The First Klan Part 3 Fall of the Klan

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
My name is Eric Gasca and you're listening to the
Distorted History podcast, and prom I can't give you many names,
and you're a blacker. Look I'm reasoning. I'm got the

(00:24):
bight Arrah A long struggle for freedom. It really is
a revolution. The ku Klux Klan was first formed in
the wake of the Civil War during the period of Reconstruction,
a time when averts were main not only to rebuild

(00:45):
the South that had been decimated by the war, but
to remake it becausey system that the old South had
been built upon had been abolished. Many though, opposed this change,
especially when it came to what it might mean concerning
the people they used to enslave. The clan's primary mission
then was to maintain the system of white supremacy. One
of the main ways they did this was by seeking

(01:06):
to prevent African Americans and their allies from voting through violence, murder,
and intimidation. In doing so, the clan effectively became the
terrorist arm of the Democratic Party, as they not only
made it clear that unless one was voting Democrat they
should stay home, but they at times even attacked and
sometimes even murdered Republican officeholders. The clan's goals there were
more than just political. They were also focused on reclaiming

(01:28):
the white male ownership of power in general, as they
wanted to re establish the old race based patriarchal order
of white male supremacy in this new post war environment,
which included the power over violence, as they frequently disarmed
African Americans and looked to crush any attempt to organize
defensive efforts among the black community. Ultimately, it was about

(01:49):
exerting control over the lives of the people they saw
us less than This included lynching any black man who
dared to live with a white woman or who visited
a white sex worker, who themselves were often punished as well.
Yet it was about more than just stopping blacks and
whites from sleeping together, as they also looked to stop
the newly freed African Americans from owning or even renting land,

(02:10):
and they also wanted to prevent them from becoming educated,
which is why they targeted black schools and those who
taunted them. The thing was as effective as their terror
campaign was at times, there were still many who were
not about to just sit back and allow these costumed
terrorists to have their way. Yet before I get into
the campaign that looked to break the Clan's back. First,
like always, I want to give credit to my sources

(02:32):
for this series, which include Jane Michael Martinez's Carbon Bagger's
Calvary and the ku Klux Klan, Elaine France Parsons Ku
Klux the Birth of the Clan during Reconstruction, and Alan W.
Tree leases the Ku Klux Klan Conspiracy and Southern Reconstruction.
And like always, these and any other sources like websites
that I used will be listed on this podcast. Bluesky

(02:54):
and Covey pages plus for any who don't want to
be bothered skipping through commercials, so it's always an ad
free fade available at patreon dot com. Slash Distorted History.
And with all that being said, let's begin. The Clan
had found quite the home in South Carolina, which is
not the least bit surprising given that it was the
first state to have seceded from the Union and the
place where the first shots of the Civil War were fired. Predictably, then,

(03:18):
the residents of South Carolina were quite upset when they
were unable to defeat the new state constitution that demanded
their acceptance of the fourteenth Amendment, which was a prerequisite
for their having representation in Congress. Again, many in South
Carolina then were so resentful at having been forced to
accept the amendment that made black people's citizens that they
saw the Klan as a legitimate form of political opposition. Meanwhile,

(03:42):
given the state's history of being Milton firebrands, it's not
surprising that pretty much from the beginning, the Klan in
South Carolina was incredibly violent. Indeed, while the group was
very clearly politically motivated and in no way stopped its
activities following the April eighteen sixty eight elections, which saw
the Republicans capturing most of these states legislature positions, with

(04:02):
many of these officials being so called carpetbaggers, meaning they
came from other states. In fact, this included Governor Robert Scott,
who had come from Ohio. Yet, for his badness, a
fact was that these Republicans and carpetbaggers had taken over
the state government. The worst part of this was the
fact that while whites were still in control of the
state Senate, in the House, African Americans were the majority,

(04:24):
a situation which served to embitter many. A white resident
of South Carolina. As it was bad enough that savery
had ended and that they had been defeated on the battlefield,
but now these Northerners and their former slaves were looking
to roll over them, a situation they could not be
allowed to stand, and one which they responded to with
the violence. For example, on the fourth of June eighteen

(04:44):
sixty eight, State Senator Solomon Washington Dell was shot dead.
Then a few weeks later, Legislator James Martin was also
shot and killed, this time brazenly in front of the
Abbeville County Courthouse. This campaign of terror and murder would
continue in a few months later. In October, Republican John
Stewart was sewn dead, as was a friend of his,
the leader of the local union League, Lee Nance. The

(05:06):
most infamous of these murders, though, was the murder of
Benjamin F. Randolph, a black man from the North who
had been elected a state legislator, only to be shot
dead while stepping off of a train. Given all this,
when South Carolina Republican Governor Robert Scott received a threatn
via telegram that read quote, while the law success to
the murder of your enemy is the righteous vindication of

(05:27):
your right to rule. He had to take it seriously.
Scott then asked Wade Hampton, a former Confederate general, for
his help. Now, Hampton likely did not carry when about
Denner terrified Republicans or African Americans. Indeed, the former Confederate
general was reportedly a clansman himself. The thing was, though,
Hampton was smart enough to recognize that such a campaign

(05:48):
of murder and violence was likely to result in the
federal government putting their boot down on the rebellious state's
neck once again. As a result, the former general spoke
out against quote general lawlessness, an incredibly vague proclamation that
nevertheless still managed to quell the violence for a time.
Then came the eighteen seventy elections, where some Republicans, in

(06:09):
response to allegations of corruption, fortune alliance with Democrats to
form a quote unquote Citizens' Party, which would then be
renamed the Union Reform Party, whose stated goals were to
replace the quote present corrupt government with covenant men of
known integrity and honor, as well as to rise above
the quote absolute and sharp antagonism between the races, which

(06:31):
likely was their way of indicating their willingness to abandon
any efforts to assist and empower the newly freed African Americans.
At its heart, though, this new party was just another
attempt by conservatives to seize power. Few, though, it seems,
were fooled by this tactic, and as a result, despite
these challenges and their own reported corruption, the Republicans, including
Governor Scott, would retain control of the state government, results

(06:53):
which convinced more than a few white conservatives that the
only way the Republicans had won was through some sort
of tricky or shady methods, with a number being especially
upset at how the freedmen and particular had solely supported
the Republican ticket, which, according to the Charleston Daily News,
was equivalent to a quote declaration of war by the
Negro race against the white race. By ignorance, against intelligence,

(07:16):
by poverty, against actual or potential wealth. Basically, because African
Americans had dared to vote for their own interest rather
than the benefit of the white people who used to
enslave them, they apparently had declared war. Given this interpretation,
many were prepared to respond in kind with a clan
circular from after the eighteenth seventy elections summarizing the attitude

(07:37):
of more than a few white Conservatives in South Carolina
as a declared quote defeated on the battlefield, defrauded at
the ballot box, we have but one remedy, the dagger
that was made illustrious in the hands of brutus, meaning
that since they couldn't win an a strain up fight on
the battlefield or through voting, they were going to rely
on terror and assassinations to get their way for the

(07:58):
time being, though the clan would remain dormant again even
without the clan's direct influence, it seems that violence really
started to pick up again in Arnest, as it did
some African Americans visibly prepare to defend themselves as they
organized into armed militia companies that marched through the countryside
and discipline formations complete with rifles resting upon their shoulders,

(08:18):
a site which only fueled conservative fears of a quote
unquote Negro uprising, all the while they puttedly ignored the
incidents that had led to the formation all these militia companies.
Somewhat poetically, though, the thing that seemed to provide the
spark that revived the clan in South Carolina was a
series of fires which were of course blamed on the freedmen.
That being said, while surely some fires over the years

(08:39):
were set by African Americans as a means of seeking
vengeance for the many rouks committed against them, their families,
and their community, my natural inclination is to suspect that
any number of these fires were simply accidents and a
result of just how faffable everything was and how common
open flames were, not to mention how casual people were
when disposing of let segarettes or pipe ashes and the lne. Indeed,

(09:01):
my mind always goes back to the supposed conspiracy in
New York in seventeen forty one, where the city panicked
over a series of fires which were blamed upon a
conspiracy between enslaved people and Catholics, a tale which I
did a series on a few years back, if you
want more information. Yet, regardless of the actual source, this
latest series of fires and the rumors that freedmen were
threatened to burn down Yorkville seemed to bring the clan

