The Traitor

The Traitor: A Story of the Fall of the Invisible Empire is the 1907 final novel of the Reconstruction trilogy by Thomas Dixon Jr. (1864-1946), following The Leopard’s Spots and The Clansman. Set in North Carolina in the last years of Reconstruction, the novel tells of the dissolution of the original Ku Klux Klan through its hero, a Klan chief who disbands the order as lawless elements corrupt it, while romance crosses the political divide through his love for the daughter of a carpetbagger judge. Like the rest of the trilogy the book romanticises the Klan and embodies the white-supremacist reading of Reconstruction that scholarship has long since demolished. It is read today as a primary source for Lost Cause ideology at the height of its literary influence. Free PDF download available on BDeBooks.