carpetbagger

“The Man with the (Carpet) Bags”; cartoon by Thomas Nast, 1872, depicting the Southern …
The Granger Collection

during the Reconstruction period (1865–77) following the American Civil War, any Northern politician or financial adventurer accused of going South to use the newly enfranchised freedmen as a means of obtaining office or profit. The epithet originally referred to an unwelcome stranger coming, with no more property than he could carry in a satchel (carpetbag), to exploit or dominate a region against the wishes of some or all of its inhabitants. Although carpetbaggers often supported the corrupt financial schemes that helped to bring the Reconstruction governments into ill repute, many of them were genuinely concerned with the freedom and education of black citizens.