Shoffner Act [1]

Shoffner Act

by Allen W. Trelease, 2006 [2]

The Shoffner Act, introduced by state senator T. M. Shoffner of Alamance County [3] and passed in 1870, empowered the governor to suspend habeas corpus and use militia to restore order in counties where Ku Klux Klan [4] terrorism raged out of control. Governor William W. Holden [5] invoked the act that year to suppress the Klan in Alamance and Caswell Counties [6], igniting the so-called Kirk-Holden War [7] and leading to Holden's impeachment and removal from office.

References:

J. G. de Roulhac Hamilton, Reconstruction in North Carolina (1914).

Allen W. Trelease, White Terror: The Ku Klux Klan Conspiracy and Southern Reconstruction (1971).

Additional Resources:

The Kirk-Holden War, LearnNC: http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/nchist-civilwar/4810 [8]

Governor Holden speaks out against the Ku Klux Klan: http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/nchist-civilwar/4812 [9]

Argument in the impeachment trial of W.W. Holden, governor of North Carolina: full stenographic reports revised and corrected. Available from http://digital.ncdcr.gov/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/p249901coll22&CISOPTR=282344&REC=1 [10] (accessed August 3, 2012).

Image Credit:

Broadside published by the Randolph County Executive Committee of the Republican Party on June 1, 1870. North Carolina Collection, Call Number Cb329.1 N87r. Courtesy of UNC Libraries. Available from http://www.lib.unc.edu/ncc/ref/nchistory/jun2006/notice.html [2] (accessed August 3, 2012).

Subjects:

Reconstruction (1865-1876) [11]

Law and legal history [12]

Politics and government [13]

UNC Press [14]

Authors:

Trelease, Allen W. [15]

Origin - location:

Alamance County [16]

Caswell County [17]

From:

Encyclopedia of North Carolina, University of North Carolina Press. [18]

1 January 2006 | Trelease, Allen W.