All Annotations of Ku Klux Klan in the Reconstruction Era[Preview]

saved byDavid Voelker on 2008-01-27

• The political terrorism was effective. While Republican gubernatorial candidate Rufus B. Bullock carried the state in April
  1868 elections, by November Democratic presidential candidate Horatio Seymour was in the lead. In some counties the contrast
  was incredible. In John Reed's Oglethorpe County, 1,144 people had voted Republican in April, while only 116 dared to vote
  Republican in November when Reed's armed Klansmen surrounded the polls. In Columbia County armed Klansmen not only intimidated voters but even cowed federal soldiers sent to guard the polling place. Not surprisingly,
  while 1,222 votes had been cast in Columbia County for Republican governor Rufus Bullock in April, only one vote was cast for Republican presidential candidate Ulysses Grant in November 1868. Similar political
  terrorism and control of the polling places help account for Georgia's quick "redemption" and return to conservative white
  Democratic control by late 1871.
  • on 2008-01-27 21:28:12 David_voelker
    This example focuses on one county to show how white supremacists used terrorism to defeat Republicans in the South.

• on 2008-01-27 14:36:15 David_voelker
  The entry from the *New Georgia Encyclopedia* explains how the original Klan used violence and terror to reassert white political power in the South during Reconstruction.