Precisely the same benefit that the British government offered to its white expatriates, the Democratic Party in the United States offered to its poor white supporters. From the 1870s through the 1960s, the Democrats established their political hegemony in the South by granting whites the full social and psychological enjoyments of white supremacy. Blacks paid a costly price for this, because the Democrats unleashed a fury of violence against them. In fact, had the Democrats been the only political party in America, it's hard to image what would have become of the black population of the South. Blacks, however, had during most of this difficult period a single ally. That ally was the Republican Party.