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In United States history, the term carpetbagger was a term for Northerners (Yankees) who moved to the South during Reconstruction between 1865 and 1877. It was a derogatory term, suggesting an exploiter who does not plan to stay. The term is now used without derogatory intent by historians and reference works.

The term

"Carpetbaggers" were so named for the perceived practice of using carpet bags as inexpensive luggage. Since 1900 the term is used to describe any outsider who attempts to gain political office or economic advantage.

Investors

As Foner notes, the Carpetbaggers often purchased or leased plantations and became large landowners. Lefever & Associates. Most were former Union soldiers eager to invest their savings in this promising new frontier, and civilians lured south by press reports of "the fabulous sums of money to be made in the South in raising cotton. " The investors were warmly received. [1] However, Foner also notes that "joined with the quest for profit, however, was a reforming spirit, a vision of themselves as agents of sectional reconciliation and the South's "economic regeneration. " Accustomed to viewing Southerners, black and white, as devoid of economic initiative and self-discipline, they believed that only "Northern capital and energy" could bring "the blessings of a free labor system to the region. "[2]

Carpetbaggers tended to be well educated and middle class in origin.