(RECONSTRUCTION) Wesley Lewis Letter discussing Klan raids i

Sale 2562 - Lot 336

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(RECONSTRUCTION.) Wesley Lewis. Letter discussing Klan raids in central North Carolina. Autograph Letter Signed from Wesley Lewis (as "H.W. Lewis"), wife Mary, and children Martin and Mary, to Wesley's brother John Jackson Lewis (1818-1891) of Indiana. 2 pages, 14 1/2 x 6 1/4 inches, on one sheet; toning, folds, minor wear. With original privately delivered envelope (no postal markings). [Chatham County, NC], 11 April 1870

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This letter was apparently written by white farmer Wesley Lewis (1817-1880) of Chatham County, NC to his brother Jackson who had moved west. Amid a general discussion of hard times, he writes "This yare the Kew Clocks is rading here yet, but not so bad as tha wer. The Govner has give N.A. Ramsy the power of the conty to coll out the molishey at any time. He is making spechise all over the conty to try to put them down. . . . Bad times her, peple her has got to disguse ther selvs & robin the peple. Here tha take ther money & ther bacon or anything tha can get." 1870 was the beginning of organized resistance to the first iteration of the Ku Klux Klan. In North Carolina, N.A. Ramsay of Chatham County, NC was a well-respected Democrat appointed by the Republican governor W.W. Holden to traverse Chatham County in central North Carolina, speaking out for the rule of law.