U.S. Civil War Carpetbagger Category Needed

Question

Hi Wikitreers,

Is there a category for Carpetbaggers?

I think this is one such category that would be of some use to the research of the U.S. Civil War Veterans 

Can someone please create this category if not yet done 

Thank you

Answer 1

"In the history of the United States, carpetbagger is a largely historical pejorative used by Southerners to describe opportunistic Northerners who came to the Southern states after the American Civil War, who were perceived to be exploiting the local populace for their own financial, political, and/or social gain."

So, IMO, we don't need to use it. How are you going to support the tag on the profile? Is there a record?

Comments

Hi Natalie

Thank you for the response. It would be interesting to see those who served in the U.S. Civil War who actually partook of “Carpetbagging”. 

It’s probably not meeting the definition of a category just was curious 

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Well, it's perjurative, so it would definitely need some sort of support, such as news articles, a book, or something concrete. Otherwise, we could create categories of any such thing like that and throw them around WT. Can you imagine a category for "Tax Cheaters" or "Narcissists"? 

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Good point! That’s a Pandora’s box for sure!

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I can certainly understand the Southern viewpoint. Being labeled a "Carpetbagger" definitely was not a term of endearment. I am sure they resented having folks come in and buy up the local assets.  (It is probably similar to the feelings I have when a large chain store moves in and kills off the little local businesses.)

Looking back now, I am not sure we could establish a workable set of guides for when to call someone a "carpetbagger." Over history, we have had folks with money who did buy up assets and that action was resented by poorer locals seeing things bought up my wealthier outsiders.

The unique conditions of the Civil War coupled with the reconstruction era policies (that had in some cases a sense of punishment) that yielded so many fertile opportunities.  All this led to the phrase "carpetbagger," It became to widely used whenever someone who was not local acquired a local asset that I don't know how we now could set guidelines to limit the term's use.

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Exactly, Norman. Thanks.

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Thank you Norman this is very helpful and enlightening 

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Carpetbaggers and scalawags! Complexified any chance of economic and social reconstruction in the defeated South. We moved to the Deep South in 1960 and to this day I remember being called a damn yankee by the kids at school. And to this day, the heart of social and economic spheres revolves around the pioneer families of the 1820-1840s and damn yankees are tolerated but not accepted. No, the South has not forgotten!

Just a little editorialization on the Deep South.

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The history of the South and the U.S. Civil War is a wound in the fabric of America that will never be forgotten. So much tragedy and pain. It affected every American in basically every family structure. The affects are still felt today generations later.