(09:23):
out of hibernation, as in January eighteen seventy one, they
would circulate a notice in which they promised to kill
ten prominent black men and two white allies if any
more fires occurred, an announcement that seemed to be the
precursor to a whole new wave of violence, as soon
the house of County Treasurer Edward Rose would be shot up,
although he was luckily not at home at the time.
Tim Black meanwhile, would not be so lucky, as he

(09:46):
would be shot eighteen times in addition to having his
throat slit. Then, come February, Anderson Brown, a freedman accused
of varson, was dragged out of his house and shot repeatedly,
while that same month to other freedmen would be lynched
and a house full of adverac and Americans would be attacked,
a campaign of terror in violence that just happened to
coincide with clan chapters once again springing up all over

(10:08):
the state, with the worst counties for this kind of
clan violence being Sparnburg, York, Union, and Chester, which were
all located in the northern part of the state, with
various York and Spartanburg clans in particular boasting that almost
the entire adult white male population in their respective counties
being members. The Spartanburg and York County clans were also
notable for having powerful, active and seemingly widely known leaders,

(10:31):
with Confederate veteran Captain j Banks Lyle leading the spartanburg Den,
while Major James w. Avery headed up the York County Clan,
with both men reportedly actively taking part in raids and murders.
Things were so bad that by the spring of eighteen
seventy one, Republicans and African Americans residing in these counties
regularly slubbed down in the woods and in the swamps
so as to avoid the clans raids on their homes,

(10:53):
which had become regular affairs. Among those attacked and whipped
was a white election manager who was guilty of hosting
a black Sunday school, while African Americans were regularly whipped
for crimes like displacing poor white tenant farmers or alternatively
leaving behind farm labor to take a job on a
railway construction gang that paid better, while others would be

(11:13):
webbed for voting Republican, and one black woman in particular
would be webbed for not accepting the offer to do
domestic work for a white family. Then there was the
seventy two year old black man who was shot as
he opened his door one night because he had allegedly
been stealing watermelons. The worst of these counties, Zo might
have been in York County, as he split between the
races there was fairly even, but since there were a

(11:36):
few white Republicans, they were able to come out ahead
in elections. However, this kind of easily disruptible situation was
the perfect breeding ground for clan activity, as they could
easily swing the balance of power into their favor through
their typical methods of violence, intimidation, and murder. By spring
eighteen seventy one, then there were poorly anywhere between eighteen
hundred and twenty three hundred adult white men in York

(11:58):
County who were members of the Klan, a number that
included the mayor and both constables of the town of Yorkville,
which was itself the helm of a dozen or so
Clan dens. Now, the clan had started back up in
York County in eighteen seventy following the elections that year. However,
this did not really draw much attention outside of the
local black community until December, when fifty to sixty clansmen

(12:20):
participated in the murder of Tom Rowntree, a leader in
the local black community who may have committed the crime
of promising to resist the clan's campaign of terror. Meanwhile,
from November eighteen seventy to September eighteen seventy one, the
Clan in York rated African American homesteads only a nightly basis,
terrorizing the occupants of these homes and confiscating any weapons

(12:40):
they might have so as to ensure they were helpless,
rays which happened with such regularity that they seemed to
follow a schedule as they shifted from one neighborhood to another,
and a minimum then, the Clan in York during this
period was responsible for some eleven murders and six hundred
additional cases of beatings and whippings, while also being responsible
for four to five Black schools and churches either being

(13:01):
burnt or otherwise torn down, which likely vastly underestimates the
full scope of the clan's crimes in that county, as
these crimes often went unreported, as most recognized that talking
to the authorities was often the same thing as talking
to the people who were responsible for the crimes in question. Meanwhile,
more than a few men both black and white, as

(13:21):
a part of this campaign of terror were forced to
publish notices in the local paper renouncing their ties to
the Republican Party and promising to vote Democrat from now on,
with at least one black man, Charles Good, being whipped
and auantimately murdered for refusing to do so. Then there
was the case of Jim Williams. Jim, you see, had
been born in rural York County, whereas a boy he

(13:42):
wasn't saved and forced to live on a plantation owned
by one Samuel Rainey. Even then, though young Jim and
always had an independence streak, so when the Civil War started,
he took the opportunity to escape from the Rainy plantation
at long last. Jim would then enlist in the Union
Army and would automately serve under the command of General
Wills to comes to Sherman, a man famous for his
march to the sea where he and his men lived

(14:04):
off to land and purposely to punish the Southerners for
starting this war, as they looked to further divide and
separate the rebellious states from themselves so as to make
it impossible for them to continue to provide support to
one another. During this conflict. Then, in the wake of
the war, during reconstruction, Jim Williams would return to York County,
where he organized a black militia to protect his fellow

(14:24):
freedmen and women, a personal history which made him exactly
the kind of capable and thus dangerous African American that
struck fear in the hearts of races Wines who were
desperate to hold onto their system a white supremacy. Now,
Jim Williams by this point was well aware of the
clan's existence and its activities. However, he showed little fear
of the masked men. In fact, during a public speech

(14:46):
at Rose's Hotel in Yorkville, Williams would assert that if
his militia had to encounter the robe vigilantes, they would
see to it that many a clansman would not be
making a home afterwards. The local clan, though, decided to
take this as a challenge. As he decided, they wanted
to remind the upstart Williams and his militia members of
their place. So on the sixth of March eighteen seventy one,

(15:07):
seventy clansmen on horseback donned their robes, hid their faces,
and even covered their horses of white sheets as they
set off to deal with Williams. Leading this contingent of
terrorist was forty nine year old James Rufus Brenn, a
prominent local physician. Brand Musey had served for three years
as a surgeon in the Army of Virginia, only to
return home to find that this once lucrative medical practice

(15:29):
was in shambles and his personal fortune was all but gone,
which is just one of the consequences of the son
of to wage a ward to continue owning other human beings. Brand,
upon returning home, then attempted to rebuild his fortune by
growing cun but this venture failed, which left him bitter
and miserable and a prime candidate to not only join
but lead the clan in the area. Indeed, while the

(15:50):
physician would make a ponent of publicly speaking out against
the so called night Riders, few actually believed his words,
as it was well known where his true allegiances lay. Meanwhile,
as he of seventy klansmen near Jim Williams property, Brand
and a dozen of his men scattered the area. Finding
a quietly thirteen clue Clux members approached the home and
banged on the front door, as they demanded to see Jim.

(16:12):
His wife, though upon answering the door, would inform the
costume terrorists that her husband wasn't there. The klansmen, however,
still forced their way inside, where they found another black
man but no Jim Williams. Brand though suspecting that something
was up, ordered his men to pull up the floorboards,
where they reportedly found a crouching and terrified Jim Williams.
The klansmen then bodily pulled Williams off from his hiding

(16:33):
place and dragged him outside, all the while his wife
and the other man begged for Jim's life. The klansmen
did not care, though, and instead placed a noose around
Jim's neck, which they then tied to a tree that
they forced Jim to perch on a limb of while
he waited his fate. Then, after likely taking some joy
and terrorizing Williams, the klansmen would order him to jump,
but Jim refused. They then tried pushing him off the limb,

(16:56):
but Jim managed to ground a hold of another branch,
which he held on to, saving his life for a time. However,
one of the klansmen began slashing in his hands with
a knife until Jim had no choice but to let go.
So Jim Williams, according to one of the clansmen, quote dined, cursing, pleading,
and praying all in one breath. With their bloody business

(17:16):
now complete, the klansmen were still not content, as they
proceeded to raid the houses of purported members of William's
militia convas getting any weapons they found along the way. Then,
around midnight, these seventy men would return to Brandon's house
to enjoy a quote bountiful lunch and otherwise celebrate their
murderous deeds. As for the members of William's militia, when

(17:37):
they found Jim's lynched body, they swore revenge on those responsible. However,
without as motivating leadership, these threats never became anything more
than words. Meanwhile, the Corners in Quest, despite pretty much
everyone in the county knowing that Bretton and his clansmen
were responsible, would declare that this was a case of
death by persons unknown. Now, it should also be noted

(17:58):
that federal troops had been still in the area and
they had done nothing to prevent this lynching, and nor
had they done anything about these seventy costume men who
rode about a night with impunity. Given this situation, then
additional soldiers, including members of the seventh Cavalry, would be
dispatched to this northern section of South Carolina, which may
not sound like a big deal considering what little impact

