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. When the burley tobacco crop of 19 was boycotted by the ATC, farmers resorted to desperate measures. 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. These nightly meetings eventually led to the violence of the Masked Silent Brigade (or the Night Riders). 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. 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". 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. They chose to seek personal profit, as the Trust then paid ten to twelve cents per pound in an attempt to destroy the Association. They undermined the attempt to meet the Tobacco Trust ( Monopoly) on an economic basis. However, in the first year of the Association, many non member producers, and even Association members, ignored their pledges. 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). The Association would keep the tobacco in their own warehouses and pay the farmers when they sold its holdings. 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). Planter's Protective Association and its conflicts
Ewing stressed that his plan would require the cooperation of all tobacco growers. Ewing's plan, they would grow tobacco, but store it in Ewing's warehouses until the market price increased. The farmers formed the Planters' Protective Association to oppose the monopoly. In some areas the price fell as low as three, two or even one cent a pound. Farmers were losing money just by planting their crops. This was two cents per pound less than the cost of producing tobacco. After eliminating competition, the ATC paid an average of four cents a pound from 1901 to 1903. This changed with the turn of the twentieth century, due to the development of a virtual monopoly by the American Tobacco Company. 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.
#Night rider Patch#
The major cause of the Black Patch Wars was the drastic reduction in price that the American Tobacco Company offered tobacco farmers for their crops. Other museums in the area house numerous artifacts and personal histories regarding the era of the Night Riders. However, the building is in danger of being sold. The Amoss House in Caldwell County, Kentucky, is now a museum dedicated to preserving the history of Dr. The head of the Night Riders was David Amoss, a medical doctor and farmer. Originally known as the Silent Brigade, The Night Riders were a terrorist force opposed to the American Tobacco Company because it priced tobacco so low that farmers could not make any profit from their work. It was the longest and most violent conflict between the end of the Civil War and the civil rights struggles of the mid 1960s. The Black Patch Tobacco War (or the Great Tobacco strike) in southwestern Kentucky and northern Tennessee extended from 1904 to 1909. Their largest raid of this type was their occupation and attack on areas of Hopkinsville, Kentucky, in 1907. Becoming known as the Night Riders because of their night-time activities, they also targeted and destroyed the tobacco warehouses of the ATC. Amoss of Caldwell County, Kentucky, resorted to terrorism - most notably the Lynching of the Walker family and the lynching of Captain Quentin Rankin and the kidnapping of Colonel R. Groups of a more militant faction of farmers, trained and led by Dr. 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. 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 of Kentucky and Tennessee (called the Association or PPA). 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 of James B.
For other uses, see Night Rider (disambiguation).
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