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Terms
Carpetbaggers are Northerners who move South during Reconstruction and profit off the fall of Southern society.
Carpetbagger Quotes in Gone with the Wind
The Gone with the Wind quotes below are all either spoken by Carpetbagger or refer to Carpetbagger. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 8
Quotes
There was something exciting about this town with its narrow muddy streets, lying among rolling red hills, something raw and crude that appealed to the rawness and crudeness underlying the fine veneer that Ellen and Mammy had given her. She suddenly felt that this was where she belonged, not in serene and quiet old cities, flat beside yellow waters.
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Chapter 37
Quotes
The former slaves were now the lords of creation and, with the aid of the Yankees, the lowest and most ignorant ones were on top. […] Many loyal field hands refused to avail themselves of the new freedom, but the hordes of “trashy free issue niggers,” who were causing most of the trouble, were drawn largely from the field-hand class.
Chapter 47
Quotes
Already many other Southern states had illiterate negroes in high public office and legislatures dominated by negroes and Carpetbaggers. But Georgia, by its stubborn resistance, had so far escaped this final degradation. For the greater part of three years, the state’s capital had remained in the control of white men and Democrats.
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Chapter 49
Quotes
The hate that enveloped the Bullock regime enveloped her too […] Scarlett had cast her lot with the enemy and, whatever her birth and family connections, she was now in the category of a turncoat, a nigger lover, a traitor, a Republican—and a Scallawag.
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Carpetbagger Term Timeline in Gone with the Wind
The timeline below shows where the term Carpetbagger appears in Gone with the Wind. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 31
...that she already paid taxes, but Will explains that Jonesboro is full of Republicans and Carpetbaggers—Northerners who’d moved South—who are raising the taxes on Tara. Someone, perhaps Hilton, wants to buy...
(full context)
...North’s attempt to rectify the South and integrate it into the Union. She knows about Carpetbaggers, Scallawags (Southerners who cooperated with the North) and the Freedmen’s Bureau; she knows that freedmen...
(full context)
Chapter 33
...Klan has been riding around dressed like ghosts and killing so many Black people and Carpetbaggers. The Yankees want to set an example by hanging Rhett. Pitty goes on about how...
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Chapter 34
...from curtains, Ellen is dead, Gerald has lost his mind, and she can’t let the Carpetbaggers take Tara.
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Chapter 37
...Yankee energy, but underneath, Southerners live in fear. The Yankees make Atlanta their headquarters, and Carpetbaggers and refugees come from everywhere. The red-light district and saloons attract more business, and pistol...
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Chapter 38
...run a mill. Tommy says everyone’s doing what they must, so she should employ a Carpetbagger. She says she doesn’t want to hire a thief. Rene and Tommy say all the...
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Chapter 48
Scarlett has a lot of fun on her honeymoon in New Orleans. Although Carpetbaggers are looting the town and many people are starving, Rhett moves in wealthy circles. He...
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...in downtown Atlanta, but he says that seems like a bad idea now that the Carpetbaggers have gotten hold of Georgia. Rhett says he’s going to build Scarlett a house. When...
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Chapter 49
...Melanie still comes with Ashley, and Scarlett makes new friends. These new friends are rich Carpetbaggers, gamblers, and members of the Freedman’s Bureau who profit off Black wage labor. She also...
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Chapter 53
Scarlett stops to chat with Carpetbag ladies on her way to the mill. At the mill, Ashley comes to the door,...
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Chapter 58
...Reconstruction seems to be almost over, and the next governor will surely be a Democrat. Carpetbaggers, Scallawags, and Republicans linger uneasily, then leave town. Scarlett is bewildered. She hates the Yankees...
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