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After the Civil War
(1865-1870)

Carpetbaggers and Scalawags

Carpetbaggers and Scalawags
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   high interest, readability grades 3 to 5
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   4.5

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    unfriendly, traveled, accept, cheap, newly, unsafe, carpet, power, meant, lived, colonel, former, already, term, notice, pack
     content words:    Civil War, White Republicans, Ku Klux Klan, Colonel Franklin J., When Fort Sumter, South Carolina

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Carpetbaggers and Scalawags
By Cathy Pearl 		  
1     The South needed lot of help rebuilding at the end of the Civil War. Many people from different parts of the country went south. Some of these people went to help. Others went to take advantage of the people.
 
2     The people in the South thought of names for the people who came from the North. These names were not nice. They weren't meant to be. People were not happy with what was taking place.
 
3     People from the North who moved south were called carpetbaggers. A carpetbag was a type of suitcase. They were cheap to make. The makers would buy an old piece of carpet. The bag would be made from part of the carpet that was not worn out. A carpetbag could be bought for as little as a dollar.
 
4     A person would pack a carpetbag when he or she traveled. The carpetbag was one of the first suitcases that a lot of people owned. This suitcase was an easy way for people to notice when a traveler came to town. The traveler would be carrying a carpetbag.
 
5     Many people from the North went south after the war. There were plenty of chances to do different things. A person didn't need a lot of money. Sometimes a farm could be bought for as little as twenty-five dollars.

Paragraphs 6 to 12:
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