Ku Klux Klan (1866-1877)
- Overview article see Ku Klux Klan
| Ku Klux Klan | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| |||
| Abbreviation | KKK | ||
| Motto | Quod semper, quod ubique, quod ab omnibus | ||
| Existence | 24 December 1866–1877 | ||
| Type | Confederate veterans association Southern resistance organisation | ||
| Location | The South, United States | ||
| Founder | Nathan Bedford Forrest | ||
The Ku Klux Klan, also known as the First Klan or the Original Klan, was a Confederate veterans association founded by Nathan Bedford Forrest following the American Civil War, which existed from 1866 to 1877. The primary purpose of the organisation was to act as a form of national resistance for Southerners against the conquering Yankee radical republicans from the North-East. The latter group, known as carpetbaggers, were attempting to use former Black African slaves as a proxy to wage a campaign of humiliation, subjugation and eventual annihilation against the Southern people. As a resistance group, it operated in a clandestine manner.
Contents
History
Historical background: looming black rule
Following the Civil War, the Radical Republicans controlling Congress fought to "punish" the Southern States, against the wishes of both Lincoln and his successor Andrew Johnson.
They sought to impose black rule on the former CSA, which at the time had a black majority. It also sought to destroy the "plantation aristocracy" by appropriating all its wealth, to the sum of $17,000,000 in Negro slaves. Confederate veterans were denied participation in elections only to be replaced by freed slaves who were easily swayed by political promises of “forty acres and a mule” from conquering Northern carpetbaggers.
Founding
The first Ku Klux Klan was an American secret association of Southern whites united for self-protection and to oppose the Reconstruction measures of the United States Congress, 1865–1876. The name is generally applied not only to the order of Ku Klux Klan, but to other similar societies that existed at the same time, such as the Knights of the White Camelia, a larger order than the Klan; the White Brotherhood; the White League; Pale Faces; Constitutional Union Guards; Black Cavalry; White Rose; The '76 Association; the Redshirts and hundreds of smaller societies that sprang up in the South after the Civil War. The object was to protect the whites during the disorders that followed the Civil War, and to oppose the policy of the North towards the South, and the result of the whole movement was a more or less successful revolution against the Reconstruction and an overthrow of the governments based on negro suffrage. It may be compared in some degree to such European societies as the Carbonara, Young Italy, the German Tugendbund, the Confreries of France, the Freemasons in Catholic countries, and the Vehmgericht.
Rise and Influence
The most important orders were the Ku Klux Klan and the Knights of the White Camelia. The former was founded on 6 May 1865, in Pulaski, Tennessee, as a club of freemasons and unknowing young men, most of these were veterans of the Confederate Army. It had an absurd ritual and a strange uniform. The members accidentally discovered that the fear of it had a great influence over the lawless but superstitious blacks, and soon the club expanded into a great federation of regulators, absorbing numerous local bodies that had been formed in the absence of civil law and partaking of the nature of the old English neighborhood police and the ante-bellum slave patrol. The White Camelia was formed in 1867 in Louisiana and rapidly spread over the states of the late Confederacy. The period of organization and development of the Ku Klux movement was from 1865 to 1868; the period of greatest activity was from 1868 to 1870, after which came the decline.
The various causes assigned for the origin and development of this movement were: the absence of stable government in the South for several years after the Civil War; the corrupt and tyrannical rule of the alien, renegade and negro, and the belief that it was supported by the Federal troops which controlled elections and legislative bodies; the disfranchisement of whites; the spread of ideas of social and political equality among the negroes; fear of negro insurrections; the arming of negro militia and the disarming of the whites; outrages upon white women by black men; the influence of Northern adventurers in the Freedmen's Bureau and the Union League in alienating the races; the humiliation of Confederate soldiers after they had been paroled - in general, the insecurity felt by Southern whites during the decade after the collapse of the Confederacy.
