There are a few potential reasons as to why such strong ideas on interracial sex developed. The Reconstruction Era following the Civil War started to disassemble traditional aspects of Southern society. The Southerners who were used to being dominant were now no longer legally allowed to run their farms using slavery.
Many whites struggled with this reformation and attempted to find loopholes to continue the exploitation of black labor. Additionally, the white Democrats were not pleased with the outcome and felt a sense of inadequacy among white men. This radical reconstruction of the South was deeply unpopular and slowly unraveled leading to the introduction of the Jim Crow laws. There was an increase in the sense of white dominance and sexual racism among the Southern people. There were general heightened tensions following the end of the civil war in 1865, and this increased the sexual anxiety in the white population. The Ku Klux Klan then formed in 1867, which led to violence and terrorism targeting the black population.
