Growing up in the Deep South; I was fed a rather distorted narrative of the ACW. The war not being about slavery, William Sherman being literally Ghenghis Khan, etc. Part of the list of grievances against the North included the arrival of people known as "carpetbaggers" during Reconstruction, though why exactly they earned such vitriol was never really clarified beyond vague statements about them being greedy and profiting off Southern misery. Again, I'd like to figure out if I've been fed another falsehood.
So what is the true story of the carpetbaggers, and from whence did the hatred for them arise?
Carpet baggers were northerners who came to the south to capitalize on the post war chaos.
To buy up land cheaply land from struggling southerners, among other things.
They were called carpet baggers because of the cheap luggage bags they came with, which resembled carpeting.