In United States history, '''carpetbaggers''' were Northerners who moved to the South during [[Reconstruction]] to take up new business, reform or political opportunities. More generally the term refers to the political faction of the [[Republican Party]] in the South controlled by the new arrivals. They were allied politically with [[Freedmen]] (freed slaves), and [[Scalawags]] (Southern whites) in the [[Republican Party]], which in turn controlled ex-Confederate states for varying periods between 1867 and 1877; Carpetbaggers were in power on average 3 or 4 years except in South Carolina, Louisiana and Florida, where their rule was especially corrupt and lasted about 10 years. They were never in control of Virginia or Tennessee.
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"Carpetbaggers" was coined from the carpet bags used as inexpensive luggage. It was originally a derogatory term, suggesting a penniless exploiter who brings no new resources and probably does not plan to stay. The term is now standard and is used without derogatory intent by historians and reference works.
Since 1900 the term has also been used to describe outsiders attempting to gain political office or economic advantage, especially in areas (thematically or geographically) to which they previously had no connection. Thus in 2000 [[Hillary Clinton]] was called a carpetbagger when she ran for the U.S. senate seat in New York, a state in which she had never lived.<ref> See [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb5244/is_/ai_n20688352 online]</ref>. Likewise in 1966 [[Robert Kennedy]] was called a carpetbagger when he ran for the New York senate seat. [[Elizabeth Dole]] had long been absent from North Carolina when she ran for the Senate in 2002 and was elected; the carpetbagger charge was revived in 2008, as she rarely visited the state as Senator, and she was defeated.
Many carpetbaggers were reformers, especially those with strong connections to evangelical Protestant churches. Many went as missionaries and school teachers.<ref>''Those Terrible Carpetbaggers'' by Richard Nelson Current. Oxford University Press.1988 </ref> Many were abolitionists who sought to continue the struggle for racial equality; many of these became employees of the federal [[Freedmen's Bureau]], which started operations in 1865 to assist the newly freed blacks. The Bureau established public schools in much of the region. The motivation was the belief that literacy was the key to overthrowing ignorance and inefficiency. <ref>Heather Andrea Williams, ''Self-Taught: African American Education in Slavery and Freedom'' 2006</ref>.
Many carpetbaggers were businessmen who purchased or leased plantations and became wealthy landowners, hiring Freedmen to do the labor. 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.<ref>Foner 1988 pp 137, 194 </ref> However, Foner also notes that "joined with the quest for profit, however, was a reforming spirit, a vision