ETYM Spelt also scallawag.
White Southerner supporting Reconstruction policies after the Civil War usually for self-interest; SYN. scallywag.
Or scallywag; In US history, a derogatory term for white Southerners who, during and after the Civil War 1861–65, supported the Republican Party, and black emancipation and enfranchisement.
The reforms instituted by the scalawags were widely resented in the South, and their influence diminished with the rise of the Democratic party in the South.