also hated, but because of other reasons. Scalawags were people (mostly white), who lived and worked in the Southern part of the country but as the result of the movements, when Carpetbaggers came, they betrayed the native citizens and turned to newcomers. They were the representatives of the Republican Party in the society and worked together with Carpetbaggers. The Scalawags “largely consisted of wartime Unionists from small farm upcountry regions” (Harrell et al, 2005, p.525). They aimed to improve the political and economical condition of the area they lived in and “despite their own misgivings about allying with African Americans, risked social ostracism for supporting republicans” (Harrell et al, 2005, p.525).
Influenced by Republican ideas and the new flows, which came from Carpetbaggers which had brought the Reconstruction to the Southern society, they achieved great success in rebuilding the land. The rural reforms, which were provided, and the increase of the living conditions were the result that Scalawags managed to provide with the help of Republican and Carpetbaggers supporters. The land, which was influenced by Scalawags’ ideas continues to be Republican till now.
So, carpetbaggers and scalawags were people who tried to provide some changes in the political, economic, and social life of the South after the Civil War. Thanks to their endeavor, they managed to raise the Southern society to the international level, even though most native Southerners were adjusted alien.
Reference List
Flora, J.M., MacKethan, L. H., & Taylor, T. W. (2002). The companion to Southern literature: themes, genres, places, people, movements, and motifs. LSU Press, Louisiana.
Harrell, D. E., Gaustad, E. S., Boles, J. B., Griffith, S. F., Miller, R. M., & Woods, R. B. (2005). Unto a good land: a history of the American people. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, Michigan.