William Stewart Simkins

“ I think from this year the negroes generally in the black belt of Florida began to discover that the apparent disinterested friendship of the carpetbagger was a hollow mockery. There was no question of the common belief among them that each was to receive "forty acres and a mule," and upon this belief the carpetbagger had devised every kind of scheme to swindle them. Many of them went through the country selling painted sticks from $2.50 to $5.00, and they were told to drive these stakes at the four corners of the land selected by them and the government would protect them in their possession. ”

“ The immediate effect upon the negro was wonderful, the flitting to and fro of masked horses and faces struck terror to the race, and any belated negro on the road at night who saw us coming never stood on the order of his going. ”

“ In most of the states of the South, and especially in Florida, the heads of these Bureaus were the most corrupt set of scoundrels that could be found in the land; they seemed to have been selected from the criminal class following in the wake of the army who looted homes while the army fought. Qualification had nothing to do with preferment; only hate of the South and the absence of conscience were required to fill the positions. ”

“ Had I attempted anything of the kind a year before I would have been mobbed or suffered the penalties of the law.
Speaking again of the little paper, it was a custom when the negroes met to celebrate some occasion or hear a speech that they would march in front of that paper office jeering and hooting; but that was all,- the invisible empire protected it. Many a time I have seen the negroes force white persons from the sidewalk, but the right of way was never denied to those young men whom they suspected of being members of the Ku Klux. ”

“ I lift my heart in gratitude to the Giver of all good, that today, as the center of wealth and population is approaching her borders and her ports filled with the commerce of the nations, she is beginning to feel the throbbings of her ancient glory. ”

“ The morning of the election arrived and with it our Georgia boys fully armed and equipped. The moral effect was splendid, the election proceeded quietly, and about five P.M., the Georgia boys, having a long way to go, were dismissed with thanks. They had been gone about a half hour when I heard from our voting place at the courthouse the words, "If you attempt to vote here I will kill you." I rushed over to the courthouse to find Colonel Capers Bird with a pistol pointing at a negro who was hesitating, while Meacham, the leader, was urging him to vote at the white polling place. ”

“ The Freedman's Bureau, organized shortly after Congress, met under the guise of protecting the negroes from their former masters; it was in fact a method of organizing the negroes as pliant tools of the Republican party. It was also armed with powers that were intended to humiliate the South, and enforce the anticipated Civil Rights laws, the germ of which was social equality. ”

“ After notifying the white carpetbag officials that in the event of any trouble, which we knew they could control, we would kill them first, but feeling that in the event of trouble, with only fifty of our organization as against several thousand negroes who would come into the town to vote, we could not enforce our threat or adequately protect the women and children, we sent up to Georgia for several hundred men to appear in the morning of the election to aid us in preserving order. ”

“ The Klan was composed of the best young men of the land, soldiers of the Southern army, many of them heroes in battle, and now as fearless in their duty as they had been in war. Our organization was compact, and we could assemble several hundred men at almost any point of the black belt on short notice and in time to quell any disturbance of a serious nature. ”

“ We first agreed with the officers of the Bureau and county that the negroes should have six of the polling places at which no white man should vote, and the whites should have their polling place at the courthouse at which no negro should vote. ”

“ The United States Government found it necessary to send down provisions for the indigent negroes, but the higher officers of the Freedman's Bureau stole them and manipulated them as a source of revenue for themselves.
By 1871 many of the active leaders had disappeared for crimes committed and other causes; the scales began to fall from the eyes of the negroes and the troubles rapidly ceased. I will close with one more incident which I think may be of interest. I allude to the capture by our organization, of a train bearing rifles and ammunition with which to arm the negroes. ”

“ Our organization knew it would be disastrous to the state to permit the arming of the negroes, so watched with considerable anxiety the whole movement, and seriously considered the means of preventing it. Our control over the telegraph operators, already spoken of, kept us in touch with the movement of the arms from the time they left the armories of Connecticut until they reached the Florida line. At this time the Florida Road only ran mixed trains, and usually behind the freight was one passenger coach. We gathered one hundred and twenty men, determined to destroy those arms. ”

“ No jury was allowed, no indictment or information save the presence and oath of an ignorant negro; and to enforce the orders of this irresponsible Bureau the army was at its back to arrest white men and women, and to enforce the penalties adjudged. ”

“ Such was the class of men who were called upon to elect the members of so-called constitutional conventions to frame constitutions for the Southern States, and under the domination of military fanatics who did not pause in the free use of vicious ignorance to carry out the congressional scheme. ”

“ Our plan was never to work men in the county of their residence; the masked flitters of the night were always brought from other counties that the ready alibi might always be in evidence. The dawn of day was the hour to disperse and no two must be seen together after daylight. We worked, of course, upon the fears and superstitions of the negroes, performing before their cabins at night apparently supernatural stunts. ”

“ Know all men by these presents that naught is naught, and a figure is a figure; all for the white man, and none for the nigger and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness so have I lifted .......... ”

“ Just before the election great unrest was apparent among the negroes, which excited some anxiety among our people. The negroes had begun to assemble at night in companies and the everlasting beat of the drum was again heard in the land. Our organization began to prepare for the anticipated trouble in each county, so that we could obtain assistance if necessary from other counties. In Jefferson county where I lived we had only about fifty of the Klan in the town where the election was to be held ”

“ Being few in number it required greater activity and often more serious action to accomplish their purpose, but it was the combined action of the white Southern population and not the work of a secret organization. ”

“ After all, if we take the census of deaths for 1869 and 1870, the most active period of these secret organizations, it will be seen that there were only 106 deaths from gunshot wounds and other causes in a population then approximating 190,000, which was not much greater than deaths from the same causes in normal conditions. ”

“ Our mission was the protection of our women and children from the disorders of the time, and to suppress crime as far as it could be done without disclosing our identity, and in doing so I come with no blood-curdling stories as the result of our operations. We controlled by mystery ”