 However, over time, and with perspective, historians now agree that such things were palatable excuses, and easier to reconcile than the true underlying reasons.Today, most historians agree that the attacks were brought about a "strain" poor whites felt about not being able to control their political and economic reality.This lack of perceived power is at odds with the idea of white "manhood", which in the U.S., has long been synonymous with dominance of political voting rights, dominance in the economic arena, and dominance as sexual partners, and protectors, of white women, breeding an expectation of entitlement to these things.