Wagonhopper is a term used to describe northerners who moved from the United States to the Confederate States after the American Civil War. They were also commonly referred to as Hoppers.
Meaning of the Name[]
Wagon Race
The name Wagonhopper refers to the Confederate perspective that these people had "hopped wagons" (switched sides) after the war was already over. It was said to be akin to hopping into the winning wagon in a race after that wagon had already won.
History[]
The Treaty of Alexandria, which ended the Civil War, stipulated that the United States and Confederate states would allow free movement between citizens of their countries until 1900. This meant that any citizen of the Union could move to the South unrestricted at any time, and vice versa, as if the two countries were still united. This was meant to reduce the strain of the new separation between them and prevent over-fortification of the border.
The borders between the two nations at the end of the war
The majority of those who moved in the early years after the war were those who strongly supported the cause of the Confederacy and/or slavery. As time went on, there were increasingly many who moved for economic reasons, perceiving greater opportunity available for them in the South than the North. The Southern economy was generally more prosperous than the North's in the years immediately after the war. The Confederacy also enthusiastically promoted settlement of their limited frontier areas, mainly Arizona and the Indian Territory. Lastly, there was thought to be economic opportunity in the expanding cities of the South, which had not yet industrialized like the major cities of the North.
There were other scattered reasons for moving. Some simply had family or roots in Southern states and chose to reside in them. Some preferred the weather and the lands of the South. An unfortunate few naively believed that they could help advance social change in the South. On the frontier, the borders were often totally disregarded, with people freely moving between the Confederacy and the Union without much consideration of which nation they actually landed in.
Northern immigration to the Confederacy ebbed and flowed over the years. By the 1880's, those who wished to move for political reasons of supporting slavery and states' rights had largely already done so. From that point on, migration was closely tied to economic conditions, with people desiring to live in whichever country seemed more prosperous at the time. However, the widening social and political gap between the two nations made it a harder transition to make, and so movement tapered off over the years. The arrival of the year 1900 meant that anyone who wanted to move to the Confederacy from the North would have to go through the regular immigration process. Immigration to the south was almost nonexistent in the early 20th Century as Northerners believed it to be a poor, backwards land populated by ignorant farmers. This was the end of the common use of the term Wagonhopper.
Reception[]
In the South[]
Wagonhoppers were received with a mixed reaction by native Confederates. On one hand, they were considered to be enlightened Yankees who saw the righteousness of the Confederate cause, and for this they were respected. On the other hand, they had done none of the fighting to attain Southern independence and were now reaping the rewards without any of the struggle. For this they were resented. Some were accused of stealing Southern wealth and Southern land from the native Southerners who rightfully deserved them. Some political theorists considered it to be a continued attempt at Yankee control over the South.
Individuals who moved were sometimes received with warm curiosity and integrated well into their new communities. Others saw hostility and were driven out. Of these, some moved to other places in the South and some gave up and returned to the North. The border states of Virginia and Tennessee tended to accept outsiders more easily, while it was harder for Yankees to be accepted in the Deep South. Even when they were able to integrate into communities, cultural differences remained. It was demanded that they and their families followed a Southern lifestyle if they were to remain accepted.
Those who moved for purely economic reasons were completely reviled. They were seen as opportunistic snakes trying to sap the prosperity of true Southerners and return it to the North as it had been before the war.
The Confederate government was never hostile to migration from the North, as they hoped to decrease the population disparity between them. Some programs even specifically courted Northerners to move to the Confederacy, especially the poor desert regions in the west.
Northerners who moved to the Confederacy and fought with the Confederacy before the end of the war were not seen as Wagonhoppers, but rather as true Confederates through and through.
In the North[]
Wagonhoppers had a universally negative reputation in the North. They were seen as cowardly traitors whose morals were antithetical to the principles of Northern society. Here, the word "Wagonhopper" had a connotation of someone bailing out of the wagon before the race was finished.
Moving to the South was enough to get one ostracized from their remaining family and friends in the North. Returning was a tough task. Those who returned were often better off moving to a completely different part of the United States than they originally came from, where they could start over with an unstained reputation. Moving for economic reasons was seen as marginally less reprehensible but still as treasonous, representative of chasing personal gain over loyalty to their nation.
| ||||||||||||||||||||
