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 (ATC) of James B. Duke. 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). It urged farmers to boycott the ATC 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, resorted to terrorism—most notably, the lynching of the Walker family and the lynching of Captain Quentin Rankin and the kidnapping of Colonel R. Z. Taylor. Becoming known as the Night Riders, due to 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, in 1907.
Background
The Black Patch Tobacco War (or the Great Tobacco strike) in southwestern Kentucky and northern Tennessee extended from 1904 to 1909. It was the longest and most violent conflict between the end of the Civil War and the civil rights struggles of the mid-1960s. 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.
The head of the Night Riders was David Amoss, a medical doctor and farmer. In 1910, he was put on trial for his leadership role in the Hopkinsville, Kentucky, raid of 1907. The Amoss House in Caldwell County, Kentucky, became a museum dedicated to preserving the history of Amoss and the Night Riders. 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 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 American Tobacco Company. 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 Planters' Protective Association 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% and 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) 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).