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After the Civil War, the south of America was having problems adjusting. It was the time of reconstruction. Several former slaves and northern Americans were changing the way of life that the people of the south were used to. They were used to having slaves do all the work in their farms and at their homesteads. They were used to not paying their workers for their services. They were used to making nothing but profits on their crops and trade. But when the reconstruction was started, the white southerners would have to start paying their former slaves and other former slaves for their services. Not only did they have to pay their former slaves, but also some of them formed the Union League. In the Union League, the former slaves were taught how to shoot guns and were told to terrorize their former masters. So huge bands of former slaves would travel around the south pillaging towns, raping women, and killing the rebel southerners. So in order to cope with this, 6 men from Tennessee formed a men’s club called the Ku Klux Klan. After the Civil War, the north and former slaves abused the southern rebels. The Ku Klux Klan was formed in order to restore power and order to the former confederacy by means of terror and the various raids they led. Try to imagine yourself in the late 1860's, after the war, living in the South. The Yankees have invaded, stealing and destroying just about all of your family belongings, digging up graves for treasure items, etc. Many of them have raped and killed your wives and slaves. They have stolen everything dear to you, and burned down your house. You must now return to try to get back to life. If that was not bad enough, you now find that all sense of State government that you are used to, has been destroyed and replaced by armed soldiers in and around your neighborhoods, enforcing their views. They come and go as they please, continuing the abuse of you and your family. They will not allow any white southerner to vote for anything. All voting is granted only to the un-educated former slaves, and they are only allowed to vote, if they vote for the party in charge. An example to be made, is that of a banner displayed in Georgia voting booths during the 1868 presidential campaign, that states "Every man that did not vote the Radical [Republican] ticket, this is the way we want to serve him: hang him by the neck." If they refuse, of course they are abused and even killed. So in essence, the voting process is just game playing. On top of all of this, you have scalawags and carpetbaggers coming down and holding secret meeting, teaching the ex-slaves how to best go back now and take vengeance on their former masters. They are armed and taught how to kill, rape and destroy, and then sent out in the night to do so. On top of the Yankee atrocities already having taken place, you now have this rebellion going on. Masses of former slaves are going about raping, killing, burning, and destroying just about anything. After the Civil War, many soldiers of the Confederate army found themselves unemployed and miserable. They found it hard to find jobs because they had participated in the rebel army. Seven men in particular had a problem, John Lester, John Kennedy, James Crowe, Frank McCord, Richard Reed, Calvin Jones, and Nathan Bedford Forrest.
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