Historiography

The Report of the Joint Select Committee to Inquire into the Condition of Affairs of the Late Insurrectionary States gives historians an insight into how the federal government dealt with the chaos occurring in the South after Reconstruction. Because local law enforcement was very often involved in Klan activities, there was little recourse for victims to get justice or even a sense of peace for themselves and their families. When the federal government and Congress finally intervened, they took hundreds of testimonies from victims, witnesses to violence, and perpetrators of the violence in order to understand the severity of the racial crimes in the South.  The source describes numerous accounts of sexualized violence on the part of the Klan toward not just black females, but white females as well. It also describes the methods of disenfranchisement used by the Klan and demonstrates the use of armed resistance on the part of the victims. This primary source shows that the federal government did indeed show some interest and responsibility concerning some Southern citizen’s battle with the Klan. However, the types of questions asked about the victims of violence often sound unnecessary to the modern reader. The examiners usually ask the witness about the character of the people who were attacked or murdered. Some examiners seem to be more concerned about the quality of a person’s character than with the kind of inhumane treatment the victims received at the hands of the Klan. Their questions seem to give an air of excusability toward the perpetrators if the character of a victim is described as “bad” or “low.” Many times in the report the character of white female victims is questioned and if the response from the person giving testimony is that a particular woman had bad character due to involvement in alcohol or sex, this seems to excuse the behavior of Klan members for assaulting and mutilating her in the eyes of the questioner. The examiners never give their opinion, they only question, but their questions often seem impertinent towards the victims. It is not just the characters of white women that they question, but of every victim of violence. The character of the victims should not have been in question, rather, the character of the perpetrator should have been the real focus.