In organization the Klan was modeled after the Federal Union. Its Prescript or constitution, adopted in 1867, and revised in 1868, provided for the following organization: The entire South was the Invisible Empire under a Grand Wizard, General Nathan Bedford Forrest; each state was a Realm under a Grand Dragon; several counties formed a Dominion under a Grand Titan; each county was a Province under a Grand Giant; the smallest division being a Den under a Grand Cyclops. The staff officers bore similar titles, relics of the time when the order existed only for amusement: Genii, Hydras, Furies, Goblins, Night Hawks, Magi, Monks and Turks. The private members were called Ghouls. The Klan was twice reorganized, in 1867 and in 1868, each time being more centralized; in 1869 the central organization was disbanded and the order then gradually declined. The White Camelia with a similar history had a similar organization, without the queer titles. Its members were called Brothers and Knights, and its officials Commanders.
The constitutions and rituals of these secret orders have declarations of principles, of which the following are characteristic: to protect and secure the weak and unfortunate, especially the widows and orphans of Confederate soldiers; to protect members, of the white race in life, honour and property from the encroachments of the blacks; to oppose the Radical Republican party and the Union League; to defend constitutional liberty, to prevent usurpation, emancipate the whites, maintain peace and order, the laws of God, the principles of 1776, and the political and social supremacy of the white race - in short, to oppose African influence in government and society, and to prevent any intermingling of the races.
During the Reconstruction the people of the South were divided thus: nearly all native whites (the most prominent of whom were disfranchised) on one side irrespective of former political faith, and on the other side the ex-slaves organized and led by a few native and Northern whites called respectively scalawags and carpetbaggers, who were supported by the United States government and who controlled the Southern state governments. The Ku Klux movement in its wider aspects was the effort of the first class to destroy the control of the second class. To control the negro the Klan played upon his superstitious fears by having night patrols, parades and drills of silent horsemen covered with white sheets, carrying skulls with coals of fire for eyes, sacks of bones to rattle, and wearing hideous masks. In calling upon dangerous blacks at night they pretended to be the spirits of dead Confederates, "just from Hell," and to quench their thirst would pretend to drink gallons of water which was poured into rubber sacks concealed under their robes. Mysterious signs and warnings were sent to disorderly negro politicians.
The whites who were responsible for the conduct of the blacks were warned or driven away by social and business ostracism or by violence. Nearly all southern whites (except "scalawags"), whether members of the secret societies or hot, in some way took part in the Ku Klux movement. As the work of the societies succeeded, they gradually passed out of existence. In some communities they fell into the control of violent men and became simply bands of outlaws, dangerous even to the former members; and the anarchical aspects of the movement excited the North to vigorous condemnation.' The United States Congress in1871-1872 enacted a series of "Force Laws" intended to break up the secret societies and to control the Southern elections. Several hundred arrests were made, and a few convictions were secured. The elections were controlled for a few years, and violence was checked, but the Ku Klux movement went on until it accomplished its object by giving protection to the whites, reducing the blacks to order, replacing the whites in control of society and state, expelling the worst of the carpetbaggers and scalawags, and nullifying those laws of Congress which had resulted in placing the Southern whites under the control of a party composed principally of ex-slaves.
Quotes
- The Klan was reorganized to oppose radical proponents (the Radical Republicans) of what it perceived to be black domination, not to scourge blacks themselves. Although it has been written that Ku Klux Klan ranks were open only to the more than 100,000 honorably discharged ex-Confederate veterans, the hierarchy in some areas and some instances seems to have accepted and even recruited blacks, provided they went along with Conservative-Democratic political philosophy. In Memphis of late 1868, sixty-five blacks organized a "Colored Democratic Club" under the watchful eye of Klansman-editor Gallaway - - who according to an account in the Appeal, "made a motion on behalf of the White men present, that they give employment and protection to Colored democrats." – Jack Hurst, Nathan Bedford Forrest: A Biography, 1994
External links
- Original Klan at KKKlan.com
- The True Flag of the Ku Klux Klan at KKKlan.com
- Ku Klux Klan: Its Origin, Growth and Disbandment ebook
