Dominic Sandbrook

They all basically pile in on behalf of the Klan.

And the black men flee.

They flee into the countryside.

And for the next few weeks, the Klan are basically scouring the countryside for these guys.

When they find them, they lynch them.

Some of them managed to escape to Nashville, but most of them didn't.

And Dominic, are the Klan targeting black people who are literate?

Yes, absolutely they are.

We'll talk about this in the next episode, actually, about how the Klan target black people who can read and write, black people who want to be teachers, people who are ministers, people who are active in the community, basically anybody who challenges

the idea that black people are inherently subordinate and inferior.

Even if you do too well, if you're too good at farming, if you own your own livestock, they will come after you because you are challenging the principles on which their sense of the world, I guess, is based.

So the million dollar question is why the authorities don't stop it.

And the obvious answer is that it's just very, very difficult.

You can't rely on local law enforcement because so many sheriffs and whatnot are sympathetic to the Klan.

And we know that basically in every case where black people try to go to the courts to get justice, they cannot get a sheriff to arrest, they can't get a grand jury to indict, they can't get attorneys to prosecute, and they can't get juries to convict.

So all of this puts a lot of pressure on the governor of Tennessee, Parson Brownlow.

He's in a real bind because his Republican legislature in Nashville is very anxious about alienating white opinion by sending in the state militia.

Because if they send in the state militia, that means basically arming a lot of African-American volunteers, which is the one thing that is guaranteed.

Well, I mean, but you might say, so what?

I mean, I think you could reasonably say, so what?