Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUYK0BJZF3yNb2fw1EdAXUQ/join EP 1 in our series can be found here: https://youtu.be/TX7sVUgcD4I EP 3 in our series can be found here: https://youtu.be/VaIJykoLXgc EP 4 in our series can be found here: https://youtu.be/3mh72xf36uE How and why did the terrible violence of the Ku Klux Klan escalate? What was the political context in America for their rising popularity? And, how was this first iteration of the Klan finally brought down? Join Dominic and Tom as they discuss American politics after the Civil War, the growing popularity of the Ku Klux Klan in the American south and their increasingly barbaric treatment of freedmen, as well as their final destruction… Twitter: @TheRestHistory @holland_tom @dcsandbrook Social channels: https://www.instagram.com/theresthistory/ https://www.tiktok.com/@theresthistory https://x.com/TheRestHistory https://bsky.app/profile/theresthistory.bsky.social https://www.threads.com/@theresthistory Video Editor: Jack Meek, Adam Thornton & Harry Swan Social Producer: Harry Balden Producers: Aaliyah Akude & Tabby Syrett Senior Producer: Callum Hill Executive Producer: Dom Johnson Head of Digital & Social: Sam Oakley 0:00 Reconstruction after the Civil War 2:39 The 1868 election: Grant vs white supremacy 6:45 How Klan terror worked at election time 7:20 Tennessee: intimidation at the polls 9:00 South Carolina and Georgia descend into violence 11:39 Louisiana terror and the limits of federal power 13:05 Why Washington struggled to intervene 15:52 Grant wins, but the warning signs are clear 18:28 Brownlow’s crackdown and the Tennessee twist 20:13 Poll taxes and the future of voter suppression 21:42 Black political power transforms the South 28:53 Mass killings and terror in Alabama, South Carolina and Mississippi 31:40 York County: where the Klan ruled everything 38:14 Jim Williams and armed Black self-defence 41:04 Governor Scott asks Washington for help 42:21 Enter the Seventh Cavalry 44:46 Major Lewis Merrill discovers the truth 45:35 The attack that shocked the nation 48:02 Grant, moderation and the limits of Republican will 50:35 The Enforcement Acts and the Ku Klux Klan Act 53:15 Grant suspends habeas corpus in South Carolina 55:25 The Klan is crushed, but wins anyway 56:30 Why the North gave up on Reconstruction 1:01:56 The Compromise of 1877 ends Reconstruction 1:04:02 How the Klan was rewritten as heroic