Knight of the Golden Circle

[anna]

I was watching a TV show about Jesse James . I did not know he was a member of the Knights of the Golden Circle.

I know isn't your usual topic but I found it very interesting

knightsofthegoldencircle.webs.com/

[Dave]

The Knights of the Golden Circle (KGC) was a secret society. The original objective of the KGC was to annex a golden circle of territories in Mexico (which would be divided into 25 slave states), Central America, northern South America, and Cuba and the rest of the Caribbean for inclusion in the United States as slave states. As anti-slavery agitation increased after the Dred Scott Decision was issued, the members proposed a separate confederation of slave states, with US states south of the Mason-Dixon line to secede and to align with other slave states to be formed from the golden circle. In either case, the goal was to increase the power of the Southern slave-holding upper class to such a degree that it could never be dislodged.

Woodward, Colin, 2011, American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America, pg. 207, Penguin Press, NY

According to a few historians, after the Civil War, the KGC went underground and became a secret society. The KGC's new mission was to support a second, former confederate, uprising against the U.S. Federal Government. Furthermore, it has been alleged the James-Younger Gang was the principal source of funds for a second U.S. Civil War that never occurred.

Texas State Historical Society @ www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/vbk01

As far as I can tell, this group died out by 1870. Jesse James connection is only speculated not proven. Although, there were a few outlaw gangs at the time (Josey Wells) that use their political allegiances as a justification for their crimes.

Remember Patty Hearst and the United Federated Forces of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), which was an American self-styled left-wing revolutionary group active between 1973 and 1975 that considered itself a vanguard army. The group committed bank robberies, two murders, and other acts of violence

[anna]

The Knights of the Golden Circle lasted until 1916 when most of the members died.