Final answer:
The term 'carpetbaggers' referred to northerners who moved to the South after the Civil War for economic or political reasons. Southerners often viewed them as opportunists and they, along with southern allies named 'scalawags', faced hostility from the local population.
Step-by-step explanation:
The name carpetbaggers was given to northern whites who went south after the Civil War to start businesses or pursue political office. Carpetbaggers were often seen by southerners as opportunists who came to the South to make a fortune during the Reconstruction era.
This term implied that these northerners were shiftless wanderers motivated only by the desire for quick money, as they were commonly believed to have arrived with their belongings in carpetbags, a popular type of luggage at the time. However, many carpetbaggers were in fact young, idealistic, and often well-educated men who aimed to assist in the modernization of the South.
On the other hand, southern whites who supported Reconstruction and cooperated with carpetbaggers were derogatively referred to as scalawags, and both groups were targets of hostility and violence from organizations like the Ku Klux Klan.