The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 9, July 1905 - April, 1906 Page: 264
ix, 294 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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264
Texas Historical Association Quarterly.
States by the Negro, the humiliation and pauperizing of the
Southern whites, and the erection of their territory into solid black
Republican satrapies.
The Negro, in his native African wilds, was the subject of the
grossest superstition; and, notwithstanding his long contact with
the Southern white man, he has lost little or none of the super-
stitious belief of his African ancestor. He feels conscious that the
earth, the air, and the water are peopled with invisible spirits,
some of which are malignant and harmful, and some of which are
friendly and kind; but that all of them exercise a deep and myster-
ious influence over his life and being he does not doubt. He fur-
ther believes that those spirits or beings manifest and make them-
selves visible to human ken by assuming the shape and form of a
dead man or woman, a dog, or cat, or some other animal; or that
they enter into and take possession of some man or woman, usually
of some old and toothless hag, and transform them into witches,
voodoos and sorcerers. In this way, if malignant and unfriendly,
they bring disease, death, disfigurement, and bad luck upon a man
or woman, sickness and death to stock, blight and failure of
crops; if of a kind and friendly nature, they bring health and
strength, good crops, and good luck.
The paraphernalia of the Ku Klux Klan was of such nature as
to fill the superstitious soul of the Negro with the most abject fear
and terror. He fully believed that they were visitors from the
under world, come to call him to judgment for his desertion and
cruel treatment of his old master and his master's family, and that
swift destruction would follow unless he repented and made
amends.
'These silent night riders, or walkers, of the Invisible Empire,
were enveloped in long robes or gowns of various colors, and ample
dimensions, which fully concealed the person. Some of them wore
hideous masks, and some of them had false heads supported by a
rod, which, when rested on the ground, placed the head in proper
position. This false head was made by hollowing out a gourd or
pumpkin. By raising the rod on which the false head rested, it
would apparently stretch the neck, which was surrounded by the
gown, arranged to lengthen out, presenting to the beholder a man
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Texas State Historical Association. The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 9, July 1905 - April, 1906, periodical, 1906; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101036/m1/268/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.