The extent of the violence by secret societies against freedpeople was so extensive that Congress
established a special committee to investigate. In the nine South Carolina counties examined by
the committee, members of the Ku Klux Klan had lynched and murdered 35 men, whipped 262 men
and women, and shot, maimed, or burned the property of 101 African Americans.

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Charlotte Fowler (colored) sworn and examined:
[Mrs. Fowler first describes how a masked man shot her husband in the head in the doorway of his
home in the middle of the night.]
[Questions asked by committee member] Mr. STEVENSON:
Q. What are these men called that go about masked in that way?
A. I don’t know; they call them Ku-Klux.
Q. How long have they been going about in that neighborhood?
A. I don’t know how long; they have been going a long time, but they never pestered the plantation
until that night. I have heard of Ku-Klux, but they never pestered Mr. Jones before.
Q. Did your old man belong to any party?
A. Yes sir.
Q. What party?
A. The radical.
Q. How long had he belonged to them?
A. Ever since they started the voting.
Q. Was he a pretty strong radical?
A. Yes sir; a pretty strong radical.
Q. Did he work for that party?
A. Yes sir.
Q. What did he do?
A. He held up for it, and said he never would turn against the United
States for anybody, as the democrats wanted him to.
Q. Did he talk to the other colored people about it?
A. No, sir; he never said nothing much. He was a man that never said much but just what he was
going to do. He never traveled anywhere to visit people only when they had a meeting; then he
would go there to the radical meeting, but would come back home again.
Q. Did he make speeches at those meetings?
A. No, sir.
Q. Did they make him president of their meetings?
A. I don’t know about that.
Q. Did you ever go with him?
A. No, sir.
Q. Did they ever make him president or vice-president, or put him upon the platform?
A. No, sir. Several, I heard, went there and did, but he never undertook such a thing. He would go
to hear what the best of them had to say, but he never did anything.

[Question asked] by the CHAIRMAN:
Q. Are the colored people afraid of these people that go masked?
A. Yes, sir; they are as ‘fraid as death of them. There is now a whole procession of people that have
left their houses and are lying out. You see the old man was so old, and he did no harm to anybody;
he didn’t believe anybody would trouble him.
[Questions asked] by Mr. STEVENSON:
Q. Did he vote at the last election?
A. Yes, sir.

GEORGE W. GARNER sworn and examined.
[Questions asked] by the CHAIRMAN:
Q. Do you live in this county?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. What part of it?
A. I live east of this place—about seven miles from here.
Q. In what township?
A. Pacolet Township.
Q. What business do you follow?
A. Farming.
Q. How long have you lived in this county?
A. I have been living in this county since January last a year ago.
Q. Where did you come from?
A. From Union County, in this State.
Q. Are you a native of this State?
A. Yes, sir. I was born and raised in Union County.
Q. Have you suffered any violence at the hands of any person in this county?
A. From persons in this county or some others, I have.
Q. Go on and tell in what manner it was inflicted upon you, and when it was.
A. I had two attacks; the first was on the 4th of March last, on
Saturday night; the second was on that night two weeks, which would make it the 18th of March.
Q. Go on and tell what occurred each time.
A. On the 4th of March there came a body of men to my house. They were all around my house
before I knew they were there, and were hallooing and beating and thumping the house. I was
nearly asleep, and as quick as I awoke I jumped up. They told me to open the door. I told them I
would do so. They told me to strike a light before I opened the door. I lighted a lamp and set it on a
desk by the side of the house. I opened the door. These men were standing in front of the door with
pistols drawn. They were knocking at the other door also. I said, “Gentlemen, somebody is
knocking at the other door; let me open it.” They let me turn around and open it. There were five
men there. While I was opening that door more men came through the other door and into the room
where I was. To the best of my mind, there were twelve men in all in my house. My wife thinks
there were more, but I did not see them. They asked me to take a walk. I told them I would. I asked
them to let me put on my clothes and shoes. They told me to put on my shoes, but not my clothes.

They took me out and tied my hands together and hit me a few strokes and sent me back to the
house.

Q. What was said?
A. They told me I must be a good citizen to the county. I asked them if I had not been. They said
they reckoned as good as any. I told them if I lacked anything, it was from not knowing what a
citizen should be. I thought I had done my duty. They said I should quit my damned radical way of
doing, and should no longer vote a republican ticket, and if I did they would come back and kill me.

Source: Reprinted in Foner, Philip S., and Ronald L. Lewis, eds. Black Worker: A Documentary
History, Volume II: The Black Worker During the Era of the National Labor Union. Philadelphia:
Temple University Press, 1978.

Document 4.10.3: Excerpts from Testimony taken by the Joint Select Committee to Inquire into the
Condition of Affairs in the Late Insurrectionary States, Spartanburgh, South Carolina, July 6 and 7,
1871