The North had a lot to gain by helping the south rebuild is agricultural economy. The North's textile industry depended on cotton that was grown in the south. To quicken the south's recovery, wealthy Northern investors provided the money needed to rebuild the south's railroads, mills, and farms.
However, it was not just southerners looking to rebuild the south. Many northerners decided to move south to live and work. Some of these northerners were opportunists looking to take advantage of the political and economic chaos in the south. Other northerners came to support reconstruction and bring about change to southern politics.
Southerners called the arriving Northerners carpetbaggers because they often carry travel bags made of carpet material a common style of the time. Most Southerners didn’t want Northerners meddling in southern affairs. Carpetbaggers, they said, only wanted to profit from the south misfortune.
Some Southerners welcome to carpetbaggers and northern ideas. These men and women, however, we’re called scalawags bother fellow Southerners. Scalawags were seen as traders to the interest of the south. Then I was headed Scalawags were those who supported the Republican Party and reconstruction.