The Ku Klux Klan was a powerful secret organization, formed in the Southern States after their reconstruction, to defeat the plans of the “carpet-baggers,” and to keep the negroes from voting. A well-written article on the subject will be found in The Century Magazine, July, 1884.
1879. Whenever it was known that a prisoner intended taking the oath (and it was very difficult to conceal the matter from his tent mates), a party would proceed to his tent the night previous, call him out and administer a severe flogging. They even went so far as to clip off the ears of one. Of course the parties who did this work were completely disguised. Thus it will be seen that Kuklux existed at Point Lookout before it did in South Carolina.—Prison Experience, No. 2: ‘Southern Hist. Soc. Papers,’ vii. 396 (Richmond, Va.).
1888. The personal insecurity of the Ku Klux era made the country sadly familiar, &c.—Phila. Bulletin, Feb. 27 (Farmer).
1908. A confession has been obtained from a ring-leader [of the night-riders], and there is every reason to believe that this revival of the Ku-Klux will come to a speedy end in Tennessee.—N.Y. Evening Post, Oct. 29.
