← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · confederate_commando
Thread ID: 18003 | Posts: 12 | Started: 2005-04-28
2005-04-28 10:23 | User Profile
KU KLUX KLAN, the name of an American secret association of Southern whites united for self-protection and to oppose he Reconstruction measures of the United States Congress, 1863-1876. The name is generally applied not only to the jrder 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; Slack Cavalry; White Rose; The '76 Association; 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 hat 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 Tugendbund, the Confreries of France, the Freemasons in Catholic countries, and the Vehmgericht.
The most important orders were the Ku Klux Klan and the knights of the White Camelia. The former began in 1865 in Pulaski, Tennessee, as a social club of young men. It had an absurd ritual and a strange uniform. The members accidentally discovered that the fear of it had a great influence over the awless but superstitious blacks, and soon the club expanded nto a great federation of regulators, absorbing numerous local jodies that had been formed in the absence of civil law and Dartaking of the nature of the old English neighborhood aolice and the ante-bellum slave patrol. The White Camelia was formed in 1867 in Louisiana and rapidly spread over the tales 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 (q.v.) and the Union League (q.v.) in alienating the races; the humiliation of Confederate soldiers after they had been paroledin general, the insecurity felt by Southern whites during the decade after the collapse of the Confederacy.
In organization the Klan was modelled 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 N. B. 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 succour the weak and unfortunate, especially the widows and orphans of Confederate soldiers; to protect members of the white race in life, honor 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 racein 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 carpet-baggers, 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, parader 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 not, in some way took part in the Ku Klux movement. As tl~ie 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.1 The United States Congress in 1871-1872 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, hut 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 carpet-baggers 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.
AurH0RITIES.J. C. Lester and D. L. Wilson, Ku Klux Klan (New York, 1905); \V. L. Fleming, Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama (New York, 1905), and Documentary History of Reconstruction (Cleveland, 1906); J. \V. Garner, Reconstruction in Mississippi (New York, 1901); W. G. Brown, Lower South in American IIictor~ (New York, 1901); J. M. Beard, Ku Klux Sketches (Philaclelphia, 1876); J. \V. Burgess, Reconstruction and the Constitution (New York, 1901). (W. L. F.)
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2005-05-08 04:38 | User Profile
confederate_commando,
A great article from the Encyclopedia Britannica 1911 edition. I wonder what the article in the 2005 edition looks like. I bet it is very PC and marxist.
2005-05-21 00:25 | User Profile
Good find. This reminds me of David Duke's comments about what you read of World War II in encyclopedias from before the 1960s or so.
2005-05-21 00:50 | User Profile
Keep in mind that this article was written four years before the Klan's major 1915 revival--which was sparked by D.W. Griffith's silent masterpiece, Birth of a Nation.
[img]http://www.teatrodellaforma.it/the-birth-of-a-nation2.jpg[/img]
[img]http://www.tvretro.com/cinemuet/root_folder/images/birth_pic4.jpg[/img]
2005-05-21 02:45 | User Profile
just for sentimental reasons... [img]http://www.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/library/african/2000/1920_00b.jpg[/img]
2005-05-21 15:47 | User Profile
sentimental reasons are nearly always the best ones...
:gunsmilie
2005-05-27 08:55 | User Profile
Howard Campbell, Jr. and JoseyWales,
Love the Pictures! :gunsmilie
confederate_commando
You are very right! [QUOTE]sentimental reasons are nearly always the best ones...[/QUOTE]
2005-06-10 03:02 | User Profile
What year was that picture taken?
2005-06-10 03:14 | User Profile
Blue Bonnet ! lol. This is way off topic, but I was nicknamed Blue Bonnet in senior league baseball ! Senior league being 13 years old. One day I lost my team cap, and rode my XR-75 to the ballfield with a blue hat, the coach busted my b*#ls and called me Blue Bonnet. I had to live with it for a month !! How you arrive at that name ? Welcome to OD.
Back on topic, the sympathies of posters above makes me wonder, what do they think of the League of the South ? ( I am not condoning it ), they claim their credo is based on Southern values, not racial. I am just a European Yankee. But I did drive around for a couple years with a rebel flag as my rear license plate. Got me pulled over ( against the law in RI to not have both plates ) but luckily it was my cousin that did ! I feel uncomfortable commenting on the South, having only visited there briefly, I can't speak from experience.
2005-06-10 03:30 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Exelsis_Deo]Blue Bonnet ! lol. This is way off topic, but I was nicknamed Blue Bonnet in senior league baseball ! Senior league being 13 years old. One day I lost my team cap, and rode my XR-75 to the ballfield with a blue hat, the coach busted my b*#ls and called me Blue Bonnet. I had to live with it for a month !! How you arrive at that name ? Welcome to OD.
[/QUOTE] hahahaaa:lol: Well I'm from Texas (state flower) and I wanted something girlie sounding cause I am. thanks for the welcome.
2005-06-10 03:36 | User Profile
aww shucks. I like you already :-) That's how it happenned. I was "Blue Bonnet" for what felt like an eternity, lol. As long as I could peel out/ rip out/ do donuts and ride home thru the fields and 150 year old stone walls ( in my area, the settlers dug up the land for farming, and found way too many stones, and buried on their own land. They used the stones to build small walls, like boundaries) I'm 36, and I don't think there's any kids that had a childhood like mine around here anymore. And I'm not unique in that respect either. But I know it's still like that in other parts of the country. feel free to send me a message.. I just checked out what you have as a website recommend.. You're a Texas woman.. learn something new every day, now I know the blue bonnet is Texas state flower. ok I'll shut up now, all.
2005-06-11 04:40 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Exelsis_Deo]Back on topic, the sympathies of posters above makes me wonder, what do they think of the League of the South ? [/QUOTE]
The original klan opposed Reconstruction I, the League of the South opposes the ongoing Reconstruction II. Hats off to both!
:clap: