PREFATORY. IN July, 1867, J. P. Abernathy approached me in Pulaski and asked me if I would not like to join the K. K. K. I told him that I would. He appointed a night for me and Carson P. Reed, Ruff Workman, and James Dickson to meet him at Sharon Church, where he would initiate us. We went down into the creek bottom below the church, and he organized Den No. 4. That was the fourth den of the original K. K. K. that was organized. J. Polk Abernathy was Grand Cyclops, and I (R. J. Brunson) was elected Secretary. We then selected the best men in our district who wished to join us, and they were initiated. J. Polk Abernathy served as Cyclops for twelve months, George Newbill for twelve months, and J. N. Brunson for twelve months. In July, 1868, I was going on a visit to South Carolina, and Gen. George W. Gordon requested me to take some of our rituals and organize the K. K. K. in South Carolina, which I did. From the original head den here at Pulaski, I was the sole organizer or starter of the K. K. K. in South Carolina. I stayed in South Carolina about three months, and several dens were organized during the three months that I was there; then I returned home. On July 4 I was in the Pulaski parade mentioned in this book. We were law-abiding citizens, and were organized only for the protection of our women, children, and homes, and to enforce the law and insist on its enforcement. After returning home I raided with Den No. 4 until the disbandment. After the disbandment I kept the alphabet, ritual, and regalia; and in order to make this an interesting book and that the world may have the truth in regard to the organization of the K. K. K., I allow these to be printed. R. J. BRUNSON. April 21, 1913. HISTORIC PULASKI. THE KU KLUX KLAN: ORIGIN, GROWTH, AND DISBANDMENT. I. THERE is no stronger chapter in American history than the one which bears for a title "Ku Klux Klan." The organization which bore this name went out of life as it came into it, shrouded in deepest mystery. Its members would not disclose its secrets; others could not. Even the investigation committee appointed by Congress was baffled. The voluminous reports containing the results of that committee's tedious and · diligent inquiry do not tell when and where and how the Ku Klux Klan originated. The veil of secrecy still hangs over its grave. We propose to lift it. The time has now arrived when the history of the origin, growth, and final decay of "The Invisible Empire" may be given to the public. Circumstances not necessary to detail have put it in the power of the writer to compile such a history. For obvious reasons, the names of individuals are withheld. But the reader may feel assured that this narrative is drawn from sources which are accurate and authentic. The writer does not profess to be able to disclose the secret signs, grips, and passwords of the order. These have never been disclosed and probably never will be. But we claim to narrate facts relating to the order which have a historic and philosophic value. It is due to the truth of history, to the student of human nature, to the statesmen, and to the men who were engaged in this movement that the facts connected with this remarkable episode in our nation's history be frankly and fairly told. A wave of excitement, spreading by contagion till the minds of a whole people are in a ferment, is an event of frequent occurrence. The Ku Klux movement was peculiar by reason of the causes which produced and fed the excitement. It illustrates the weird and irresistible power of the unknown and mysterious over the minds of men of all classes and conditions in life. And it illustrates how men by circumstances and conditions, in part of their own creation, may be carried away from their moorings and drift along in a course against which reason and judgment protest. The popular idea supposes the Ku Klux move |