Scalawags

Scalawag was a negative term used in the post-Civil War South. The origin of the term is unclear, but people used it before the war to describe a worthless farm animal or person. After the war people used it scornfully to describe a white southerner who cooperated with the Union troops or supported the efforts of Republicans , the party in power at the time, and their Reconstruction legislatures. (Reconstruction was the period after the American Civil War [1861–65] during which the southern states were reorganized and brought back into the Union.) Many scalawags became active politicians, helping to create a new southern environment.

Scalawags were drawn from all parts of southern society, but most came from small, nonslaveholding farms. They resented the planter society and its slave system even before the American Civil War. The immense production of crops by plantations made market competition by small farmers impossible.

Enthusiastic to make changes, scalawags joined Republican Reconstruction efforts in the South after the Civil War. They favored debtor relief, low taxes, and measures to restrict the voting rights of former confederates (those who supported the South during the war). Though they were willing to acknowledge some changes in political and civil rights for African Americans, they strongly opposed integration of white and black societies.

Democratic opponents of Republican politicians embraced the derogatory use of the term scalawag. They used it to paint Republican supporters as traitors to the South and to the white race. The verbal campaign was effective, and Democrats eventually regained political power in the South.