Unnamed Carpetbagger from New England

The derisive term "carpetbagger" (derived from the material used to make cheap luggage) refers to Northerners who came into the South after the Civil War; depending on one's politics, they came either to reconstruct or to prey on the defeated South. Faulkner's carpetbaggers tend toward economic, rather than political, influence in Jefferson. Here, though Jason Compson II retains most of his land, the demands of this "New England carpetbagger" against the Compson estate prompt Jason to sell off small sections of the "solid square mile," thus enabling the Snopeses to "encroach" on his holdings (329).