As bodies of vigilantes, the Mans and the Councils regulated the conduct of bad Negroes, punished criminals who were not punished by the state, looked after the activities and teachings of Northern preachers and teachers, dispersed hostile gatherings of Negroes, and ran out of the community the worst of the reconstructionist officials.

They kept the Negroes quiet and freed them to some extent from the influence of evil leaders.

The burning of houses, gins, mills, and stores ceased; property became more secure; people slept safely at night; women and children walked abroad in security; the incendiary agents who had worked among the Negroes left the country; agitators, political, educational, and religious, became more moderate; "bad niggers" ceased to be bad; labor became less disorganized; the carpetbaggers and scalawags ceased to batten on the Southern communities.

It was not so much a revolution as the defeat of a revolution.

Society was replaced in the old historic grooves from which war and reconstruction had jarred it.
Successful as was the Ku Klux movement in these respects, it had at the same time many harmful results.