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Home Freedmen's Bureau Collection Monthly Report of Operations, March 1868

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Monthly Report of Operations, March 1868

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Title	Monthly Report of Operations, March 1868
Record type	Report
Creator	J. K. Nelson
Date of creation	1868-03-xx
Series	Records of the Assistant Commissioner for the State of Tennessee, Bureau of Refugees, Freedman, and Abandoned Lands, 1865-1869
Description	This report documents the activities of the Ku Klux Klan.
Additional notes	Series M999, Reel 16, Frames 973-974.
Excerpt from record	J. K. Nelson, Agent at Murfreesboro, Tenn reports as follows: "During this month the freedmen have been feeling perhaps more severely then ever since their emancipation, the heavy hand of oppression. That secret armed Rebel Military organization known as the “Ku Klux Klan” is increasing in numbers and extending to all parts of my Agency. They continue their midnight prowling in bands of ten to fifteen. Each neighborhood it seems furnishes its own detachment, and warning those against whom they have a particular spite to leave the County at once or be murdered. I regret to say that a freeman named Oakley who took an active part in the late political canvas in this County honored their threats early this month by leaving his home at Murfreesboro for parts unknown- they had openly and unmasked threatened to kill him and when he saw them approaching his house at night uniformed and disguised, he took to his heels and the next day left the County. I had previously advised him to have the parties bound over to keep the peace towards him, but he was unable to give the satisfactory evidence of their identification to justify the attempt. I have also advised him to get some of his friends to stay with him and if they should attempt to break into his house to kill as many of them as they could. Thomas Merchant (cold) late of Baltimore Maryland reports, that about 11 o’clock on Sunday night the 29th [?] seven or eight of the “Ku Klux Klan” came to the house of Lee Childres cold with whom he was employed, demanding that the door be opened and then ordered him to leave the County. Thos. Merchant however has the appearance and bearing of an independent reckless man. Mr. R. R. Clinton Douglas teacher of the colored school at Smyrna Tenn., states “that a rebel tried to knock him down because he was a yankee.” There seems to be a good many turbulent spirits among us and we are receiving warnings, but they don’t scare any body. T. H. R. McCain Editor of the “freedman’s Watchman” (a little Republican Paper printed in Murfreesboro) published an account of a party of the Chivalry insulting the officers of the election at the Bearsfield District as ill bred scoundrels so he has was accordingly waited upon by some of the party who demanded of him where he obtained his authority at the same time furnishing him with an article which they requested him to publish as an editorial to the effect, that the former statement in regard to them was false, and that if he refused to do so it would be at his peril."
Geographic location	Murfreesboro (Tenn.) Rutherford County (Tenn.)
Names that occur in the record	Nelson, J. K. Merchant, Thomas Oakley Childres, Les Douglas, R. R. Clinton McCain, T. H. R.
Subject (LC)	African Americans--Tennessee African Americans--Tennessee--Social conditions--19th century Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877)--Tennessee--Rutherford County United States. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands--Records and correspondence
Coverage	1860-1869
Contributing institution	National Archives and Records Administration
Medium	microfilm
Bibliographic citation	[Document title, date]. Records of the Assistant Commissioner for the State of Tennessee. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865-1869. Series M999, [Reel number, Frame number/s]. National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.
Copyright status	public domain
Collection name	Freedmen's Bureau Records