(18:20):
the other soldiers were having on this situation. However, leading
these new arrivals would be one major Merrill, who would
make it his personal mission to a long last, do
something about the clan. In response to this latest outbreak

(19:06):
of clan violence, Governor Smith in March eighteen seventy one
would meet with seventeen of South Carolina's so called best citizens,
during which he not only promised to not declare martial law,
but to also disband existing militia companies and upstate South Carolina,
and also replace several local officials who the white community
objected to. In return for all this, these quote unquote

(19:28):
best citizens promised to use their influence to put an
end to this wave of violence. Additionally, former Provisional Governor
Benjamin Franklin Perry, in an open letter to Governor Scott,
would call for Scott to disarm African American militias because,
in his estimation, the quote colent people South Carolina behaved
well during the war, and would have continued to do so,

(19:49):
but for the unprincipled carpetbagger who came among them, had
stirred up hatred to the whole wide race by the
most artful and devilish appeals to his fears and bad
passions stam which ignores the whole centuries of enslavement which
might have colored their view of white people. Yet still,
Governor Scott accepted and followed this advice as he ordered
Black Malicious to disarm. Predictably, though none of this actually

(20:12):
appeased the Klan and their allies. Instead, they simply saw
this as a sign of weakness, which only encouraged them
to carry out their terroristic activities. All the more. Meanwhile,
the Grand Administration, which had previously been asked for assistance
and refused to intervene, now acted as additional troops were
dispatched to South Carolina. Now Grant's position regarding reconstruction is

(20:33):
a complex one, as upon taking office, he delegated reconstruction
policies to his cabinet, a move that suggested that it
was not a serious concern for the president, as he
was not taking a hands on approach to this matter.
At the same time, though he would use his influence
as president to support legislation designed to protect the freedmen.
Then there was Grant's Attorney General, Amos T. Ackerman, who,

(20:54):
in June eighteen seventy so did personally investigating the tales
he was hearing about this KKK. Ackerman then personally visited
several Southern states to hear about what was transpiring their firsthand.
He was then stunned to discover what he termed a
quote domination of systematic and organized pravity. The only conclusion
he could reach then when it came to the clan

(21:15):
in similar organizations, was that these quote combinations amount to war.
Given this, Ackerman realized that demanding their laws actually be
obeyed and making threats of punishment if they were not,
was not going to be sufficient for the situation. Plus,
since they could not rely upon local authorities who were often,
if not active clan members at the very least sympathetic

(21:36):
to their cause, and was imperative for the federal government
to intervene and begin arresting and prosecuting high profile clan leaders,
which meant by extension, federal troops needed to be actively
involved in this process. Indeed, Ackerman even had a target
in mind to begin these efforts, as he wanted to
focus on South Carolina in particular, as he hoped to

(21:56):
make an example of the clan forces there. Many in
ugressou still did not believe that the details of the
clan and their elk were true, which then meant that
Grant had to step forward personally to argue for more
stringent anti clan legislation. The President would then declare that
a quote condition of affairs now exist in some states
of the Union, rendering life and property insecure. Given this,

(22:19):
he concluded that federal intervention was required, as he insisted
that these anti clan bills would quote effectually secure life, liberty,
and property, and the enforcement of law in all parts
of the United States. Grant statement would carry considerable way
when it came to the deliberation over this legislation, and
he would soon gain some additional help in pushing this
bill over the finish line from Benjamin Butler, another former

(22:41):
general in the Union Army. Indeed, Butler was donably the
first Union officer to refuse to return escape slaves. By
justifying his stance by claiming that they were quote unquote
contraband of war, a move that helped to establish Union
policy until the Emancipation of Proclamation was issued. Butler would
then gain even more infamy among Southerners during the occupation
of New Orleans, basically because he refused to put up

(23:04):
with their bullshit, which included promising to punish the high
status women of the city who regularly harassed mocked him
through the contents of Chamber of Pots upon his soldiers.
For daring to punish the so called respectable women like
any other criminals, he earned the title beast Bumbler. Meanwhile,
when he came to this anti clan legislation, Butler would
continue his pension for not putting up with bullshit as

(23:26):
he ran a loud a letter that had been written
by member of the American Missionary Association to his wife
moments before he was lynched by the Alabama Clan, after
which Butler, who was by this point a member of
the House of Representatives, made clear what this vote meant
as he declared that quote, let each member the House
read that letter, and then let him vote against a
bill toy press such outrages if he dare, and then

(23:48):
reckon with the people of his country and afterward with
his God. This pressure then resulted in the passage of
the ku Klux Klan Act of eighteen seventy one, which
made it a federal offense to quote together or go
in disguise upon the public highway or upon the premises
of another for the purpose of denying a US citizen
on the right to vote, own property, or to serve
on a jury. Furthermore, gain the president the authority to

(24:12):
interference state affairs was to keep the peace. However, he
did not authorize the declaration of martial law or otherwise
provide the means of trying defendants and military tribunals. That
being said, it did allow the President to suspend the
rid of habeas corpus at its own discretion and a
situation where the clan could not be constrained by other measures,
which was understandably a controversial part of the legislation. Grant then,

(24:34):
with the passage of this legislation, issued a proclamation in
which he urged citizens and locales where the clan was
active to follow the law on the threat of increased
federal intervention, making clear's intentions to use these powers if
this terror campaign was not ceased. Meanwhile, there was also
General Alfred H. Terry, the commander of the Department of
the South. General Terry had seen how dangerous the clan

(24:55):
was while being stationed in and around Atlanta starting in
December eighteen sixty nine. Terry then firmly believed that there
needed to be a concerted federal intervention concerning the clan.
In particular, he wanted a military solution to what he
saw as a military problem. That being said, he did
not believe they should try to take on the Klan
everywhere it existed. Instead, the General was the belief that

(25:17):
they should focus on one state at a time, as
that way, instead of spreading themselves too thin, they would
crush the clan and punish its leaders in an area
before moving on, with the hope being that eventually this
would serve as a message to the rest of the
clan and other states that they would suffer the same
fate unless they stopped immediately. Now, when it came to
the if anything increased sepredations of the clan in South

(25:38):
Carolina and particular, both General Terry and Attorney General Ackerman
were of the same mind, as they both intended to
make an example of the South Carolina Clan to this,
and in March eighteen seventy one, General William Decomps A
Sherman would make the announcement that federal troops were being
dispatched to the state, namely five companies of infantry and
three companies of Calvary that had recently been funding the

(26:01):
Native American tribes in the west, meaning that these were
men experienced in combating a mobile force who specialized in
guerrilla warfare tactics. To be clear, though this wasn't exactly
a huge number of soldiers. Indeed, there was never more
than a thousand of Federal troops in the state at
any given time. That being said, this was exactly the
kind of force which intimidated the Klan, the only problem

(26:22):
being that these troops were only able to intercede at
the behest of vocal officials, who too often were in
league with the Klan. Now notably among those dispatched to
the state were members of the famed Seventh Calvary, who
for this mission would be led by Major Lewis Merrill. Merrill,
though upon arriving, was doubtful about what kind of threat
that this clan group could represent, as while he had

(26:44):
read some accounts in the papers about the group, he
had assumed them to be exaggerations. However, after only spending
a little bit of time in South Carolina, Merrill would
become convinced of the threat that the clan represented and
the depths of its crimes. In particular, he would be
conferst of their evil by what happened to Elias Hill
Hill you c had been born to say, But he

(27:05):
was freed when his mother's freedom had been purchased by
his father with their owner agreed to free the boy
primarily because he suffered from some kind of malady that
rendered one of his arms and legs useless, a condition
that never abated and ultimately left both his legs and
arms withered and jaw deformed. Yet what Elias lacked in
physical strength he more than made up for with his intelligence,

(27:25):
as he would initially be taught how to read by
some local white children who regularly visited his cabin on
the way home from school. From this beginning, Elius would
grow into a strong and charismatic speaker who would wield
quite a bit of influence within the local black community. Indeed,
he would go on to become a Baptist minister and
the president of the local Union League chapter, which of

