(in the USA) A northerner who moved into the post-Civil War American South. In the wake of the Reconstruction Acts of 1867, large numbers of Northern entrepreneurs, educators, and missionaries arrived in the South to share in the rebuilding of the former states of the Confederacy. Some carpetbaggers (so called because it was said that they could transport their entire assets in a carpetbag) hoped to help the Black ex-slave population, but others were interested only in making a quick profit.