Nicole Hardee
Professor Robert Wilkerson
HIST 1493-311
June 3, 2015
Letter on K.K.K Activities Judge Albion W. Tourgee wrote a letter in 1870 to Joseph C. Abbott to reveal the cruel activities performed by the Ku Klux Klan. In this letter to General Abbott, Judge Tourgee discloses gruesome details such as murder, rape, arson, and mutilation. Tourgee goes into detail to show the seriousness of the crimes committed by the Ku Klux Klan. Men, women and children, white and black, were all affected by the Ku Klux Klan’s actions. Tourgee was outraged and ashamed of the cowardice of the Government. Tourgee discloses, in detail, the work of the Ku Klux Klan to General Abbott. Tourgee states that there have been 12 murders in 5 counties in 18 months by a group of the Ku Klux Klan. There have been an estimated 1,000 beatings and other cruel activity. A white carpenter was beaten by the Ku Klux Klan, who was also threatened if he disclosed how he was beaten. Men, women and children were all victims of the Ku Klux Klan’s violent crimes. Women were dragged out of bed and beaten. Also, women were forced into bed to be raped by the members of the Klan, who then were tied together to die as their house went up in flames. Age was not a factor to the Ku Klux Klan. In Tourgee’s letter, he also discloses that the Ku Klux Klan hanged a 9 year old boy, almost to death, until he confessed to where his father was hiding. Also, he discusses the violent crimes committed against an elderly woman at the age of 103, because she would not confess her fear of the Ku Klux Klan. Tourgee seems to be outraged by these crimes committed by the Ku Klux Klan. In his letter to Abbott, his tone is angry. He is ashamed of the fact that there are murders, rapes, arsons, and mutilations going on in our country, houses were being scavenged and there were no remedies proposed. Also, he is ashamed of the government, in that the government is willing to send an army of men to war to be destroyed by the enemy without punishment. Tourgee states that he believes the government has shut its eyes to these atrocities, and if nothing is done, the Republican