(27:45):
course made Elis quite the threat to the white power structure,
which in turn made him a target of the clan.
As a result, one night, Elias would be dragged out
of his home by his head by a group of
costumed clansmen, who then proceeded to beat him with a
horsewhip as he accused him of inciting a riot, raping
white women, and speaking out against the clan during his
church services, accusations which hill All denied. In particular, Elias

(28:10):
actually managed to unnerve the clansmen by being so unafraid
of them. They then left him with a warning, but Elias,
doing their chances, worthy clan would one day return and
kill him like they had so many others. Given this, Elias,
with the help of a congressman in the American Colonization Society, went,
along with one hundred and thirty five others from the
local region, moved to Liberia, West Africa. Before leaving, though,

(28:32):
he would testify before Congress about why he and the
others felt it necessary to leave, stating that quote, we
do not believe it is possible from the past history
and present aspect of affairs, for our people to live
in this country peaceably and educate and elevate their children
to any degree which they desire. Meanwhile, Major Merrill was
apparently incensed by these events, as eight days after Elias

(28:55):
Hill was assaulted, Marrow would issue a warning to a
group of some fifteen to twenty prominent local wife making
it clear that the US government would not tolerate any
further abuses. Indeed, he insisted that anyone who actively took
part in the KKK or even just hated them, was
going to pay for their actions, a threat that these
local conservative leaders seemed to take at least somewhat seriously,

(29:16):
as he issued a letter urging others in the region
to renounce violence. This plea, though, even if riel and
not just a ploy to try and stave off the
arrival of more federal troops, only had a limited effect
as to assume yet another outbreak of violence, which was
potentially because they knew that Marrow couldn't actually do anything
without the request of local authorities. That, however, did not

(29:37):
mean that Meryll was idle, as he would uce this
time to gather more information about the clan in particular,
he wanted to know which stories about the klan were
true and which ones were not. He then actively began
interviewing witnesses, many of whom which to remain anonymous, as
they shared what they had experienced at the hands of
the clan's night writers. Marrow would also be provided with
information by some former KKK members who offered the major

(30:01):
important insights into the inner workings of the clan, with
some of these informants agreed to provide this information thanks
to some financial inducements. Regardless, through this process, Merrill would
be able to lay out the structure of South Carolina's clan,
dens how they communicated using code words and secret signs,
and most importantly, have a catalog of their provable crimes.
Merrill then would be able to say with confidence that,

(30:23):
quote beyond doubt, the object of the organization in this
vicinity is to terrify the negroes into obeying the whitsned voting,
or to compel them to stay away from the polls.
Merrill then had detailed accounts of the clan's crimes and
a detailed layout of the clan structure and how it functioned. Yet,
even with all this information, there was little that Merrill
and his men could do, as they still had to

(30:44):
answer to local officials, who, if not clansmen themselves, were
at least clan sympathizers. Given the situation, Merrill would only
twenty fifth of May send off a telegraph to a
superiors asking for the authority to begin arresting suspects and
to hold them until trial. The thing was the local
telegraph operator whom he handed this message off to just
happened to be a member of the clan, who then

(31:06):
propably shared this information with his fellows. Frantic discussions were
then had among the local clansmen about how they should respond,
with the smarter among them taking the idea of attacking
the soldiers off the table as they recognize that even
if they did manage to run off Beryl and his men,
all they would do was confirm the existence of their
organization and bring down the full money of the federal

(31:28):
government upon them. Their fear of what might happen was
so great that when a rogue element of the clan
decided they were going to try and attack the soldiers anyway,
the others not only informed Merrill of the plot, but
even offered their assistance in funding off their idiotic fellows. Merrill, though,
would be somewhat disappointed when no attack ever came, as
he seemed to look forward to finally being able to

(31:49):
deal with some clansmen, as he and his men would
finally be free to act and not have to wait
for the word of any local authorities if they were
actually attacked. Meanwhile, in general, Terry, upon receiving mayors report
on his investigation, would be incredibly impressed by the thoroughness
of it, and dat he would pass it along, and
it would eventually result in Congress creating a joint Select
Committee to quote into the affairs of the late insurrectionary States.

(32:13):
Seven senators and fourteen representatives would make up this Joint
Select Committee, which was chaired by Senator John Scott of Pennsylvania,
who himself had previously spoken with fifty two witnesses from
North Carolina and half a dozen clansmen, which all served
to convince him that not only was the clan real,
but also a real threat. Various members of the subcommittee
then would in groups make trips to North and South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Alabama,

(32:38):
and Mississippi, so as to get a first hand look
at what was going on there. Meanwhile, back in Washington,
they would call upon both clan victims as well as
prominent former Confederates and clan members, including Nathan Bedford Forrest
and John B. Gordon, who would later go on to
become the Governor of Georgia. Gordon, when testifying about the clan,
would lie before Congress as he claimed that quote, the

(32:59):
organization was simply this, nothing more and nothing less, and
was an organization, a brotherhood of property holders, the peaceable
law bond and citizens of the state for self protection.
While Nathan Bedford, Foresty Clan's first grand Wizard, would claim
that the clan wasn't political in any way. Instead, it
was simply the product of white Southerners organizing themselves quote

(33:21):
so as to be ready in case they were attacked,
which he insisted was necessary because quote, there were a
great men and northern men coming down here, foaming leagues
all over the country. The Negroes were holding no meetings,
were going about, were becoming very insolent, and the southern
people all over the state were very much alarmed. Yet,
while Congress was busy with their own investigation, Merrill and

(33:43):
his men were basically left to just twiddle their thumbs
for bunths on end as remained in the same situation
as he had been. It was during this time, though,
that Merrill submitted a report to Congress in which he
outlined the situation he was dealing with in South Carolina,
writing that quote. In my previous reports, I have repeatedly
expressed the opinion that the local civil authorities were powerless
to cope with the strength of the ku Kluck's conspiracy,

(34:06):
even if willing to make the attempt, and I have
been compelled to believe that the desire to make the
attempt was entirely wanting. It is impossible to believe that
such numerous crimes should be repeated almost daily, from month
after month, with no instance of punishment and hardly the
commonist formality of investigation, and at the same time to
credit the assertations of the civil functionaries that they were

(34:26):
sincerely zealous in their duties and desires to bring the
offedders to justice. The pretense that it was impossible to
detect the criminals was transparent, and I have been able,
with the very limited means at my command, to trace
numbers of the crimes far enough to make it certain
that an honest, fearless, and vigorous discharge of duty by
the civil officials would have brought to light all the

(34:47):
facts needed to bring the offedders to trial, basically saying
that it was obvious that the local authorities, despite saying otherwise,
had no interest in pursuing the clan as he with
for more limited means that they was confident that he
had had to find many of those responsible for these crimes,
indeed marribly that he had more than enough proof to
bring a number of these individuals to trial. Yet, given

(35:08):
his experience with a Judge Thomas during this period, he
was convinced that such trials would come to nothing. As
quote public sentiment was so far under kup Clock's control,
then no hope would be reasonably entertained that the court
would vigorously attempt its duty even under the strongest pressure
of such facts as I could lay before it. Indeed,
Merrill had met with Judge Thomas during some grand jury

(35:28):
proceedings in an effort to convince the judge to simply
allow Merrill to present the evidens he had gathered about
the clan's crimes to the jury. The judge, though stonewall
the Major thom And again by repeatedly asking if he
intended to quote stir up this thing. Meanwhile, the evidence
that was presented to the jury was ignored or mocked,
with the foreman of the grand jury ultimately concluding that

(35:50):
quote if a mission was furnished a grand jury by
Major Merrill to the effect that six persons had recently
been whipped in the southeastern part of this county. After
careful examination of the facts, we ascertained that no such
outrage occurred in this county. Indeed, the jury foreman would
actually go so far as to claim that Merrill had
admitted to making a mistake and had promised to correct
his report, something which definitively did not happen. Instead, Merrill

(36:14):
would characterize the grand jury proceedings as a farce and
a quote ghastly mockery of justice, which is not at
all surprising given that Meryll would later discover that not
only were roughly a thirty the grand Jurist clansmen, but
that two of them had likely taken part in the
murders that he had investigated. Meanwhile, it would not be
long after this and Merrill met with Attorney General Ackerman,

(36:34):
who had himself just recently completed some investigations of his
own into the Klan in North Carolina, and was then
during this meeting that Merrill laid out in exhausting detail
everything he had uncovered about the Klan, its structure, and
its crimes in South Carolina. Just the sheer extent of
Merrill's information greatly impressed the Attorney in General and thus
convinced him once and for all that they could not

