Question

what did white southerners think the goal was of all northerners who moved south during reconstruction?

Answer 1

They were generally called "carpetbaggers," and most white southerners thought their aim was to exploit the defeated South for personal gain — grab land and business opportunities, take government contracts, and seize political offices. Southerners also believed northerners wanted to impose Republican rule and a new social order (including enfranchising and empowering freed Black people) to cement their control. In short, white southerners saw them as opportunistic, corrupt outsiders bent on plunder and political domination — even though many northern newcomers were teachers, missionaries, businessmen, or genuine reformers.