Which label did white Southerners give to white Republicans who supported Black voters?

Which label did white Southerners give to white Republicans who supported Black voters?

• A. Traitors to their race.
• B. Patriots of reform.
• C. Moderate Unionists.
• D. Carpetbaggers

Answer: (A)

White Southerners framed white Republicans who backed Black voters as betrayers of their own race, a powerful accusation in a society built on white supremacy and the idea that political loyalty should align with racial hierarchy. This label signals that supporting Black suffrage and Reconstruction was seen not just as political disagreement but as moral treason to the white racial order. While other terms existed—carpetbaggers for Northern outsiders and scalawags for Southern whites who cooperated with Reconstruction—the phrase traitors to their race directly expresses the idea of wholesale betrayal by a member of the white community.

White Southerners framed white Republicans who backed Black voters as betrayers of their own race, a powerful accusation in a society built on white supremacy and the idea that political loyalty should align with racial hierarchy. This label signals that supporting Black suffrage and Reconstruction was seen not just as political disagreement but as moral treason to the white racial order. While other terms existed—carpetbaggers for Northern outsiders and scalawags for Southern whites who cooperated with Reconstruction—the phrase traitors to their race directly expresses the idea of wholesale betrayal by a member of the white community.