(36:55):
rely upon the local authorities. It was clear then that
the only way to deal with the Klan was going
to be through federal prosecutions, and was then, at the
insistence of his Attorney General, that President Grant issued a
statement in which he focused on the quote unlawful combinations
and conspiracies in the South Carolina counties of Chester, Chesterfield, Fairfield, Lancaster, Lawrence, Union, Newberry, Spartanburg,

(37:18):
and York, with Grant ordering that anyone involved in such
illegal activities not only had to cease and assist their
involvement in said groups and activities, but they also had
to surrender any weapons and costumes connected to such activities
within five days of this proclamation. This then was an
ultimatum a final warning to the clan to stop now,
with the unspoken thread of this message being that Grant

(37:40):
would next suspend Habeas corpus in the aforementioned counties, thereby
unleashing Federal troops would then comb the region to arrest
clansmen and then hold them for trial in federal court.
He thought that the clan's leaders definitely understood the import
of as the wealthy leaders of the clans suddenly started
fleeing the state, leaving their families behind as they attempted to
avoid prosecution, with Major Meryl taking note of this behavior, quote,

(38:03):
many of the ku Kuks leaders, suspecting that measures were
being defised to bring them to justice, and with the
characterics which has characterized all their infamous crimes, fled, leaving
their poor fellows and ignorant dupes to stand sponsors for
the crimes of which they had been the chief authors
and instigators. Meanwhile, those who remained in the state were
reluctant to do as the President ordered, as it would
both be breaking their oath a secrecy to the clan,

(38:25):
and also be admitting to participating in any number of crimes, which,
even if generally supported by their fellow whites still might
have been a mark of shame, as it was likely
one thing for everyone to kind of wake and not
at once connections to such crimes, but another to actually
come out and admit it. So, with nothing happening, Attorney
General Ackerman pressed the President to follow through on his threat.

(38:47):
Grant then asserted that the clan's activities in the region
constituted it being in a state of rebellion, which then
allowed him to suspend Habeas Corpus in the affected counties,
with this being a highly controversial move as it represented
the first time such an act had been undertaken by
an American president in peacetime. Now, the reason why they
had done so was because the suspension of Habeas Corpus

(39:08):
made it so the government could hold prisoners for as
long as they wanted so they could get their cases ready,
something which they believed to be a necessary tactic so
as to give the army ample time to properly scour
the area and arrest all those involved in the conspiracy. Locals, however,
saw this as yet another example of the federal government
needlessly harassing and abusing them regardless. Starting on the nineteenth

(39:29):
of October, soldiers began calling the countryside in the aforementioned
counties for suspects. Within three months time, these efforts would
result in four hundred and seventy two men being arrested,
and by April the following year, the number had resen
to five hundred and thirty three. Again, just as the
federal government was actually exercising its power to combat the Klan,
the press took to governing the KKK not as a

(39:50):
terrorist organization that was dedicated to intimidation, torture, and murder
to get their way, but insteads started portraying them as victims,
which is to say that to the press, only the
clan won a bunch of costumed terrorists, but victims of
a powerful government that was dedicating its considerable resources to
pursuing and prosecuting them. The press then was more concerned
with the government's policy concerning the Clan than it was

(40:12):
the victims of the clan's activities that had inspired the
government's policy against them. The press then essentially portrayed the
government as employing the same tactics as the clan had,
with the Chicago Thoms describing the federal governments activities as
a quote reign of terror, while the Columbia Daily Phoenix
would call the federal agents who were resting suspected clansmen

(40:32):
quote grants night writers. This despite the fact that the
local publication, The Yorkville Enquirer, reported that the arrests had
all generally been orderly affairs that had taken place in
the day, and that passingly few arrests had occurred after nightfall.
This particular paper, however, was in the minority, as most
South Carolina papers seemed to follow the same script and

(40:54):
portraying the soldiers' activities to begin with, their stories all
consistently happened at night, and almost without fail, included some
valiant female character who was there to defend the children
from the well armed federal soldiers, soldiers who, in their
zeal to capture a man whose crimes and affiliation with
the clanner never mentioned, go on to ruin the farmstead
and up in the lives of these poor, pitiable figures,

(41:16):
thus making the soldiers and by extension, the government which
they served, the true nighttime terrorists who were assaulting and
destroying the lives of these poor, innocent, upstanding individuals. Now,
to be clear, this is not to say that these
arrests went down flawlessly and without issue. Indeed, it was
not always easy in those days to tell if you
had arrested the right man or not. For example, in

(41:36):
one instance, these soldiers ended up arresting two men with
the same name, who they then held on to until
it could be determined which one they were actually After
that being said, such incidents were fairly rare, thanks largely
to the thoroughness of Major Merrill's investigation, which typically had
multiple sources of information for any given crime, as well
as a means of identifying the guilty parties. Additionally, a

(41:58):
surprising number of men simply turned themselves in and offered
to confess. Meanwhile, the press was also busy claiming that
these secret service agents who had been dispatched to assist
in tearing down the Clan were actually there to try
and manipulate and intimidate individuals into voting a certain way,
once again accusing the government agents taking on the Klan
of committing the exact crimes the clan was guilty of. Now,

(42:21):
this had long been a tactic of the Democrat press,
but it was now being picked up by other papers
as well, which was in part a reflection of the
reality that Northern Republicans were replacing their fears of Southern
aggression with a nervousness concerning labor agitation. Indeed, the rise
of labor organizing in the US, as well as reports
from the Paris Commune, had managed to terrify a number

(42:41):
of Northern moderate Republicans. They were then terrified of the
thought of the lower classes rising up, a fear that
by eighteen seventy one they had extended to the newly
freed black Southerners. As a result, and increasing number of
the wanted do in the North were more worried about
the poor and working class rising up than the worthy
thought of prominent whites reasserting the rule of white supremacy

(43:02):
in the South. Meanwhile, they were also increasingly worried about
the power of the federal government. As a result, papers
like The New York Sun would write with breathless concern
for the imprisoned clansmen, who they claimed had been quote
start away between decks and the four part of the
ship in ninety eight degree heat. In doing so, they
purposely seemed to compare these terrorists to the Africans who

(43:24):
had been kidnapped and forced to endure the horrifying Middle passage. Indeed,
they actively utilized abolishist rhetoric and imagery from before the
war to portray the plight of the captured clan members
get Once Again, such reports don't match up with accounts
that the troops were actually fairly lean in with the prisoners,
as they allowed them to exercise outdoors and receive visitors regularly,

(43:45):
which included local women who frequently brought picnic baskets filled
with food to the prisoners, with these soldiers likely being
willing to be so lenient because they were there in
such force that they did not need to fear whatever
troubly prisoners might try and get up to. Indeed, Major Merrill,
who was as opposed to the clan's continued existence as anyone,
when approached by one of the imprisoned clansmen who asked

(44:07):
to be allowed to return home because his fourteen year
old son was ill and suspected not to survive until
the following morning, would grant the man's request. In fact,
in contrast to what the papers were reporting, it seems
that the prisoners themselves would even testify that they had
been treated well. Meanwhile, to deal with the sheer number
of men arrested, and was decided that suspect the clan

(44:28):
leaders and those believed to have participated in the worst
crimes like murder and rape, would be held for trial.
The other sowever, who had not directly participated in such crimes,
and or individuals charged with misdemeanors, would be released on
bail after confessing, with the hope being that the prosecution
of the worse of the worst would serve as enough
of a deterre to sap the clan of its attractiveness. Meanwhile,

(44:51):
as the federal government was conducting these round ups and
preparing to put the captured clansmen on trial, the Congressional
sub committee dedicated to investigating the Klan would publish its
final six hundred and thirty two page report and twelve
volume appendix in February eighteen seventy two. The Manjarni report
was strident as to declare that there should be no
tolerance of those who quote permit the remnants of rebellious feelings,

(45:15):
the antagonisms of race, or the bitterness of political partisanships
to degrade the soldiers of Lean Johnson into the cowardly
midnight prowlers and assassins who scourge and guild the poor
and defenseless. Furthermore, at criticosity very logic of the clan's
actions of attacking the newly freed mass report, when speaking
of their black victims, would state that quote, if he

