Masterless Men by Keri Leigh merritt

“Lacking wealth and privilege, poor white men attempted to prove their self-worth through violent and destructive means. If the people in power refused to recognize lower-class men’s honor and autonomy, poor whites could create their own hierarchy of honor by acting out against the establishment — by being the meanest, most impulsive, most lawless man in the locality. Lacking the resources to have a voice in society, these men demanded to be heard the only way they knew how. To be taken seriously by the southern gentry, poor whites began relying on the most primal type of honor, one that depends on strength, physical prowess, and a type of existential freedom based on living in the moment.”

-Keri Leigh Merritt

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“It is well known that in every country and every age, the most degraded and th emost ignorant have been the most opposed to needed reforms, especially if those reforms were to begin with asking a sacrifice of them.”

-Horace Greeley