Who were the carpet-baggers?

In reality, ‘carpet-baggers’ were complex men living in a complex time. Some did come to fulfill political posts which had been granted to them by friends up North, and left when their tenure was up. Many came to try their hand at plantation farming, with generally poor results. Some stayed for a long time, dedicating their time and energy to the betterment of their new homes. A study conducted by the Journal of Southern History in 1979 found that no body of government, in any Southern State, was ever seated with majority carpet-baggers over Blacks and other native Southerners. In addition, they found that the States with higher proportions of carpet-baggers in their early legislatures remained Republican longer than the others, suggesting that constituencies actually preferred the work of the carpet-baggers. In fact, Northern emigres were typically educated, fairly wealthy, and had genuine and legitimate motives for moving South, a far cry from the accusations of vagrancy the epithet implies.