Abstract
It may seem surprising to begin an essay on Thomas Dixon's 1905 bestseller The Clansman with epigraphs by three female African American authors, contemporaneous with his novel: Anna Julia Cooper, Mrs. N. F. Mosseli, and Ida B. Wells-Barnett. Surely, many current scholars read plot of The Clansman as simple and racist4 so much so that activist work and political writings of African American women should have no context within Dixon's self-proclaimed accounts of historical enactment of Reconstruction and of the true story of 'Ku Klux Klan Conspiracy/5 Seemingly inspired by racial paranoia that tormented early twentiethcentury America, text prides itself upon narratives of miscegenation and lynching that inspire textual climax: alleged rape of Marion Lenoir by former slave, Gus, and attempted rape of Elsie Stoneman by mulatto activist, Silas Lynch. The story finds its redemption when these miscegenous attempts are thwarted by Ku Klux Klan. As a consequence, story ends with triumphant lynching of Gus and ultimately preservation of southern womanhood. Nonetheless, I begin with these epigraphs because Dixon, as he preserve[s] in this romance both letter and spirit of this remarkable period, seems to engage textually with each.6 Dixon's version of chaos of blind passion that followed Lincoln's assassination is mobilized
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