Who were the Scalawags?
White Southern Republicans included formerly closeted Southern abolitionists as well as former slaveowners who now supported equal rights for freedmen. (The most famous of this latter group was Samuel F. Phillips, who would later argue against segregation in Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896)). Included, too, were people who wanted to be part of the ruling Republican Party simply because it provided more opportunities for successful political careers. Many historians have described scalawags in terms of social class, showing that on average they were less wealthy or prestigious than other whites. (Baggett 2003) The mountain districts of Appalachia were often Republican enclaves. (McKinney 1998) They had few slaves, poor transportation, deep poverty, and a standing resentment against the low country politicians who dominated the Confederacy and conservative Democracy in Reconstruction. Their strongholds in West Virginia, eastern Kentucky, eastern Tennessee, western Virginia, western North Carol
