The Clansman

About “The Clansman”

The Clansman: An Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan is a 1905 novel by Thomas F. Dixon, Jr., the second in a trilogy that included The Leopard's Spots and The Traitor. It was adapted as a play the same year and later influenced D. W. Griffith’s 1915 film The Birth of a Nation. The novel promoted the idea that freed Black Americans would become violent and criminal, justifying racial segregation. Dixon claimed to write for 18 million Southerners who supported his views, though many did not join the KKK. He portrayed Northern politicians as enemies of Southern whites and depicted the KKK as protectors against Black and Northern forces. The story focused on the KKK and Reconstruction, unlike the film’s focus on the Civil War. According to Professor Russell Merritt, Dixon showed the KKK as more organized than it was, and he was more sympathetic to Southerners’ pursuit of education and careers than Griffith.