Mentality goes a long way, doesn’t matter the location, party or skin color.
Exactly. After slavery was abolished, if slaves weren't abandoned by their masters then they just fell into another trap set up by Dixiecrats (just another segment of the Democrat Party who eventually established the KKK).
And of course, there were still the poor white people. What was to become of them under the new federal policies?
A lot of people don't realize that Native Americans sided with the Confederate states because they viewed the north as encroaching on their liberties. Confederate states pretty much didn't give a rat's arse about what you did as long as you weren't their slave. The poor whites were free from the grid, so to speak. This is why there continues to be very poor white southerners who vote conservatively because they view the Democrats as putting everybody on the grid.