Excerpt from Recollections of the Inhabitants, Localities, Superstitions, and KuKlux Outrages of the Carolinas

Published in 1880; reprinted on Documenting the American South (Web site)

A former slave recounts his experiences with the Ku Klux Klan

"The bull-whip and raw-hide were also instruments of their torture, and made to produce arguments which none dared refute.…"

Started as a secret society for ex-Confederates, the Ku Klux Klan did not remain a secret for long. In a few short years, the white-hooded Klansmen became the most notorious band of terrorists in the postwar South, known for lynching African Americans, shooting "carpetbaggers," and torching freedmen's schools. Their goal was obvious: To defeat any efforts to elevate African Americans to the political or social equal of whites. That meant keeping African Americans away from...