Cross Burning - Scottish Origins

Scottish Origins

In Scotland, the fiery cross, known as the Crann Tara, was used as a declaration of war. The sight of it commanded all clan members to rally to the defense of the area. On other occasions, a small burning cross would be carried from town to town. It was used as recently as the British-American War to mobilise the Scottish Fencibles and militia settled in Glengarry County, Ontario against the invaders, and in 1820 over 800 fighting men of Clan Grant were gathered, by the passing of the Fiery Cross, to come to the aid of their Clan Lord and his sister in the village of Elgin. The most recent well known use in Scotland itself was in 1745, during the Jacobite Rising, and it was subsequently described in the novels and poetry of Walter Scott.

In Griffith's Birth of a Nation, There are 2 examples of the burning of a cross. The first was when a former Confederate Colonel's little sister had died by jumping off a cliff while being chased by a black Captain who announced he wished to marry her and chased her when she refused. She finally threatening to jump off the cliff unless he stopped, and he pursued her. Her brother had held her in his arms at the bottom of the cliff, and she identified her attacker. This was in the setting that the Piedmont legislature had legalized interracial marriages. The small grouping of the clan burned a small cross, perhaps 8 inches tall, that had been drenched in the young girl's blood, and with the testimony of the Colonel, based on the girl's dying words, there was a small trial, and the Captain was found guilty of murder and executed. His body was placed on the front porch of the Governor of SC's house with a Square piece of white sheeting with the initials KK.

The later incidents of burning of a cross had been when it had been discovered that there were 2 home invasions, one being the home of the Governor himself, when a black member of his government had proposed to his daughter and attempted to force the marriage by force of arms when she refused, and the Governor himself and his home were held captive. The other home invasion was of the family of the Confederate Colonel, whose mother had been found to be in sympathy of the Clan by making clan uniforms. There had also been military rule in the streets.

The Colonel needed help from clans from neighboring counties. This was the second time the cross was burned, in daytime, this time creating a black smoke signal to call neighboring clans to come to their aid to give them the military power to overcome the military control of the town of Piedmont. The different clans wore different head-dresses and robes. They greeted each other with their faces uncovered although they drove into town with sheeting over their faces. The Colonel had 2 adjacent square crosses on his robe, presumably from the original clan in Scotland.

Most notably, in the movie, the clans were plural. The triple K initials were not used once in the film. This is reinforced by the fact that Dixon's Novel The Clansman uses a C and not a K.