Carpetbaggers
https://archives.nbclearn.com/portal/site/k-12/browse/?cuecard=887
General Information
Source:
NBC News
Resource Type:
Creator:
N/A
Copyright:
Event Date:
Air/Publish Date:
1865 - 1877
03/21/2007
Copyright Date:
Clip Length
Video MiniDocumentary
NBCUniversal Media,
LLC.
2007
00:01:19
Description
Carpetbagger is a misunderstood term used frequently after the Civil War.
Keywords
Carpetbaggers, Reconstruction, Northerners, Post Civil War, Southern Economy, Voting, African
American, Blacks, Politics, Former Union Soldiers, Political Terms, Republican Party, Corruption,
Investment
Citation
MLA
"Carpetbaggers." NBC News. NBCUniversal Media. 21 Mar. 2007. NBC Learn. Web. 3 June 2015
© 2008-2015 NBCUniversal Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Page 1 of 2
APA
2007, March 21. Carpetbaggers. [Television series episode]. NBC News. Retrieved from
https://archives.nbclearn.com/portal/site/k-12/browse/?cuecard=887
CHICAGO MANUAL OF STYLE
"Carpetbaggers" NBC News, New York, NY: NBC Universal, 03/21/2007. Accessed Wed Jun 3 2015
from NBC Learn: https://archives.nbclearn.com/portal/site/k-12/browse/?cuecard=887
Transcript
Carpetbaggers
Professor ERIC FONER (Columbia University): "Carpetbagger" is a political term. It means a Northerner
who sides with blacks and the Republican Party. And, in a way, it was an image created by the opponents
of Reconstruction: the idea that these Northerners, unscrupulous Northerners, came down to the South to
reap the spoils of office. And they were corrupt, and they manipulated the ignorance of supposedly former
slaves.
Now, this is a myth. Most Northerners who came to the South during the Civil War were actually Union
soldiers and officers who stayed there after the war and went into business. They didn't come to get into
politics, at all. Until 1867, blacks couldn't vote. Who's gonna vote for these Northerners? They came to go
into cotton planting, farming. The South was asking for investment from the North. They were trying to
attract people to come down and help rebuild the Southern economy.
Now, when blacks did get the right to vote, in 1867, some of them, these so-called “carpetbaggers,”
Northerners, did go into politics because black voters didn't really trust white Southerners. And, many of
them did get important political positions. And, some of them were corrupt. And, some of them were very
principled and tried to do the best they could under the circumstances. But most of these people were just
middle-class Northerners seeking to improve their condition in life by investing in a region which was
desperate for outside capital.
© 2008-2015 NBCUniversal Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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