419*392*6325Carpetbaggers was a name of used by white Southerners to describe Northerners active in the Republican Party in the South after the Civil War. Northern Republicans were influential in the South after the war, during the period known as Reconstruction (1865-1877). During Reconstruction, the Republican Party, which was based in the North, extended its organization to the South. The party gained control of Southern state governments and granted civil rights to blacks, including the right to vote. It also worked to establish public schools and to increase opportunities for ordinary Southern whites.
The South's traditional leaders feared that these policies would further reduce their power and change their way of life. They charged
In “Antebellum Southern Exceptionalism: A New Look at an Old Question” James McPherson argues that the North and the South are two very different parts of the country in which have different ideologies, interests, and values. Mcpherson writes this to show the differences between the north and the south. He gives perspectives from other historians to show how the differently the differences were viewed. These differences included the north being more industrialized while the south was more agricultural. He gives evidence to how the differences between the north and south came together as the south produced tobacoo, rice, sugar and cotton, which was then sent to the north to be made into clothing or other fabrics. Mcpherson analyzes the differences
There was a new Military Reconstruction Act that was passed to make sure African Americans new rights were protected. The carpetbaggers provided aid for emancipated African Americans. In the article “ North or South: Who Killed Reconstruction?” it shows how the carpetbaggers supported emancipated African Americans by the founding of Black Churches, Public schools, and Universities were built for black children. In this case, the northern states tried to help the southern states to keep reconstruction but the KKK took hands in their own
Inadvertently Anderson gives us an even bigger lesson about politics in Georgia and the South in general. The Democratic Party was typically seen as the party of the downtrodden for poor farmers and other people who were economically depressed. The poor certainly saw them as their political savior. However, the party support only extended to white Georgians and particularly to white males without having their best interests at heart, only their best interests as perceived and allowed by the political elite. Some of the issues that made Talmadge disenfranchised with the Democratic Party under Roosevelt like setting wage levels, dependence on the federal government, fighting outside interference in "his" state, and especially desegregation subsequently forced many southern Democrats out of the party later. When the Democratic Party found itself without the paternalistic southern white male and the downtrodden white males' allegiance, it was forced to search for support from what they perceived to be the next group of downtrodden voters instead of redefining their issues.
The Democrats traced their roots back to Thomas Jefferson and called themselves the “party of the fathers”. This group consisted mostly of Catholics and Jews (508). After the end of reconstruction, most white voters in the former confederate states remained loyal to the Democrats. This created
...ain the “laid-back” attitude and shy away from social change. The irony of the political divide is the North is now Democratic and the South is Republican.
People attending schools before 1960’s were learning about certain “unscrupulous carpetbaggers”, “traitorous scalawags”, and the “Radical Republicans”(223). According to the historians before the event of 1960’s revision, these people are the reason that the “white community of South banded together to overthrow these “black” governments and restore home rule”(223). While this might have been true if it was not for the fact that the “carpetbaggers were former Union soldiers”, “Scalawags… emerged as “Old Line” Whig Unionists”(227). Eric Foner wrote the lines in his thesis “The New View of Reconstruction” to show us how completely of target the historians before the 1960’s revision were in their beliefs.
Scalawags and Carpetbaggers were terms used during the reconstruction period in the south. Scalawags were white southerners who supported the Republican Party. Scalawags consisted of the following persons, rich merchant owners, farmers who owned small amounts of land, and planters. During the old confederate period, most these people wanted a new south so they supported the reconstruction and abided in the changes concerning newly freed black slaves. Carpetbaggers were northern citizens who came to the south in terms to make a quick profit. The goals of the carpetbaggers were to encourage their new political power on the newly freed blacks. It was the goal of the northerners to help establish the freed slaves and improve their lives. It was the ideal of providing education, medications, food, and clothing for the blacks. The ideal was a success and was called the Freedmen’s bureau.
... The cause was forfeited not by Republicans, who welcomed the African-American votes, but to the elite North who had concluded that the formal end of slavery was all the freed man needed and their unpreparedness for the ex-slaves to participate in the Southern commonwealth was evident. Racism, severe economic depression, an exhausted North and troubled South, and a campaign of organized violence toward the freed man, overturned Reconstruction. The North withdrew the last of the federal troops with the passing of The Compromise of 1877. The freed slaves continued to practice few voting rights until 1890, but they were soon stripped of all political, social and economic powers. Not until the civil rights movement in the 1950’s and 1960’s were the freedoms that were fought for by our Republican forefathers nearly 100 years before, finally seen through to fruition.
Despite all of Reconstruction’s promises and successes, the era included many failures, too. One such failure was the formation of the Ku Klux Klan and other racially prejudiced groups in the South that promoted violence towards African Americans. Another failure involved the corruption seen during Reconstruction by both the North and South. The carpetbaggers who were Northerners helped spread corruption in the Reconstruction Era by moving from their home state in the North securing a political office or position in the South to carry out the plans of the Radical Republicans. In the South, many local governments disenfranchised or created poll taxes for African American voters enabling them to vote.
This began a chain of events that led to the rise of the Ku Klux Klan and the end of the biracial democracy in the south. Johnson put pro-Union Southern political leaders into power, even though many had aided the Confederacy during the war. These men, with Johnson's support, attempted to restore a sense of the “Old South”, essentially trying to force blacks down as low in the class system as they legally could in light of the 13th and 14th Amendments-second class citizens. In 1866 the Radical Republicans stood up to President Johnson, and a battle for control of Reconstruction ensued.... ... middle of paper ...
It guaranteed freedmen the right to vote under new state constitutions, and required the Southern states to ratify the 14th amendment. With the inclusion of African-American votes in southern elections, and with the help of Northerners known as "Carpet Baggers" and other white Southerners known as "Scalawags," the Republican Party gained almost complete control over the American South.
Technical 23- (use as needed) I agree with this completely. I typically find I work better with writing down things. The best way I study for tests or memorizing things is to repeatedly write it down. For, example I had to study a book to take a test. I went through that book and copied it word for word two or three times. This is just how studying works for me.
In 1877 African Americans no longer held important political power in the South by means of the Republican Party. However in the late 1890s the Populist Party, an agriculture movement filled with farmers who wanted to raise farm prices, strived to united the common economic interest of African American and poor white farmers. The Populist Party, realizing that white voters would most likely be split between the Populist and Democratic Parties, tried to gain support of the African Americans. The Populist Party attempted to stop the decreasing number of African Americans ballots to sustain their political power. The reason why the number of black voters were decreasing was because white supremacists often included poll taxes to prevent poor
Writing preserves ideas for future evaluation (Nowacek). An individual’s mind would be cluttered with thoughts – both good and bad – if he or she was unable to put them down on paper, organize them, and return later to evaluate them. Upon a second fresh look, one might discover that the idea he or she had had previously was worthless.