(45:36):
is ignorant, he will not be educated by burning his
schoolhouses and exiling his teachers. If he is wicked, he
will not be made better by banishing to Liberia his
religious teachers. If the resuscitation of the state is desired
by his labor, neither will be secured by persecution which
depopulates townships. It prevents the introduction of new labor and capital,

(45:56):
basically saying that none of your supposed fears and issues
would be terrorizing the newly freed communities. In contrast, there
was the Democratic Minority Report, which was much different as
it blamed the existence of the Ku Klux Klan on
the quote want on oppression in the South and the
tyrannical corrupt role of carpetbaggers and scalawags in saying that,

(46:17):
though the Democrats also insisted that the violence that had
been committed by the Klan, which was presumably in response
to this corrupt and tyrannical Republican rule was somehow not
politically motivated. Meanwhile, they would, in defiance of this statement
and all logic, also attempt to justify the clan's at
tax on schools in Mississippi by stating that they were
rebelling against the quote gigantic school system that had been

(46:41):
foistoned upon them by the Radical Republicans, as they claimed
that this whole public schooling idea was a quote system
of robbery whose goal was to quote get enough radical
school masters into each county to control and manage Negroes,
which is all the saying that the clan sympathizers stretched
all the way to the federal government because it group
was useful in pushing the return of white supremacy and

(47:04):
the rule of the old power structure which had led
to the creation of the Confederacy in the first place. Basically,
they just wanted to make things like they used to
be in the name of making the South quote unquote
great again. The trials of the suspected clansmen who had

(47:34):
been arrested thanks to the efforts of Major Merrill and others,
would start in the Fourth Federal Circuit Court in Columbia,
South Carolina in November eighteen seventy one. The prosecuting attorneys
for these cases were David T. Corbin and Daniel H. Chamberlain. Now,
Corbyn was a Northerner, but he was still fully acceptable
to Southerners, as per one source, he had a quote
reputation of being one of the most conservative and fair

(47:57):
on the Republican Party. That being said, had come South
originally as a Freeman's Bureau agent and was thus deeply
familiar with the region's race relations, while Chairerlain was notably
a former abolitionist from Massachusetts who had served during the
war as an officer in a black cavalry regiment, which
is to say that neither man seemed the type who
was inclined to take it easy on the klan. That

(48:19):
being said, they still had quite the tall task ahead
of them, as these two men not only had to
comb through mounds of evidence and locate the appropriate witnesses
for each case, but they also had to figure out
how they were going to apply federal law to state
level crimes, which is apparently easier said than done. Meanwhile,
they also recognized that they were going to have to
have black men on these juries for no other reason,

(48:42):
then they would be partially relying upon testimony from African Americans,
who were typically ignored and treated as untrustworthy byway juries
in the South. In the rare instances they were actually
allowed to testify, the federal prosecutors were luck though, because
by and large a significant number of whites who had
been sum to serve the juries for these cases simply
failed to show up, doing so, perhaps because it did

(49:04):
now to face poetury charges when asked to swear they
had no affiliation with the Klan, or perhaps a simply
to nomal to risk being ostracized for sitting in judgment
of their fellow Southern whites. Either way, though out of
the twenty one member jury, fifteen would be black plus.
While the jury foreman was a white man, he was
also a Republican and thus likely no fan of the Klan. Meanwhile,

(49:26):
serving Acid judges for these cases were Hugh Lennox Bond
and George Seaburg Bryan. Now, Bonn had shown a strong
commitment to the idea that African Americans should have civil
and political rights, so while he was not labeled as
a radical Republican, Bond did seem to largely line up
with their beliefs. That being said, the judge still had
a reputation for being fiercely independent. As for his partner

(49:49):
on the bench, Brian was older than his fellow judge
and quite different as he was not only a Whig
turned Democrat, but a former Safeholder as well. Indeed, Brian
had lived among the South Carolina elite for his entire life.
He was and very much pro Southern, but that being said,
he did not approve of the Klan or its methods. Still, though,
it shouldn't come as a huge surprise that as these

(50:10):
cases went on, the judges both grew frustrated with one another. Meanwhile,
the accused clan members were supported by ten thousand dollars
defense fund, which thus allowed them to hire two former
US Attorney generals to defend them of first with seventy
five year old former US Senator Reverdy Johnson, who had
notably represented the slave honoring the infamous dread Scott case

(50:32):
where the Supreme courted rule that says were simply property
and not entitled to constitutional protections, a case where Johnson's
former colleague, Justice Tainey issued the majority opinion, which was
based upon the false assertation that there had been no
free African Americans who qualified as and were treated as
citizens when the Constitution was written. Meanwhile, joining Johnson was

(50:53):
sixty eight year old Henry Tanberry, an Ohio Democrat and
the first Ohio Attorney General, who would also been nominated
by his friend President Johnson to serve on the Supreme Court. Tanburry,
though would be rejected by the Senate, only to be
made the US Attorney General bias friend President Johnson. Since then,
Tanbury had become an outspoken critic of reconstruction, which likely

(51:15):
helps to explain why he was selected for these cases. Now,
the first case that the prosecution thought about bringing forward
was that of Amzi Rainey, who had been targeted by
the Klan because he was not only a Republican but
a black militia man as well. For these offenses, six
klansmen had arrived at a sawmon in the middle of
the night, at which point they took Rainy and his
entire family out into the yard, where they held them

(51:37):
at gunpoint. The costume terrorists then proceeded to savagely beat
Rainie's wife, even as she was holding their baby in
her arms. Meanwhile, he no morey klansmen would also rape
his daughter right there in front of the family than
When Rainie's younger daughter pleaded for her father's life, one
of the klansmen responded by shooting her in the forehead. Luckily, though,
this somehow managed to just be a glancing blow which

(52:00):
he would survive. As for Amzy Rainey himself, he was
dragged into the woods where he was beamed and stabbed
with knives, with the clansmen only stopping when Rainey begged
for his life and promised to never support the Republican
Party again, an incident which then makes Rainey's subsequent choice
to report these crimes all the more brave, as he
already knew the depths these men were capable of. But

(52:21):
still Rainny came forward and not only informed the authorities
of what had been done to him and his family,
but he even identified one assailant as a known KKKY member,
Alan Crosby. Yet despite all this, the local sheriff had
done nothing. The federal government, though, was now seeking to
prosecute these crimes on the grounds that the klan did
all this so as to interfere with Rainie's right to

(52:43):
vote However, the judges would reject this argument, which then
allowed the prosecution to make the case solely based upon
the charges of general conspiracy and conspiracy to harm. As
a result, the government's lawyers decided to not run with
this case and instead seek to start off with another
to make their point and establish a precedent, So, seeking
a quick resolution to move on to a different case,

(53:04):
ADEA was worked out where Crosby would plead guilty to
lesser charges, which came with a term of just eighteen
months in federal prison and a one hundred dollars fine.
With that, Dundee government's lawyers and turned their attention to
the case of Jim Williams, the incident that I covered
at the beginning of this episode, where a black militia
captain had been lynched only six of March eighteen seventy one,

(53:25):
with the focus of this case being one Robert Hayes Mitchell,
who was alleged to have been a part of the
group of clansmen responsible for this raid and lynching. Now,
Mitchell was apparently not directly involved in the murder, but
he had been a part of the mob who had
been there, and so he was deemed a co conspirator.
The prosecution then had to demonstrate that the group of
men operating under the banner of the Klan had actively

(53:47):
sought to prevent African Americans from voting, and that the
defendant was a part of that group. Furthermore, they also
had to show that the defendant and the Klan had
targeted the victim, Jim Williams, because he had voted previously.
The first thing the prosecution had to do, though, was
proved that the clan actually existed. To do so, they
would utilize a copy of the clan's constitution and by

(54:07):
laws that had been obtained by Major Merrill, as well
as a testimony of both former clan members and freedmen
who had fallen victim to the group, a tactic that
would prove successful. As with this mountain of evidence, there
was little chance that anyone could continue to deny the
clan's existence. Then, once they had successfully proven that the
KKK was real, the prosecution brought forth a whole collection

(54:29):
of witnesses to testify that the defendant, Robert Mitchell, was
not only a member of the Klan, but had been
among these seventy individuals who had gathered together on the
night of the lynching. In doing so, they would also
testify that Mitchell was among those who had remained in
the woods while the smaller group had carried out the
actual lynching. Meanwhile, the defense attorneys would claim that this
group wasn't dedicated to preventing Freeman from voting, but instead

