Carpetbagger Definition

Carpetbagger in the united states a derogatory term for an individual from the north who relocated to the south during the reconstruction period 1865 77 following the american civil war.

Carpetbagger definition.

A carpetbagger was a northerner who moved to the south after the american civil war. Carpetbagger an outsider who seeks power or success presumptuously. A politician who takes up residence in a place and runs for office without having strong ties to the area. This period is called the reconstruction era.

A northerner who went to the south after the civil war and became active in republican politics especially so as to profiteer from the unsettled social and political conditions of the area during reconstruction. 2003 2012 princeton university farlex inc. Carpetbagger definition is a northerner in the south after the american civil war usually seeking private gain under the reconstruction governments. White southerners feared they would loot the defeated south.

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. They were called carpetbaggers to imply that they were such poor transient characters that they merely moved south carrying all their possessions in a carpet bag. After the civil war the carpetbaggers from the north tried to take over the south opportunist self seeker a person who places expediency above principle based on wordnet 3 0 farlex clipart collection. In general the term carpetbagger refers to a traveler who arrives in a new region with only a satchel or carpetbag of possessions and who attempts to profit from or gain control over his new.

The term carpetbagger used exclusively as a pejorative term originated from the carpet bags a form of cheap luggage made from carpet fabric which many of these newcomers carried. The term came to be associated with opportunism and exploitation by outsiders.