The Night Riders was the name given by the press to the militant, terrorist faction of tobacco farmers during a popular resistance to the monopolistic practices of the

American Tobacco Company The American Tobacco Company was a tobacco company founded in 1890 by J. B. Duke through a merger between a number of U.S. tobacco manufacturers including Allen and Ginter and Goodwin & Company. The company was one of the original 12 members of ...

James B. Duke James Buchanan Duke (December 23, 1856 – October 10, 1925) was an American tobacco and electric power industrialist best known for the introduction of modern cigarette manufacture and marketing, and his involvement with Duke Universit ...

. On September 24, 1904, the tobacco planters of western Kentucky and the neighboring counties of West Tennessee formed the Dark Fired Tobacco District, or Black Patch District

Planters' Protective Association The Planters' Protective Association (1904–1908) was an agrarian organization formed in the Kentucky and Tennessee "Black Patch" dedicated to fair business and the protection of farmers' economic interests in light of the market dominance of the ...

of Kentucky and Tennessee (called the Association or PPA). It urged farmers to boycott the American Tobacco Company and refuse to sell at the ruinously low prices being offered in a quasi-monopoly market. Groups of a more militant faction of farmers, trained and led by Dr. David A. Amoss of

Caldwell County, Kentucky Caldwell County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 12,649. Its county seat is Princeton. The county was formed in 1809 from Livingston County, Kentucky and named for John Caldwell, who ...

, resorted to terrorism - most notably the

Lynching of the Walker family The lynching of the Walker family took place near Hickman, Fulton County, Kentucky, on October 3, 1908, at the hands of about fifty masked Night Riders. David Walker was a landowner, with a farm. The entire family of seven African Americans ...

and the lynching of Captain Quentin Rankin and the kidnapping of Colonel R. Z. Taylor. Becoming known as the Night Riders because of their night-time activities, they also targeted and destroyed the tobacco warehouses of the ATC. Their largest raid of this type was their occupation and attack on areas of

Hopkinsville, Kentucky Hopkinsville is a home rule-class city in and the county seat of Christian County, Kentucky, United States. The population at the 2010 census was 31,577. History Early years The area of present-day Hopkinsville was initially claimed in 1796 b ...

, in 1907.

Background

The Black Patch Tobacco War (or the Great Tobacco strike) in southwestern

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

and northern

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

extended from 1904 to 1909. It was the longest and most violent conflict between the end of the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

and the

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life of ...

struggles of the mid 1960s. Originally known as the Silent Brigade, The Night Riders were a

terrorist Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

force opposed to the

because it priced tobacco so low that farmers could not make any profit from their work. The head of the Night Riders was David Amoss, a medical doctor and farmer. The Amoss House in

, is now a museum dedicated to preserving the history of Dr. Amoss and the Night Riders. However, the building is in danger of being sold. Other museums in the area house numerous artifacts and personal histories regarding the era of the Night Riders.

Causes

The major cause of the

Black Patch Wars The Black Patch Tobacco Wars were a period of civil unrest and violence in the western counties of the U.S. states of Kentucky and Tennessee at the turn of the 20th century, circa 1904-1909. The so-called "Black Patch" consists of about 30 counti ...

was the drastic reduction in price that the American Tobacco Company offered tobacco farmers for their crops. In the last decade of the nineteenth century, farmers had earned a profit of from eight to twelve cents a pound, which was more than enough for a comfortable lifestyle. This changed with the turn of the twentieth century, due to the development of a virtual monopoly by the

. After eliminating competition, the ATC paid an average of four cents a pound from 1901 to 1903. This was two cents per pound less than the cost of producing tobacco. Farmers were losing money just by planting their crops. In some areas the price fell as low as three, two or even one cent a pound. The farmers formed the

to oppose the monopoly. Under leader Felix G. Ewing's plan, they would grow tobacco, but store it in Ewing's warehouses until the market price increased. Ewing stressed that his plan would require the cooperation of all tobacco growers. Breaking the boycott was not allowed.

Planter's Protective Association and its conflicts

The association was created in 1904 so farmers could sell their crop for a set price (originally set at eight cents per pound and two cents per pound over the cost of production). The Association would keep the tobacco in their own warehouses and pay the farmers when they sold its holdings. At the beginning of their work, between 70% to 95% of farmers in the county were signing contracts to deliver their crop only to the association (percentages varied in some regions). However, in the first year of the Association, many non member producers, and even Association members, ignored their pledges. They undermined the attempt to meet the Tobacco Trust (

Monopoly A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situati ...

) on an economic basis. They chose to seek personal profit, as the Trust then paid ten to twelve cents per pound in an attempt to destroy the Association. For example, in 1906, non-members were selling to the Trust at ten to twelve cents a pound while Association members were receiving seven and one-eighth cents. In order to solve this problem, farmers in the association met at Stainback School House; where they decided that some of the members should become "Possum Hunters". Possum Hunters were told to visit non-members in groups of not less than five men, but not more than 2,000, to put pressure on non-member farmers to join and increase the strength of the Association. These nightly meetings eventually led to the violence of the Masked Silent Brigade (or the Night Riders).

American Tobacco Company (ATC)

The American Tobacco Company, also known as the Tobacco Trust, was one of the most sophisticated and highly financed industrial monopolies in the late 1890s. When the

burley tobacco Burley tobacco is a light air-cured tobacco used primarily for cigarette production. In the United States it is produced in an eight-state belt with approximately 70% produced in Kentucky. Tennessee produces approximately 20%, with smaller amoun ...

crop of 1906 and 1907 was boycotted by the ATC, farmers resorted to desperate measures. In the year 1908, more than 35,000 farmers in more than 30 counties did not plant tobacco, and an entire year's worth of crop was lost. As a result, the ATC agreed to the farmers' demands in November 1908.

Attacks

The Night Riders began to attack and terrorize individual farms and crops if the farmers did not support the Association. Large groups of armed Night Riders even took over some towns in actions in which they destroyed tobacco crops stored in Trust warehouses, as well as the buildings and machinery. They also attacked individuals who supported the Trust. The Night Riders were known to be an efficient association. In 1908, the association exerted its peak of control, having gained nearly complete control of the Dark Leaf tobacco crop. The Night Riders achieved their success through violence, illegal, vigilante actions, and terrorism. In order to protect themselves from the government, some Night Riders gained election into office in affected Dark Patch regions. They gained control of elected judicial positions and officers of the counties. Attorneys for some victims began to move plaintiffs out of Kentucky to establish residency elsewhere and qualify for a lawsuit in the federal courts. This broke the power of the Night Riders in local courts and brought them under the judicial process. The terrorist actions of the Night Riders have been compared to those of the

Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and ...

, and other white

paramilitary A paramilitary is an organization whose structure, tactics, training, subculture, and (often) function are similar to those of a professional military, but is not part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. Paramilitary units carr ...

, terrorist hate groups that target black and white Republicans and sympathizers during Reconstruction.

Related 1920s actions

In the 1920s, the Burley right LeafTobacco Growers Cooperative Association tried to compete with a monopoly buyer. They also faced a deep decline in the price of Bright Leaf Tobacco as the Dark Patch growers had encountered. They had a large number of voluntary members who pledged to sell only to the Burley Association, in order to consolidate the season's harvest for price negotiation with the monopoly. The Burley Association would keep the crop and sell it at an acceptable price, then use the money to pay the producers. This action was initially successful, but the monopoly later reduced the price it paid to the Association and its members.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Night Riders History of the Southern United States Neo-Confederate organizations