Daniel Blue was a Black resident of Moore County, North Carolina, in February 1869 when members of the Ku Klux Klan broke into his home and murdered his children and pregnant wife. Blue was gravely wounded in the attack but managed to make his escape. The murder of the Blue family by the Klan was one of several depredations cited by Governor William W. Holden in a June 6, 1870, proclamation. The proclamation offered a reward of $500 for the arrest of the murderer(s) and urged civil and military authorities to do all they could to suppress Klan violence.