The most surprising part of the excerpt was the part about the interracial marriage, because the black men looked up at the white women with intent to seduce them as they stood up with joyfulness. I believe the white southerners feared that the freed slaves would excel in their social orders and even economic growth. Their biggest fear is probably the ex-slaves rising and eventually overcoming the whites because they have more time and opportunity due to them not spending most of their time on a plantation, which brings me to the legacy of Reconstruction. The “Reconstruction” changed the lives of southerners and even slaves. It particularly changed …show more content…
Foner believes the KKK is simply a group of people who want to go back in time before blacks gained their suffrage and civil rights. They want to go back to when blacks were outranked (when they were still slaves). Nevertheless, the Klan was against whites and White Southern Republicans as well. As stated above, the Klan ultimately used violence to intimidate others, because they recognized white Republicans as traitors, opening them to being a victim of violence due to their