and June Moore In February 1871, Hill met with local Ku Klux Klan (KKK) leaders to negotiate the safety of blacks in the community. The KKK worked to impose white supremacy in the postwar South. Around February 12, eight black men were killed by 500 to 700 whites in black gowns with masks; these murders were followed by nightly Klan raids for months. After the Civil War, ex-slave and Union veteran Jim Williams returned to York County and began work with Hill for the civil rights of blacks. Williams led a black militia group, one of what were known as Union Leagues. Some whites claimed Williams had threatened to kill local whites and that Williams's militia was stockpiling weapons. They also repeated a rumor that Williams claimed to desire to rape white women if he could. On March 6, 1871, about forty men seized Williams from his home and hanged him from a tree, also shooting him with many bullets. Local KKK leader J. Rufus Bratton, brother of Williams's former owner John S. Bratton, was said to have placed the noose around Williams' neck. Williams was subsequently brought to Bratton's office where Bratton, in his medical capacity, served the inquest. The mob visited several other homes of men involved in the Union League militia, succeeding in gathering 23 guns but no other members. Members of the league swore vengeance, but did not act. Companies B, E, and K of George Armstrong Custer's Seventh U.S. Cavalry led by Major Lewis Merrill arrived in the area to try to quell the violence, Hill stepped in to lead the League, now in disarray. In another raid, Hill's nephews, Solomon Hill and June Moore, were attacked and forced to renounce their Republican Party affiliation in the local paper, the Yorkville Enquirer. Assault on Elias Hill On May 5, 1871, a masked neighbor came to Hill's brother's cabin, which was next door to Hill's own. The neighbor slapped Hill's sister-in-law, demanding to know where the "uppity" Hill resided. Next, Hill was dragged by his arms and legs into the yard and beaten with a horsewhip. He was charged with denouncing the KKK, inciting a riot, and ravishing white women. They threatened to throw him in the river and told him to desist preaching against the KKK. The Klan also demanded Hill denounce the Republican Party, as had his nephews, and cancel his subscription to the