(54:51):
they were there to protect their fellow whites from the
supposed dangers presented by black militiamen, who were capable of anything.
The clan, then, they insisted, was purely a defensive group.
The jury, however, did not buy the story, and Reberdy
Johnson in particular, did not do his client any favors
when he started making multiple disparaging remarks about blacks. Although

(55:12):
while professing a complete lack of prejudice, the jury then
found Mitchell guilty of taking part in the conspiracy against
Jim Williams, but not of general conspiracy. As a result,
the klansmen would be sentenced to eighteen months in prison
any one hundred dollars fine. This case, then, while not perfect,
would provide a bit of a blueprint going forward, especially

(55:32):
when it came to the prosecution making a point of
going above and beyond to provide evidence of the clan's activities,
even if the defendants had not been a part of
all the incidents in question, as they seemly wanted to
make sure that the jury understood what this group that
these men were a part of was all about. Another
case that they brought forward during the session would involve
prominent local physician Edward Avery, who was accused of leading

(55:55):
nighttime raids on the homes of several freedmen, including one
stop where they beat a man with their tad fist
and kicked him before conducting a mock hanging of the
victim as a threat of future consequences. The clansmen on
that night, however, had not been satisfied with that brutality,
and so they moved onto the home of Isaac Possel,
a local black preacher, who hid under his home's floorboards

(56:15):
when he and his wife saw the clan approaching, as
they hoped that if the clansmen found that Isaac was
not at home, they would leave his wife, Harriet, and
their children alone. The clansmen, though, upon being informed that
the reverend was not at home, began assaulting Harriet, who,
in addition to holding a baby in her arms, was
also seven or eight months pregnant at the time. During
the trial, then Harry would take the stand and testify

(56:37):
that doctor Avery was one of the men who had
assaulted her that night, and in particular he was a
man who would pinned her baby to the floor with
his foot while another man repeatedly kicked her before she
was yanked to her feet, and which point they proceeded
to quote beat my head against the side of the
house till I had no sense hardly left, at which
point they wrapped a rope around the pregnant mother's neck

(56:58):
and threatened to hang her. They would, though, be distracted
from this brutality when they found the minister hiding beneath
the floorboards, and which point they proceeded to hang Isaac
so that he could only breathe if he stood on
his tiptoes, doing this despite his insistence that he'd only
ever preached a message of peace and harmony. Then, notably,
after this was done and these crimes had been reported,

(57:19):
doctor Avery's wife and a white reverend would both visit
Reverend Isaac Possel, with Avery's wife in particular insisting that
she had evidence that her husband had not been involved,
and thus she thrown to charge Boss with perjury unless
he signed an affid David Exana ratting her husband, which
he ultimately did. Major Merrill and the prosecuting attorneys, however,

(57:40):
all recognized this for the intimidation that it was and
pressed on with the case, and the judges too, would
ultimately agree with his opinion as they tossed out the
Avid David. Doctor Avery, then, saysing that the case was
going against him, decided to flee from South Carolina and
the United States altogether only a week and before the
closing arguments, ending up in Canada with fellow local clan

(58:02):
leader doctor Rufus Brenn, who had led the raid that
ended in the murder of Jim Williams. Meanwhile, Avery would
be found guilty, but he never would actually pay any
kind of penalty for his crimes. The November session of
the court that would end with just fifty four defendants
being sentenced for their part in the KKK Reign of Terror,
with forty nine of them actually pleading guilty prior to

(58:23):
the start of the trials, which illustrates just how few
cases were actually tried during this time. Meanwhile, throughout all
this were active attempts to secure pardons and clemency for
those who had been arrested. This was especially true of
those with significant money and influence, who also more ought
than not also tended to be the most guilty. In
the end, then some two hundred and seventy eight cases

(58:45):
and four hundred defendants remained to be tried. This, however,
was not a unique issue. Indeed, a similar story would
play out in the other areas where efforts were being
made to squash the clan as during this period. There
would be efforts undertaken in other former can Confederate states,
just without the suspension of habeas corpus as ordered by
the president. Alabama, for example, would see some one hundred

(59:07):
and thirty individuals arrested in connection to clan crimes, yet
no trials would be held. Then there was North Carolina,
where one superior court judge displayed a willingness to go
after the clan as sixty three clansmen would be indicted
for various felonies, including eighteen for one particularly infamous murder. However,
before these cases could come to trial, these states democratic

(59:29):
legislature repealed the law upon which many of these felonies
were based, thereby freeing a number of those indicted now
that notably Stone left those charged with murder. The Conservatives, though,
had an answer for this as well, as they sought
to pass a bill which would grant amnesty for any
crime committed on behalf of a secret society, a wildly
insane bill that they looked to get passed by suggesting

(59:52):
that this would apply to the Union League as well.
The problem must the Union Laid, despite the claims of
the Conservatives and racists, was not actually a criminal organist
like the clan. In fact, any members of the League
who had committed any crime similar to the clans had
long since been punished because they were black. Mississippi, meanwhile,
would see some two hund indictments handed down against suspected klansmen.

(01:00:13):
Now twenty eight of those charged would plead guilty. However,
despite some of them doing so for murder charges, they
would only receive suspended sentences. Now granted, the fear of
being arrested in the flight of clan leadership from these
areas basically broad clan activity to a halt in these regions,
But the reality was no one was actually paying any
kind of a price for their numerous crimes. Meanwhile, the

(01:00:35):
Grant administration did not seem super interested in pressing this issue,
and by December eighteen seventy one, Attorney General Ackerman, perhaps
because of this lack of action, resigned from his post,
while his successor, George H. Williams, would display no serious
will or desire to follow up on this work. This
profound lack of interest extended even to the murder if

(01:00:56):
Thomas Rowntree, who was shot thirty times, had his throat
slit for year to ear, and ultimately had his corpse
tossed into a river. With this brutality apparently not being
enough to rouse Williams to actively attempt to pursue prosecution,
William Salver would find the time to support former Confederate
Vice President Alexander Stephens's request for clemency, a decision which

(01:01:17):
alarmed Major Merrill, who sent a letter to the administration
advising against such a course, writing quote becauses from which
ku kluxism sprung or still opponent for evil, the blind
and reasoning bigoted hostility to the results of Moore is
only smothered, non appeased, or destroyed, and where there appears
anything which can be construed into weakness or releasing of

(01:01:39):
purpose and enforcing that protection. The head of the stake
be me instantly seen basically telling the administration that pardoning
former Confederates wouldn't appease the clan, but instead imbolden them
as their cause was won, and the same William Salver
was unmoved, likely in no small part because the northern
public increasingly did not care about the Klan punishing the

(01:02:00):
behind it, or even those responsible for the recent civil war. Instead,
there was increasing pressure from northerners who questioned whether it
was worth the time, effort, and money to continue occupying
the South. Many just wanted to move on and go
about their lives without worrying about such things. After all,
it was the Donna the Gilded Age, a time when
a select few were making outrageous fortunes and living extravagant lifestyles.

(01:02:24):
Many then wanted to focus on the potential opportunities for
making wealth and also making sure the troublesome poor who
were demanding stuff like fair wages and safe working conditions,
were kept quiet so as to allow these fortunes to
be built. As such, the Republican Party increasingly became the
party of big business. Gone, then, were they radical Republicans,
and in their place were those who had no serious

(01:02:46):
interest in protecting the freedmen, much less prosecuting traitors and
the clansmen. The Supreme Court meanwhile also embraced this new
ideology of abandoning the freedmen for big business, as they
started issuing rulings which restricted the Fourteenth Amendment to national
citizenship not state citizenship, while also refusing to provide protections
from racial discrimination. Indeed, they would decree that they could

(01:03:08):
not prohibit segregation, thus setting the stage for Jim Crow. Then,
at the same time as they were issuing rulings about
how they could not help African Americans, there were also
issuing rulings that extended the fourtieth Amendments protections to corporations. Meanwhile,
the reality was he clan had in many ways effectively
been broken, and yet few had actually paid for their crimes.

