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| | Handbook of Texas Online: |
 | | The Knights of the Golden Circle was a secret antebellum organization that sought to establish a slave empire encompassing the southern United States, the West Indies, Mexico, and part of Central America, an area some 2,400 miles in diameter-hence the name Golden Circle. |
 | | The Knights hoped to control the commerce of the area and have a virtual monopoly on the world's supply of tobacco, sugar, and perhaps rice and coffee. |
 | | In April some KGC members in New Orleans, disgusted by Bickley's inept leadership, met and expelled him, but Bickley called a convention in Raleigh, North Carolina, in May and succeeded in having himself reinstated. |
| www.tsha.utexas.edu /handbook/online/articles/view/KK/vbk1.html (580 words) |
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