Home >
1908 Black Patch Tobacco Wars... Night Riders...
1908 Black Patch Tobacco Wars... Night Riders...
Item # 725317
January 25, 1908
THE EVENING TRIBUNE, San Diego, Jan. 3, 1908
* Black Patch Tobacco Wars
* Civil unrest & violence
* Nights Riders in Kentucky
The top of the front page has a four column headline: "Night Riders Are Abroad in Kentucky Tobacco War" with subheads. (see image)
Complete with 8 pages, small library stamps within the masthead, some small binding holes along the spine, archival mend on page 2, generally good.
background: The Black Patch Tobacco Wars reached a violent crescendo in 1908 as the "Night Riders"—a militant wing of the Planters’ Protective Association—enforced a scorched-earth boycott against James B. Duke’s American Tobacco Company monopoly. Operating primarily in Western Kentucky and Middle Tennessee, these masked vigilantes utilized paramilitary tactics to combat price-fixing that had driven local farmers toward bankruptcy. By 1908, the conflict had transitioned from local skirmishes to large-scale urban raids, most notably in Hopkinsville and Russellville, where hundreds of riders seized control of entire towns to dynamite and burn corporate warehouses. To maintain the boycott, the riders used "whippings" and arson to terrorize "Hillbillies" (independent farmers who refused to join the association), leading Governor Augustus Willson to deploy the Kentucky State Guard and declare martial law in several counties. The insurrection only began to wane when federal courts started awarding massive damages to victims and the 1911 Supreme Court ruling finally dismantled the Duke tobacco trust, addressing the economic desperation that had fueled the bloodshed.
Category: The 20th Century
Available Now
$58.00
