Uploaded March 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
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EP 1 in our series can be found here: youtu.be/TX7sVUgcD4I
EP 3 in our series can be found here: youtu.be/VaIJykoLXgc
EP 4 in our series can be found here: 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:
instagram.com/theresthistory
tiktok.com/@theresthistory
https://x.com/TheRestHistory
https://bsky.app/profile/theresthistory.bsky.social
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
Join this channel to get access to perks:
youtube.com/channel/UCUYK0BJZF3yNb2fw1EdAXUQ/join
EP 1 in our series can be found here: youtu.be/TX7sVUgcD4I
EP 3 in our series can be found here: youtu.be/VaIJykoLXgc
EP 4 in our series can be found here: 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:
instagram.com/theresthistory
tiktok.com/@theresthistory
https://x.com/TheRestHistory
https://bsky.app/profile/theresthistory.bsky.social
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
