@libertybelle
NBF was a southern hero,and widely admired by both black and white southerners of his time. He created the KKK NOT to cause harm to blacks,but as a counter to the rape of the locals brought about by the carpet baggers,who came south to steal everything in sight,and mostly did just that.
One of their favorite tactics was to appoint relatives as judges,sheriffs,and tax collectors,and declare all back taxes to be due immediately. Which was impossible for most because they had been away fighting the war,not farming and making money. The sheriff's also liked to do things like follow the law by tacking the tax sales notices on the door of the courthouse after dark,and then selling to the highest (and usually only) bidder at sunrise for just a few dollars. That bidder was usually related to the sheriff and the judge,and most of the time they turned around and put it up for sale at market value or higher,and sold it to fellow yankee carpet baggers.
None of the former Confederate soldiers returning home had any money at all because they hadn't been paid in months,and some hadn't farmed their farms or ran their family businesses for years.
Some of these former Confederate soldiers were free men who put on the gray uniform and fought for the south. There is at least one graveyard near Norfolk,Va,but last I read it was severely neglected because no city official wanted to get caught spending city money on a Confederate graveyard. Probably none wanted to spend money on a black Confederate graveyard after the War of Norther Aggression because they were all yankees,and two or more generations later,their offsprung were running things and considered to be locals.
Plus,it was impolite to mention things like "free blacks" and "black Confederate soldiers". Just didn't fit with what was being taught in the schools.
Anyhow,NBF is and has always been demonized because the north HAD to defend their propaganda about how all blacks were slaves and all white southerners were monsters,or how could they justify the war they started,or charming incidents like burning Atlanta?
