Excerpt from Letter from Rufus B. Bullock, of Georgia, to the Republican Senators and Representatives, in Congress Who Sustain the Reconstruction Acts

Published in May 21, 1870; reprinted on Making of America Books (Web site)

A Georgia governor describes what it is like to be a loyal supporter of Reconstruction in the sometimes hostile South

"For two years in Georgia I have been pursued by threats of personal violence and assassination.…"

Perhaps no figure was hated as much as the "carpetbagger" during the postwar years in the South. The term referred to Northerners who went to the South during or after the American Civil War (1861–65) with so few belongings they could fit them all in an old-fashioned traveling bag made of carpet. They were Republicans, viewed as opportunists who pressed for civil and voting rights for African Americans in...