White Terror: The Ku Klux Klan Conspiracy and Southern Reconstruction

Allen W. Trelease

LSU Press, Feb 22, 2023 - History - 616 pages

Allen W. Trelease’s White Terror, originally published in 1971, was the first scholarly history of the Ku Klux Klan in the South during Reconstruction. With its research rooted in primary sources, it remains among the most comprehensive treatments of the subject. In addition to the Klan, Trelease discusses other night-riding groups, including the Ghouls, the White Brotherhood, and the Knights of the White Camellia. He treats the entire South state by state, details the close link between the Klan and the Democratic party, and recounts Republican efforts to resist the Klan.

Winner of the Charles S. Sydnor Award from the Southern Historical Association

About the author

Allen W. Trelease (1928–2011) was professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro for twenty-seven years. He authored several books on southern history, including Reconstruction: The Great Experiment.

Karen L. Cox is professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Her most recent book is No Common Ground: Confederate Monuments and the Ongoing Fight for Racial Justice.

Bibliographic information

• Title: White Terror: The Ku Klux Klan Conspiracy and Southern Reconstruction
• Author: Allen W. Trelease
• Contributor: Karen Cox
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: LSU Press, 2023
• ISBN: 0807178748, 9780807178744
• Length: 616 pages
• Subjects: History / United States / 19th Century; History / United States / Civil War Period (1850-1877); Political Science / Terrorism