THE CLANSMAN
The Illustrations Shown inThis Edition Are Reproductionsof Scenes from thePhoto-Play of “TheBirth of a Nation”Produced and Copyrightedby The Epoch ProducingCorporation, to Whom thePublishers Desire to ExpressTheir Thanks andAppreciation for Permissionto Use the Pictures.
THE REIGN OF THE KLAN
THE CLANSMAN
AN HISTORICAL ROMANCE
OF THE KU KLUX KLAN
BY
THOMAS DIXON
AUTHOR OF
THE LEOPARD’S SPOTS, COMRADES, ETC.
ILLUSTRATED WITH SCENES FROM THE PHOTO-PLAY
THE BIRTH OF A NATION
PRODUCED AND COPYRIGHTED BY
EPOCH PRODUCING CORPORATION
GROSSET & DUNLAP
PUBLISHERS :: NEW YORK
Copyright, 1905
By Thomas Dixon, Jr.
THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS, GARDEN CITY, N. Y.
TO THE MEMORY OF
A SCOTCH-IRISH LEADER OF THE SOUTH
My Uncle, Colonel Leroy McAfee
GRAND TITAN OF THE INVISIBLE EMPIRE
KU KLUX KLAN
TO THE READER
“The Clansman” is the second book of a series ofhistorical novels planned on the Race Conflict. “TheLeopard’s Spots” was the statement in historical outlineof the conditions from the enfranchisement of the negroto his disfranchisement.
“The Clansman” develops the true story of the “KuKlux Klan Conspiracy,” which overturned the Reconstructionrégime.
The organization was governed by the Grand WizardCommander-in-Chief, who lived at Memphis, Tennessee.The Grand Dragon commanded a State, the GrandTitan a Congressional District, the Grand Giant aCounty, and the Grand Cyclops a Township Den. Thetwelve volumes of Government reports on the famousKlan refer chiefly to events which occurred after 1870,the date of its dissolution.
The chaos of blind passion that followed Lincoln’sassassination is inconceivable to-day. The revolutionit produced in our Government, and the bold attemptof Thaddeus Stevens to Africanize ten great Statesof the American Union, read now like tales from “TheArabian Nights.”
I have sought to preserve in this romance both theletter and the spirit of this remarkable period. Themen who enact the drama of fierce revenge into which375I have woven a double love story