The Reconstruction was to be a time of rebuilding and healing for the South following the Civil War, but was marked by the continued strong hatred and hostility between liberated African Americans and angry Ku Klux Klan members. This work deals with the Reconstruction-era Klan, a paramilitary group with political aims using violence and intimidation to achieve its goals. It addresses exclusively the Klan's activities in York County, South Carolina, during the years 1865-1877, and clarifies some misconceptions about the Reconstruction Klan and disentangles it from later organizations that used...

For more than 10 years after the close of the Civil War, South Carolina experienced unrest, disenfranchisement and military occupation under Republican rule. This book examines the gubernatorial election of 1876, in which the state's most celebrated Civil War general established a united front in the Democratic Party and wrested control of politics from the Republicans. Of particular note are the ways in which the race, with its disqualified ballots, delays and wrangling, prefigured the 2000 election. For four months, the state endured two warring Houses of Representatives and teetered on the...