Although most northerners in the postwar south were there to rebuild the economy, critics referred to them as carpetbaggers, opportunists who came purely to gain political control.

The concept behind the carpetbagger, is one who came in to take advantage of the destruction and gaps of power in post-Civil War south. There are some truths to that, especially when it came to rule. For the first few years of rule, no Republicans were trusted to lead the government and towns, but being that the country was separate and had no Republicans in it, they had to be literally brought in. This helped bring in some of the spoils systems that have always been in place, allowing them to use cronies to do the work and bring in more and more carpetbaggers to do those jobs and gain those opportunities, disenfranchising the local populace. This disenfranchisement would be seen for generations to come and there would still be a distrust well into the 20th century of some Southerners toward Northerners.