(01:03:31):
Take for example, Jay Rivers Brand, who had led the
raid on Jim Williams home and had assuredly taken part
in his lynching. Brand had then subsequently fled to Canada
so as to avoid being arrested by the federal authorities.
He was, though somehow still captured, likely illegally and brought
back to stan trial on the tenth of June, only
to flee back to Canada as soon as he was

(01:03:51):
released on bond. Brand would then only return home in
eighteen seventy six when President Rutherford B. Hayes offered amnesty
to former Klansmen, at which point Brandon was greeted as
a returning hero sorts by all the so called best
members of the community. Annie would then reportedly go on
to serve as the inspiration for the Novelty Clansmen, which
would provide the basis for the birth of a Nation film,

(01:04:13):
which would in turn help give birth the second version
of the Clan that will start covering next time. In
the meantime, while the Clan itself is shattered as an organization,
its goals were still ultimately realized, as other groups like
the White League of Louisiana and the Redshirts of South
Carolina helped to finish the work that the clanet started
as they enacted their version of Mississippi's eighteen seventy five

(01:04:35):
plan to quote unquote redeem their states from carpetbagger rule,
doing so by quote unquote persuading Republican voters who switched
their party affiliation when they arrived of the polls, while
also threatening African Americans with and subjecting them to violence
should they try to vote, acts which were deemed as
not violating the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment

(01:04:56):
because there were actions of individuals and not the state,
which fi with the Supreme Court's rulings that restricted the
scope of the Amendment. Then once these states were quote
unquote redeemed, the need for such groups faded, as once
in power, poll taxes and literacy tests were put in
place to prevent African Americans from voting in future elections,
thereby enshrining white supremacy as the law of the land

(01:05:18):
once again. As a result, by the end of eighteen
seventy five, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, and
Mississippi were all under control of conservative Southern Democrats. Meanwhile,
only Louisiana, Florida, and South Carolina remained under some degree
of federal control as troops continued to guard their state houses.

(01:05:39):
The eighteen seventy six presidential election, however, would prove to
be the final nail and Reconstruction's coffin, as the election
saw Democrats Samuel J. Tulden taken on Republican Rutherford B. Hayes. Now,
at this point, the Democrats had been out of power
for well over a decade. The thing was reportedly some
of the reconstruction governments, and most assuredly the Granted ministerstration,

(01:06:00):
had been rife with corruption, which seemingly played right into
the Democrat's hand as they ran Tilden, a known reformer
and anti corruption politician, as their candidate. Indeed, this would
result in an incredibly tight election, one which at least
initially looked like Tilden had won. However, the infamous General
Daniel Sickles, upon perusing the results on the night of
the election, came to the realization that if Hayes won California, Nevada,

(01:06:24):
and Oregon, and if a couple of southern states managed
to swing Republican, he could still win. Sickles and some
others and began contacting Republicans in the southern states in
question to get them to hold their states from declaring
their results. Due to these efforts, then, by the following morning,
neither Hayes nor Tilden had the one hundred and eighty
five electoral votes necessary to be declared victorious. Now Tilden

(01:06:46):
was incredibly close with one hundred and eighty four, but
Hayes had one hundred and sixty five, with both sides
attempting to claim Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina, a situation
which would drag on as both sides would claim that
they had won when in reality no clear winner had
yet to emerge. Come January, then, an independent commission of
seven Democrats, seven Republicans, and one independent was formed to

(01:07:08):
count the votes. However, the one independent, a Supreme Court justice,
would resign unexpectedly at the last minute, only to be
replaced by a fellow justice who just happened to be
a Republican. As a result, come March, once the votes
had been counted, the commission proceeded to vote along party lines,
with the now eight Republicans having the advantage over these

(01:07:29):
seven Democrats, with it being decided that Hayes had exactly
enough electoral votes to be declared the winner. Now, no
one knows for sure what political machinations took place behind
the scenes to ensure that things played out this way,
although some suspected then as well as now, that this
was the result of a corrupt backroom deal where the

(01:07:50):
disputed Southern states agreed to allow their votes to go
to Hayes in return for the removal of federal troops
and the final end of the reconstruction efforts, a suspicion
which is supported by the fact that within a month
of Hayes taking office, the new president would announce a
new Southern policy, one which involved removing troops from the
Southern States. Now to fully understand what this meant, you

(01:08:11):
have to realize that during the period of Reconstruction, roughly
fifteen percent of political office holders from the South were
African American. All that would change though following the end
of Reconstruction and the rise of Jim Crow. As a result,
that number would not be replicated until the nineteen nineties.
It has to be said, though, for as much of
an impact as the Clan had, the Radical Republicans in

(01:08:34):
many ways failed because it did not go far enough
with the radicalism, as while sure they to an extent
supported giving African Americans rights, the fact that the matter
was it was only to an extent, as they often
still supported the concept of white supremacy. Additionally, the so
called radicals also refused to act in any serious way
so as to change the economic status of the recently

(01:08:56):
freed African Americans, which then left them vulnerable. In one
of the favorite methods used to reassert white supremacy in
the South and bring about an end to the radical
Republican Reconstruction involved white landlords threatening to kick their black
tenants off their property if they voted Republican. Now, granted,
this wasn't always successful, but it was just one way
in which this failure to overhaul the South and redistribute

(01:09:19):
land and wealth that they formerly enslaved doomed them. In fact,
I would argue that one of Reconstruction's great failings is
that the federal government failed to providely now liberated people
with land or the means with which to acquire it,
as had they been able to obtain land of their own,
it would have greatly enhanced their economic standing and made
them far less vulnerable. However, such a thing smelled too

(01:09:40):
much of equality and independence, with those most strindly against
the thought of the freemen owning property being middle class
whites who were themselves striving to rise above the lower classes,
and thus they felt threatened and enraged that they might
find themselves on the same level as the newly freed blacks.
It is, after all, for this reason why those few
African Americans who had actually been able to acquire their

(01:10:01):
own land were frequent targets of the KKK, who wanted
to drive them off their farms. So, while the clan
was partially added due to the delayed deployment of the
military might of the federal government, it also came to
an end simply because it was not needed any more,
as once Conservative Democrats gained control the Southern state governments,
there was no longer a need for the clan's extra

(01:10:22):
legal activities, as they now could simply enforce the role
of white supremacy through laws that denied blacks the right
to vote. The Clan then had definitively played a role
in returning the Conservative Democrats to power in the South. Granted,
they were not the only means of overthrowing Republican control,
but they were a factoring more than a few states
securing the return of white supremacy, as they played a

(01:10:44):
critical role in destroying local Republican organizations, including the Union
League and many locales. Now I will say here that
they just came across another book focus explicitly on black
resistance to the Clan during this period, which I wish
i'd come across sooner to add more contexts an example
of that. Unfortunately, I had already recorded the first two
episodes of this series and a good chunk of this

(01:11:05):
one before I did, so I'll probably have to come
back at some point in time and do a special
addendum episode to the series focusing on that part of
this story, as I do think it's important to highlight
that they just recently freed African Americans and not just
quietly accept this reign of terror. They did try to resist.
There was just so much against them at this time.

(01:11:25):
That being said, while ultimately the Clan faded and its
various members and founders died off in the decades to come,
the legend of the organization would remain. It would then
be reborn as a more political entity in response to
the changing culture and technology than altern America in the
early twentieth century, which combined with fears of the influx
of new immigrants of the country and a growing feeling

(01:11:46):
that hidden elites were making the rules and forcing others
to live by them while not following the same rules themselves.
This created a number of increasingly disenchanted individuals who were
resentful due to various issues. They then sought and were
presented with an easy scapegoad for, if not all, many
of their problems. The new immigrants. The Clan then was
presented as mythological savior so white civilization in the past,

(01:12:09):
who can now be called upon to do so again. However,
that particular story and its many parallels to our modern
era will have to for now remain a story for
another time, as next month we will begin our deep
dive into the Second Clan. Thank you for listening to

(01:12:30):
Distorted History. If you would like to help out, please
rate and review the podcasts and tell your friends if
you think they'll be interested. If you would like ad
free in early episodes, I set up such a feed
over at patreon dot com slash Distorted History. By paying
ten bucks a month, you will gain access to the
special ad free feed available on Spotify or likely through
your podcast app as long as it uses an RSS feed.

(01:12:52):
I will continue to post sources on kofee and Twitter, though,
as it's just a convenient place to go to access
that information regardless. Once again, thank you for listening and
until next time

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