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Scalawag
In United States history, scalawag (sometimes spelled scallawag or scallywag) was a pejorative slur that referred to white Southerners who supported Reconstruction policies and efforts after the conclusion of the American Civil War.
As with the term carpetbagger, the word has a long history of use as a slur in Southern partisan debates. The post-Civil War opponents of the scalawags claimed they were disloyal to traditional values and white supremacy. Scalawags were particularly hated by 1860s–1870s Southern Democrats, who called Scalawags traitors to their region, which was long known for its widespread chattel slavery of Black people. Before the American Civil War, most Scalawags had opposed southern states' declared secession from the United States to form the Confederate States of America.
The term is commonly used in historical studies as a descriptor of Reconstruction Era, Southern white Republicans, although some historians have discarded the term due to its history of pejorative use.
The term is a derogatory epithet, yet it is used by many historians in works by Sarah Woolfolk Wiggins (1991), James Alex Baggett (2003), Hyman Rubin (2006), and Frank J. Wetta (2012). The word scalawag has an uncertain origin. Its earliest attestation is from 1848 to mean a disreputable fellow. It has been speculated that "perhaps the original use of the word" referred to low-grade farm animals, but this meaning of the word was not attested until 1854. The term was later adopted by their opponents to refer to Southern whites who formed a Republican coalition with black freedmen and Northern newcomers (called carpetbaggers) to take control of their state and local governments.[citation needed] Among the earliest uses of this new meaning were references in Alabama and Georgia newspapers in the summer of 1867, first referring to all Southern Republicans, then later restricting it to only white ones.
Historian Ted Tunnel writes:
Reference works such as Joseph Emerson Worcester's 1860 Dictionary of the Caribbean Spanish Language defined scalawag as "A low worthless fellow; a scapegrace." Scalawag was also a word for low-grade farm animals. In early 1868 a Mississippi editor observed that scalawag "has been used from time immemorial to designate inferior milch cows in the cattle markets of Virginia and Kentucky." That June the Richmond Enquirer concurred; scalawag had heretofore "applied to all of the mean, lean, mangy, hidebound skiny [sic], worthless cattle in every particular drove." Only in recent months, the Richmond paper remarked, had the term taken on political meaning.
During the 1868–69 session of Judge "Greasy" Sam Watts' court in Haywood County, North Carolina, William Closs testified that a scalawag was "a Native born Southern white man who says he is no better than a negro and tells the truth when he says it". Some accounts record his testimony as "a native Southern white man, who says that a negro is as good as he is, and tells the truth when he says so".
By October 1868, a Mississippi newspaper defined the expression scathingly in terms of Redemption politics. The term continued to be used as a pejorative by conservative pro-segregationist southerners well into the 20th century. But historians commonly use the term to refer to the group of historical actors with no pejorative meaning intended.
Scalawag
In United States history, scalawag (sometimes spelled scallawag or scallywag) was a pejorative slur that referred to white Southerners who supported Reconstruction policies and efforts after the conclusion of the American Civil War.
As with the term carpetbagger, the word has a long history of use as a slur in Southern partisan debates. The post-Civil War opponents of the scalawags claimed they were disloyal to traditional values and white supremacy. Scalawags were particularly hated by 1860s–1870s Southern Democrats, who called Scalawags traitors to their region, which was long known for its widespread chattel slavery of Black people. Before the American Civil War, most Scalawags had opposed southern states' declared secession from the United States to form the Confederate States of America.
The term is commonly used in historical studies as a descriptor of Reconstruction Era, Southern white Republicans, although some historians have discarded the term due to its history of pejorative use.
The term is a derogatory epithet, yet it is used by many historians in works by Sarah Woolfolk Wiggins (1991), James Alex Baggett (2003), Hyman Rubin (2006), and Frank J. Wetta (2012). The word scalawag has an uncertain origin. Its earliest attestation is from 1848 to mean a disreputable fellow. It has been speculated that "perhaps the original use of the word" referred to low-grade farm animals, but this meaning of the word was not attested until 1854. The term was later adopted by their opponents to refer to Southern whites who formed a Republican coalition with black freedmen and Northern newcomers (called carpetbaggers) to take control of their state and local governments.[citation needed] Among the earliest uses of this new meaning were references in Alabama and Georgia newspapers in the summer of 1867, first referring to all Southern Republicans, then later restricting it to only white ones.
Historian Ted Tunnel writes:
Reference works such as Joseph Emerson Worcester's 1860 Dictionary of the Caribbean Spanish Language defined scalawag as "A low worthless fellow; a scapegrace." Scalawag was also a word for low-grade farm animals. In early 1868 a Mississippi editor observed that scalawag "has been used from time immemorial to designate inferior milch cows in the cattle markets of Virginia and Kentucky." That June the Richmond Enquirer concurred; scalawag had heretofore "applied to all of the mean, lean, mangy, hidebound skiny [sic], worthless cattle in every particular drove." Only in recent months, the Richmond paper remarked, had the term taken on political meaning.
During the 1868–69 session of Judge "Greasy" Sam Watts' court in Haywood County, North Carolina, William Closs testified that a scalawag was "a Native born Southern white man who says he is no better than a negro and tells the truth when he says it". Some accounts record his testimony as "a native Southern white man, who says that a negro is as good as he is, and tells the truth when he says so".
By October 1868, a Mississippi newspaper defined the expression scathingly in terms of Redemption politics. The term continued to be used as a pejorative by conservative pro-segregationist southerners well into the 20th century. But historians commonly use the term to refer to the group of historical actors with no pejorative meaning intended.
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