How Were Carpetbaggers And Scalawags Similar

Meanwhile white southerners who supported reconstruction era republicans were called scalawags by their political enemies who considered them traitors to the south and just as bad if not worse.

How were carpetbaggers and scalawags similar. Scalawags were denounced as corrupt by democrats. Scalawags along with carpetbaggers were also targets of violence mainly by the ku klux klan. Beginning in 1867 they formed a coalition with carpetbaggers one sixth of the electorate and scalawags one fifth to gain control of southern state legislatures for the republican party. The state elected three u s.

Carpetbaggers were northerners who entered the region after the war. The main similarity between a scalawag and a carpetbagger is that they were groups of people who arose after the american civil war. A temporary political vacuum existed in the postwar south. Republican governments filled the void and were able to retain control by depending upon the votes of the newly enfranchised blacks.

Both louisiana governors under radical reconstruction henry clay warmoth 1868 1873 and william pitt kellogg 1873 1877 were carpetbaggers. Although the term is still used today its origins are steeped in opposition to. This cartoon depicts politician carl schurz as a carpetbagger and it was made by thomas nast in 1872. Carpetbaggers and scalawags were both epithets coined by southern democrats who opposed the social change of reconstruction.

The term is commonly used in historical studies as a neutral descriptor of southern white republicans although some historians have discarded the term due to its history of pejorative connotations. Like the similar term carpetbagger the word has a long history of use as a slur in southern partisan debates. Confederate military and political leaders were temporarily prohibited from participating in the political process. The name is derived from suitcases made of carpet carried by many of the northern immigrants.

Both the groups supported the rights of the black people which. The democrats alleged that the scalawags were financially and politically corrupt and willing to support bad government because they profited personally.