Scalawag

In United States history, the pejorative scalawag (sometimes spelled scallawag or scallywag) 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.^[1] 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 Civil War, most Scalawags had been opposed to the southern states' secession from the United States to form the Confederate States of America.^[2]

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.^[3]