Definition of Scalawag: A “Southron who…lives upon the sickening odors of negro love.”

“Scalawag” was a derogatory term for white Southerners who joined the Republican Party or otherwise aided in the Reconstruction project of the Federal government. Scalawags were sometimes accused of being “N- Lovers.”

The Edgefield Advertiser was a Conservative Democratic newspaper and a fierce opponent of Reconstruction. Here, it quotes the Petersburg Express’s definition of the term “Scalawag.”

Edgefield Advertiser
Wednesday, Nov 04, 1868
Edgefield, SC
Vol: 33
Page: 4

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Author: Patrick Young

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