<P> Three groups comprised the Republican Party in the South after the Civil War, and conservative white Southerners referred to two with derogatory terms . "Scalawags" were white Southerners who supported the party, "carpetbaggers" were recent arrivals in the region from the North, and freedmen were freed slaves . Although "carpetbagger" and "scalawag" were originally terms of opprobrium, in the early 21st century they are commonly used in the scholarly literature to refer to these classes of people . Politically, the carpetbaggers were usually dominant; they comprised the majority of Republican governors and congressmen . However, the Republican Party inside each state was increasingly torn between the more conservative scalawags on one side and the more Radical carpetbaggers with their black allies on the other . In most cases, the carpetbaggers won out, and many scalawags moved into the conservative or Democratic opposition . </P> <P> Most of the 430 Republican newspapers in the South were edited by scalawags--20 percent were edited by carpetbaggers . White businessmen generally boycotted Republican papers, which survived through government patronage . </P> <P> Beginning in 1862, Northern abolitionists moved to areas in the South that had fallen under Union control . Schoolteachers and religious missionaries went to the South to teach the freedmen; some were sponsored by northern churches . Some were abolitionists who sought to continue the struggle for racial equality; they often became agents of the federal Freedmen's Bureau, which started operations in 1865 to assist the vast numbers of recently emancipated slaves . The bureau established schools in rural areas of the South for the purpose of educating the mostly illiterate black and Poor White population . Other Northerners who moved to the South did so to participate in the profitable business of rebuilding railroads and various other forms of infrastructure that had been previously destroyed during the war . </P> <P> During the time most blacks were enslaved, many were prohibited from being educated and attaining literacy . Southern states had no public school systems, and upper - class white Southerners either sent their children to private schools (including in England) or hired private tutors . After the war, hundreds of Northern white women moved South, many to teach the newly freed African - American children . There they joined like - minded Southerners, most of which were employed by the Methodist and Baptist Church, who spent much of their time teaching and preaching to slave and freedpeople congregations both before and after the Civil War . </P>

Who were the so called carpetbaggers and what characteristics did they commonly shared