Judging from information gathered from the most available sources, it
appears that all measures, whether of a political, a religious or
educational character, looking to the elevation of the negro, were
strenuously opposed by the Ku Klux Klans, as they had sworn they should
be.
The education of the negro was regarded as an especial heresy, not to be
tolerated under any circumstances. It was an offence second in magnitude
only to that of his voting the Radical ticket, and the face of the Klan
was set against it with a resolution that made it a dangerous avocation
for any one to engage in. School houses, erected for the purpose of
teaching colored children, were burned to the ground, and the teachers
scourged, banished or whipped to death.
The testimony of Col. A. P. Huggins, formerly of the Union Army, and
subsequently of Monroe County, Mississippi, is pertinent to the point.
Col. Huggins, is known as a brave and gallant officer, a man of great
physical and moral courage, and of unquestioned veracity. During the month
of May, 1870, he became County Superintendent of Schools, for Monroe
County, and on the 8th of March following, went into the interior, some
eight or ten miles from Aberdeen, the County seat, on business connected
with the School Department. He was at this time an Assistant Assessor of
Internal Revenue, and improved the opportunity to make several assessments
of revenue in the vicinity, staying, by invitation, at the house of a Mr.
Ross.
On the night of the day after his arrival at the house of Mr. Ross, (the
9th of March) a band of the Ku Klux, armed and disguised, and numbering
about one hundred and twenty, came to the house and compelled Col. Huggins
to come out. The chief of the Klan then informed him that they had come to
warn him that he must quit the country within ten days that it had been
decreed in the camp that he should first be warned, that the warning
should be enforced by whipping, and if that did not produce the desired
effect, he should be killed by the Klan, and if circumstances were such
that he could not be killed by the Klan in a body, then they were sworn
to assassinate him publicly or privately.
Col. Huggins asked them what his offense consisted of, and was answered by
the chief, who said:--"You are collecting obnoxious taxes from Southern
Gentlemen, to keep damned old Radicals in office. Now I want you to
understand that no laws can be enforced in this country, that we do not
make ourselves. We don't like your Radical ways, and we want you to
understand it."
Col. Huggins then asked them if their operations were against the Radical
party, and the Chief replied that they were; that they had stood the
radicals just as long as they intended to, and they meant to banish or
kill every one of them. The Chief then said, "will you leave the country
in ten days." The Colonel replied that he would leave the country when he
got ready, and not before. He was then taken about a quarter of a mile
from the residence of Mr. Ross, where they halted. He was then ordered to
take off his coat, which he refused to do, and it was removed by force.
Twenty-five lashes were then given Col. Huggins, when he was asked if he
would leave the country. To this he replied that he would not, that now
that they had commenced, they might go on as far as they pleased, as he
had just as soon die, as take what he had already received. The whipping
was resumed. Col. Huggins remembered hearing the executioners count the
number of lashes up to seventy-five, when he fainted. The Klan left him in
charge of Mr. Ross, and rode away. The main reason assigned for the
punishment of Col. Huggins was that he was a Radical and in favor of
educating the negroes.
The case of Cornelius McBride, a young Scotchman who taught a colored
school near Sparta, Chickasaw County, is one of unusual cruelty. Being
teacher of a colored school, McBride was classed as a Radical, and beside
this, he had come from the North. He was accordingly doomed by the Klan
for a visitation.
Between twelve and one o'clock of the Thursday night of the last week in
March, 1870, a number of the Klan came to his house, and presenting rifles
through the window, ordered McBride to come out. He asked what was wanted,
when one of them replied, "come out you d--d yankee." McBride saw that
nothing less than taking his life was intended, and determined to make an
effort to escape. He gave a sudden spring through the window, landing
directly between the two men who were pointing their rifles, dashed past
them and ran to the house of a colored man whom he knew, and where he
thought he could get a gun. While he was running, the members of the Klan
commenced firing upon him, ordering him to stop, or they would blow his
brains out. None of the shots took effect upon him, and he entered the
cabin, but before he could get the gun, of which he was in search, the
Klan were upon him and secured him.
McBride was then taken about a mile away from the place, having nothing on
but his night dress. This was rudely torn from his person, and the
executioners were about to commence their work, when he asked them what he
was to be whipped for. The leader said, "you want to make the niggers
equal to a white man. This is a white man's country."
The whipping was then commenced with black gum switches, that stung the
flesh and raised it in great ridges at every blow. The torture was so
great that the poor victim begged them in God's name to kill him at once
and put him out of misery. The leader said "shooting is too good for this
fellow, we'll hang him when we get through whipping him." Another one
said, "Do you want to be shot?" To which McBride replied, "Yes, I can't
stand this torture, it is horrible." He then partially raised himself
upon his knees and determined to make one more effort for his life.
Standing directly in front of him was one of the Klan, the only one who
stood directly in his way, if he should attempt to run.
Stung by the terrible pain of the switch, McBride sprang to his feet,
dealt the man in the front of him a tremendous blow, and darting past him
scaled a fence, and ran across the open field. The Klan discharged their
fire-arms after him, but in a few moments gave up the pursuit. McBride
reached the house of a Mr. Walser, and there found protection through the
remainder of the night.
Other teachers of colored schools received similar visitations, and
colored schools were burned there and in the adjoining counties.
The crusade against Ministers of the Gospel who preached to the freedmen,
was then commenced. The Rev. John Avery, of Winston County, was notified
that he must appear at a meeting of the Ku Klux; that he must join in with
the Klan, and cease his interest in free schools, and upon his refusal,
his house was burned over his head. Mr. Avery was a southern man, and a
pastor in the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Rev. Mr. Galloway, a Congregationalist Minister, of Monroe County, was in
the habit occasionally of preaching to the freedmen. During April, 1870, a
band of the Ku Klux called upon him at night, and notified him that he
must not preach to these people. He continued doing so, however, and
received a second warning, accompanied by an intimation, which he did not
dare disregard, and he was compelled to relinquish his good work, on pain
of banishment or death.
The Rev. Mr. McLachlin, a Methodist Episcopal Preacher, of Oktibbeha
County, received various warnings to the same effect, but persisted in his
course until he was finally driven from that county, and dared not return
to it.
Scores of similar cases might be cited, all of which are matters of public
record, but those above given, serve to show, that the Order of the Ku
Klux Klan, is inimical to religion and education, as well as to the
politics of those differing with them in their avowed opposition to
Republicanism, and their adherence to the Democratic party. These gallant
defenders of the white man's race were determined that no Government but
the white man's should live in the country, and these results they hoped
to obtain through the banishment, scourging and killing of negroes,
Radicals and Republicans, by which means also, with the aid of their
sympathizers at the North, they expected to have a Democratic
Administration.