The Scalawags
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The term scalawag or scallywag traces its origin to the Reconstruction era in the South of the United States.
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The Name Scalawag
At this time period 1865-1877, the North was trying to reconstruct the South. There was a group of Southerners who sympathized with the Northern intervention in the South. Naturally many Southerners felt betrayed and called the sympathizers by the derogatory term “Scalawag.” The derivation according to Random House Online is, “a cognate of the Scottish "scurryvaig," 'a vagabond' which itself may be derived from the Latin "scurra vagas," 'a wandering buffoon'. However, many prefer the derivation from the Irish language Sgaileog meaning a farm servant or poor drudge, and which is probably also the origin of the term 'scally'. So by this definition, when someone calls a person a scalawag, they are presenting a very negative point of view. However, in this paper the titular men will be referred to as Scalawags, as this is the accepted name of them. Likewise the Northern men who moved South during reconstruction will be referred to as Carpetbaggers.
Another Derivation is that the term scalawag itself was used by Southern farmers to denote small worthless animals. After the Northern victory in the Civil War, it came to mean a Republican sympathizer in the South (generally white), and was a term of derision. They were the opponents of former Confederates who wanted to prevent "rebels" from returning to power.
Role and Defintion
The Scalawags played an important role in Southern Reconstruction in the post civil war era. However their name is often left out of history books in place of the “more American” carpetbagger. While both the carpetbagger and the scalawag were opportunistic (a great American trait) many history books have painted the scalawags as immoral traitors, while the carpetbaggers often get viewed as heroic reconstructors. However, it is clear that greed, the sentiment which drives government and economy, was at the chief motive for most scalawags and carpetbaggers. The scalawags played a crucial role in the conflicting sentiments in Reconstruction in the South.
Motives of Scalawags
A simple definition of a scalawag is a white Southern Republican sympathizer. This very much gives a connotation of betrayal to the scalawags. Many historians differ in their belief of which classes scalawags came from, but it seems that scalawags from many classes could benefit greatly from sympathizing with reconstruction.
Lower Class Scalawags
Some of the “poor white trash” of the South, who made up a percentage of the scalawags, could greatly benefit from sympathizing with the Northern Republicans. These people recognized that if they remained loyal to the Confederacy, they would clearly make no improvement economically and politically. Their only opportunity to gain power would come from working subservient to the carpetbaggers. Even though this was a good incentive to sympathize, many of the “poor white trash” remained loyal. Most likely they did not sympathize because they had given the most in the war from the South. More lower-class members of the Confederacy were killed than any other group. They truly felt dedicated and did not want to forsake their dead brothers and cousins, who they believed had died valiantly.
Upper class Scalawags
The class which is the most documented of the scalawags is the upper class. This is simply because they were the ones able to attain the most power from their sympathy with the Northern Carpetbaggers. Consequently, these were the men most hated in the South. Many of these men had been high ranking officers or leaders in the Confederacy, they had given the lives of thousands of Southerners. When they turned over to the enemy many people of the South felt very much betrayed. These rich upper class supporters had very good reasons for sympathizing as well. In the terms set by Republican congress, Southern men who had assets totaling over 20,000 dollars had to apply for a pardon in order to receive amnesty. Those who could appear dedicated to America to the carpetbaggers could bypass the bureaucratic process of having their applications processed. It is unclear whether lust of power or desire of amnesty caused these men to turn their backs on their former beliefs.
Middle Class Scalawags
Clearly though, the class with the most scalawags was the middle class. These middle class people were not at all betrayers in the same way. In many ways they were following their former Confederate leaders who had become scalawags. The middle-class scalawags also had much to gain, by working not only under politicians from the South, but also politicians from the North (with much more money) the middle class was able to make a decent monetary increase, while still remaining loyal.
Another Motive
However, there is another goal of the scalawags which often gets omitted from history books. That is that the scalawags did not want to see the Northern Carpetbaggers in power any more than other Southerners. In some ways the goals of the scalawags were to keep as much of the South as possible. This was very different than the Carpetbaggers who wanted the South for the North. This distinction often is missing, and causes students to use carpetbaggers and scalawags synonymously. In addition, most scalawags came from the upper South, or border states, as well as northern Georgia, Alabama, and Arkansas. These Southerners had a history of dislike for the plantation class as well as pro Union sentiments during the war. They welcomed the Republicans who promised to overthrow the hated regime. In essence, scalawags sought to create a new South that emphasized education, infrastructure, transportation (better roads).
