Scalawag
From Free net encyclopedia
The term scalawag, used in the Reconstruction era in the South of the United States, describes white Southerners who supported the Republican party.
The term was derogatory -- prior to that time meaning simply "scamp" -- but is used by historians. The scalawags were the Republican political allies of the former slaves or Freedmen, and the Carpetbaggers. Scalawags were denounced as corrupt by the Democrats, and to some extent by the Dunning School of historians. The two most prominent scalawags were Lee's top lieutenant, General James Longstreet, and Joseph E. Brown, the wartime governor of Georgia.
Defenders argue that every scalawag and every carpetbagger had their own motives for taking on the political roles they did, and on the whole it is impossible to demonstrate that scalawags as a group were any more or any less corrupt than freedmen, carpetbaggers or Redeemers (white Southerners who came to power after 1877).
Baggett (2003) shows that Scalawags were for the most part long-time doubters or opponents of the Confederacy. He explains that along the continuum of "an 1860 antisecessionist Breckinridge supporter/1860 Bell or Douglas supporter/ 1860 antisecessionist / passive wartime unionist / peace party advocate / active wartime unionist / postwar Union party supporter" the farther an individual moved along this line the greater his chances of becoming a Republican (p. 271).
Contents |
Motives of Scalawags
A simple definition of a scalawag is a white Southern Republican. White Southern Republicans included formerly closeted Southern abolitionists as well as former slaveowners who now supported equal rights for freedmen. (The most famous of this latter group was Samuel F. Phillips, who would later argue against segregation in Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896)). Included, too, were people who wanted to be part of the ruling Republican Party simply because it provided more opportunities for successful political careers. Many historians have described scalawags in terms of social class, showing that on average they were less wealthy or prestigious than other whites.
Many scalawags came from the mountain districts of Appalachia, with few slaves and a standing resentment against the low country politicians who dominated the Confederacy. Their strongholds, especially in eastern Tennessee, western Virginia, western North Carolina and northern Arkansas, became Republicans bastions for over 130 years. These rural folk had a long-standing hostility toward the plantation class; they had harbored pro-Union sentiments during the war. Andrew Johnson was their representative leader. They welcomed Reconstruction and much of what the Radical Republicans in Congress advocated. In essence, these scalawags sought to create a new South that emphasized education and infrastructure--especially better roads and railroads.
Scalawags in office
One prominent scalawag was James L. Alcorn of Mississippi. Alcorn was the governor of (and later a senator from) Mississippi during Reconstruction. Alcorn's supporters included scalawags, carpetbaggers, and freedmen. Possibly the most significant part of Alcorn’s career was his longstanding battle with Adelbert Ames, at that time the military commander of the Fourth District. Both men were Republicans, and on paper shared the same views. However, there was a significant difference; Alcorn was not as concerned with the rights of freedmen as Ames. In the end, Alcorn separated from the Republican Party when Ames was nominated for governor in 1872.
See also
Further reading
- By James Alex Baggett. The Scalawags: Southern Dissenters in the Civil War and Reconstruction Louisiana State University Press, 2003. ISBN 0-8071-2798-1
- Wiggins; Sarah Woolfolk. The Scalawag in Alabama Politics, 1865-1881 (1991) online at Questiade:Scalawag