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Records of the Assistant
Commissioner for the State of Tennessee
Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865-1869.
National Archives Microfilm Publication M999 Roll 34
"Affidavits Relating to Outrages Mar. 1866-August 1868"
Nashville Tenn.
January 14, 1868
My name is Frank Dickerson, white, I live at Lynnville
Station 12 miles this side of Pulaski, Giles Co. Tenn.----have been farming on my own
account since the termination of the War. I was born and raised near Lynnville and have
not done anything to hurt or molest any of my neighbours, but attended strictly to my own
business.
On Saturday night last the 11th Inst. I was
visiting a neighbours house named Jack White, col'd, about one quarter of a mile from my
own home. While there about 16 white men with masked faces & armed came to said
White's house and took me from there together with Eph Johnson, Judd Grisby, Tom and Jack
White (col'd), they then selected Jack and Tom White (col'd) and myself---stripped down
our pantaloons---laid us on logs---tied our hands behind our backs and then whipped us
severely with beech limbs, four of them whipping Jack White at the same time. They kept us
in this condition for nearly two hours off and on, threatening at the same time to kill us
because we belonged to the Union League and voted the radical ticket. Three of the party
who attacked and punished us in this unmerciful manner belong to the "Ku Klux
Klan" and named respectively---Tom Mitchel, McDougherty and Henry Frey. The balance I
could not recognize. After beating us they made us march up a lane about 200 yards. They
then stood for some time threatening us---what they would not do to us if we did not
immediately leave the state. At this time Mr. Kellis Dickerson, came up and remonstrated
with them for their cruel treatment to us---when they abused him also and said were it not
for his being an old man they would not take any interference from him. They then let us
go but made us take a solemn oath that we would never say or report what they had done to
us. All this occurred about 300 yards from Jack Whites' house.
I understand that Bob Mitchell is the Captain of this
murderous Clan and my solemn conviction is that their intention is to break up the Loyal
League and drive both white & black Union men from the county.
Frank (X) Dickerson
Witness
W. M. M. Chin
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