Scalawags in office
The upper-class scalawags, were very much the most traitorous. They were also the only ones who managed to gain significant political power. Many of them completely turned their backs on their former racisms, and actually started to defend black suffrage and rights. This gained them much support from freedmen. Many of these scalawags, though, did not actually believe in black suffrage and rights. Once elected, they went against their campaign promises to gain more power for themselves. Somehow though, these men were continually reelected. This comprises one group of the scalawag politicians.
Another path that the scalawag took was of the true radical republican. This meant that they were extremely similar to the radicals in congress. They supported all rights of the freemen and passed legislation to ensure these rights. However they did not get reelected because of their inability to appeal to other moderate/middleclass scalawags. The third type of scalawag was the one there simply to gain power for himself. He was more or less a democrat who ran on the Republican ticket.
James L Alcorn, a famous Scalawag
Very few scalawags seemed to actually make a name for themselves in history. One of the most prominent scalawags was James L. Alcorn of Mississippi. Alcorn was the governor of (and later a senator from) Mississippi during Reconstruction. A very arrogant, greedy man, Alcorn thought that he had an intrinsic right to rule although he opposed democracy his entire life. One would probably place Alcorn in the first category of politicians, although he was proven to be corrupt during his years as governor. Alcorn derived his support from scalawags, carpetbaggers, and freedmen, although he was primarily concerned with his personal advancement (he did manage to retire to a 22-room mansion ). Possibly the most significant part of Alcorn’s career is that he fought viciously with Adelbert Ames, the current military commander of the Fourth District. The two were fellow Republicans, and on paper shared the same views. However, there was a significant difference. Alcorn, the scalawag, was not concerned as much with promoting the freedmen, whereas Ames took pride in his actions to better their lives. Nevertheless, Alcorn was not such a poor leader as governor, and had a decent claim to be the ranking Republican in the state. In the early 1870s, both were elected to the United States Senate as representatives of Mississippi. Their fight reached a climax on the senate floor as the two would often prefer bouncing insults back and forth rather than promoting issues that pertained to the entire senate. In the end, Alcorn separated from the Republican Party when Ames was nominated instead of him for the job of governor in the Election of 1872. Such an action warrants the questioning of Alcorn’s party loyalty, as well as his loyalty to his platform.
Conclusion/Impact of Scalawags
The scalawags are often given a bad reputation as the result of certain people’s (like Alcorn) actions which were not morally sound. The scalawags did accomplish many good things during their years in power. Even Alcorn, in his days as governor, tried to repair the levees and buildings that had been damaged during the war. He also fought against the Ku Klux Klan, although his attempts did not yield very solid results. Overall, the scalawags did not make any great material contributions to the South. There are no monuments to ‘great scalawag leaders’ in the streets of Jackson, Montgomery, or Atlanta. It seems as though, the mere two goals that they had were never fully reached. The first, they did reach; immediate power. The greedy men did obtain that goal, however their larger, more important goal, to gain more power and sustain the South, was never completed. They did, however, make advancements. The scalawags are partly responsible (along with the freedmen and carpetbaggers) for breaking up the Republican Party in the South. Something that those Southern Democrats who wish the scalawags never existed, is that without the scalawags, carpetbaggers and freedmen might have continued to remain in power in the South. The division over racial, moral, financial, and political issues among the three groups caused a great split in ideas. As a result, the Republican Party virtually dissolved in the South, leaving the outwardly racist Democrats in power to form the ‘Solid South.’ This ’accomplishment,’ was more of a responsibility for a fiasco than anything else. Nothing proves that the scalawags were fruitless more than the Compromise of 1877. This Compromise granted the Southern states ‘home rule’ in exchange for helping with the electoral crisis that was going on at the time. The results of this compromise were dismal for the scalawags. They lost all power they had worked for and were now just the same as any other southerner. Many people, Northerners and Southerners alike, would like to forget that they ever existed. Others have no idea of their significance, which is part of the reason why it has been deemed transient by future generations.
However there is more to the story. While upper-class scalawags were ousted from power in the events preceding the Compromise of 1877, middle-class people were able to make decent improvements in their lifestyles. Some say only the upper class people were remotely successful since they were the only ones to achieve any political power. I would speak contrary to this. The middle-class members, although not able to make immediate improvement to their lives, made a lasting impact. This is why the middle-class members were the most successful scalawags. The goals attained by the upper-class members were immediate and quickly dissolved. Overall it can be said very vaguely that, some scalawags were semi-successful in some of their goals.