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INTRODUCTION The year 1776 saw the birth both of America and Phi Beta Kappa, the first American society bearing Greek letters. The idea of secret fraternal societies began 7,000 years ago with the ancient Egyptian mystery cults, which worshiped the moon and performed fertility rites. Later, in Greek and Roman times secret societies became more prevalent and led the way for the craft guilds of the Middle Ages, which in turn led to the secret societies of eighteenth-century England. By the late eighteenth-century several chapters of the Social and Benevolent Order of Freemasonry, an outgrowth of the friendly societies, had been formed on American shores. These all had secret rites of passage for their new members, a concept that goes back to the tribal rites of manhood in primitive cultures. College students of this era became familiar with these societies and rituals, as they were part of their curriculum and was a dominant topic of conversation, since there was no ESPN and cars. THE FLAT HAT CLUB Realizing the commonality between the principles of these ancient societies and their own need for independence, the students adapted the concepts and formed their own secret organizations. The first of which was the Flat Hat Club. They adopted a secret constitution, ritual, oath, and grip to keep things on the qt. Their motto, which expressed the attributes of “friendship, mirth, conviviality, silence, and charity”, was in Latin. Taking the first letters of the Latin motto’s three most important words, F, H, and C, they nicknamed their body the Flat Hat Club.
Approximate Word count = 968
Approximate Pages = 3.9
(250 words per page double spaced)
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