Knights of the Golden Circle
An alleged secret history of the Knights of the Golden Circle published in 1863
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| Abbreviation | KGC |
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| Formation | 1854 |
| Type | Paramilitary |
| Purpose | U.S. annexation of the Golden circle |
| Headquarters | Cincinnati, Ohio, United States |
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Official language
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English |
| Leader | George W. L. Bickley |
The Knights of the Golden Circle (KGC) was a secret society in the mid-nineteenth-century United States. The original objective of the KGC was to annex a "golden circle" of territories in Mexico, Central America, northern South America, and the Caribbean for inclusion in the United States as slave states. As abolitionism in the United States increased after the Dred Scott Decision was issued, the members proposed a separate confederation of slave states, with U.S. 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.
During the American Civil War, some Southern sympathizers in the Union or Northern states, such as Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa, were accused of belonging to the Knights of the Golden Circle, and in some cases, such as that of Lambdin P. Milligan, they were imprisoned for their activities.
George W. L. Bickley, an Indiana-born doctor, editor, and "adventurer" who lived in Cincinnati, founded the association. Records of the KGC convention held in 1860 state that the organization "originated at Lexington, Kentucky, on the fourth day of July 1854, by five gentlemen who came together on a call made by Gen. George Bickley". He organized the first castle, or local branch, in Cincinnati in 1854. Hounded by creditors, he left Cincinnati in the late 1850s and traveled through the East and South, promoting an expedition to Mexico. The group's original goal was to provide a force to colonize the northern part of Mexico and the West Indies. This would extend pro-slavery interests.
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