The white woman at left, whom textbooks would call a “carpetbagger,” could
hardly expect to grow rich teaching school near Vicksburg, where this
illustration was done. This woman risked her life to bring basic literacy to
African American children and adults during Reconstruction.
Many whites who were born in the South supported Reconstruction. Every
Southern state boasted Unionists, some of whom had volunteered for the Union
army. Most of them now became Republicans. Some former Confederates,
including even Gen. James Longstreet, second in command under Lee at