Scallywags

From dKosopedia

Category: Political terms

Scallywag is a term of approbation used to designate a white Southerner supporting Reconstruction policies following the American Civil War. Explicit in the portrayal is that the scallywag was motivated by corrupt self-interest. What is implicit and plainly false is that other white Southern politicians were motivated by corrupt self-interest.

Corruption is common among collaborators with occupying military forces. The occupied who fail to join in the collaboration often express their contempt or envy for the successful collaborator, and may try to take revenge later. Southern Bourbon politicians (wealthy whites) were able to monopolize political power with exploiting the fear that white working class Southerners had of African-American working class southerners.

A different term of approbation, carpet-bagger, was used to designate white Northerners in the Southern states who supported Reconstruction. The ultimate failure of Reconstruction in the 1880s, pareticularly the redistribution of land ownership in a land reform, undermined racial harmony in the United States, delaying full participation of African-Americans in the American social, economic and political life for more than 80 years.

[syn: {scalawag}] 2: a deceitful and unreliable scoundrel [syn: {rogue}, {knave}, {rascal}, {rapscallion}, {scalawag}, {varlet}] 3: one who is playfully mischievous [syn: {imp}, {scamp}, {monkey}, {rascal}, {rapscallion}, {scalawag}]