Carpetbag

Description:	Would this bag hold your clothes for a long trip? Many northerners carried their belongings in bags like this one, instead of in suitcases, when they moved south following the Civil War to help with the Reconstruction of the South. The presence of so many bags and strangers inspired the term carpetbaggers. Devastated by war and still reliant on plantation farming, many people wanted to change the south into a manufacturing economy like the north. These northerners were not always welcome; instead southerners saw them as invaders trying to make money or further the rights of freed slaves.
Source:	http://www.digitalindy.org/cdm/ref/collection/tcm/id/1007
Collection:	The Children's Museum of Indianapolis
Rights:	https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/;
Copyright:	Creative Commons (CC By-SA 3.0);
Subjects:	United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877) Postwar reconstruction

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