Merry laughter of children at play. Felix Ewing grew ill of what was diagnosed as a “nervouse disease” and became less of a regular presence. Minutes before, several six-man squads had occupied the police station and disarmed the officers, seized the telegraph and telephone offices, and captured the fire station, shutting off the city water supply. Duke used his control of the industry to slash the per-pound selling price of tobacco. They pinned a racist warning to the clothing of one man.[10]. Nonetheless, the Night Riders continued their raids throughout 1908, and the nature of the violence grew even more sinister. In some districts, as many as 95 percent of the growers signed on. Deciding he would be better off dead. By mid-1906, they numbered an estimated 10,000 members. That any one might understand. The number of members soared as farmers anticipated an immediate resolution to their problem. [12] Black victims, refugees from Birmingham, were encouraged to sue in court for damages. [11], Marshall County authorities were relentless in their investigation of this raid. Their evening forays soon earned them the name Night Riders. In 1884 he struck a deal with its inventor to use his machines, exclusively, for all the cigarettes the company manufactured, in exchange for lower royalties. They are not opposed to the Union, The PPA gained instant popularity throughout the region, among both farmers and businessmen. and rest from the weary road. John C. Latham did not rebuild his warehouse, instead donating the site to the city of Hopkinsville to be used as a park. In each case the juries were only out five minutes.[17]. No longer content with mere lectures, they began administering beatings and whippings to noncompliant hillbillies, officials and Trust employees. They ruined crops, burned barns and private homes, stepped up the beatings, used their operations to satisfy personal grievances, and—with the blessing of David Amoss—they killed people who they felt had betrayed, or would betray, the Association: tenant farmer Leonard Holloway, hired hand Axiom Cooper, Night Riders Herbert Hall and Julian Robinson, PPA member Rufus Hunter, and others whose names are not recorded. For a farmer watching his family starve while he sold his tobacco for 3 cents per pound, the offer of 11 or 12 cents was often too tempting to refuse. "How Crime Is Breeding Crime in Kentucky." Vacation & Holiday, Southern Kentucky Performing Arts Center (SkyPAC), Crafts Even the Black Patch Journal, organ of the Association, had had enough of the Night Riders. There is no crop—indeed, no marketable commodity—more indigenously American than tobacco. Then, three long whistle blasts drew the men together, and—singing “The fires shine bright on my old Kentucky home”—they slowly rode out of town. In 1911, the United States Supreme Court ruled that James Buchanan Duke’s American Tobacco Company was attempting to monopolize the tobacco market in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act. To them he's the feed ground, the noon hour, And for those who lacked sympathy for the Association, a boycott of their businesses was generally enough to induce them to join. And no region was harder hit than the Black Patch. In the early hours of January 3, 1908, while the soldiers were guarding Hopkinsville and other towns, the Night Riders hit Russellville, Kentucky, the seat of Logan County. The Duke monopoly, coupled with a new, usurious federal tax on all tobacco products, put the growers in an untenable position. Its findings they would not revoke. Gradually, however, their activities grew more violent. By 1910, membership had fallen drastically, with more members leaving all the time. A husband and wife, both victims of a raid in which he was mercilessly flogged and she was beaten and shot, sued the Night Riders who had perpetrated the attack. He practiced medicine there until his death in 1915. Food & Drink Its just a "guilt" edged invitation Old has held all the sale bills; And it would only get worse as PPA members turned to violence to “convince” former friends to join. Duke quickly rented two of these machines; this allowed the company to produce 400 cigarettes per minute. Lindsey Mitchell, a buyer for a local tobacco company, was dragged from his home and beaten. The number of members soared as farmers anticipated an immediate resolution to their problem, and included judges, prosecutors and law enforcement officials. "Better join the 'Sociation, More than a century has passed since the eyes of the nation focused on the Black Patch region and the strife that, according to The New York Times, left residents “in a condition of terror.” Today, the Commonwealth’s farmers continue to cultivate dark-fired tobacco—according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, nearly 30 million pounds of it were produced in 2013—and western Kentucky communities commemorate the area’s tobacco-growing and -warring heritage.Each autumn, the towns of Princeton and Hopkinsville hold Black Patch Festivals, the latter of which includes Night Rider raid re-enactments; a bus tour of significant tobacco war sites; and, in the Christian County courtroom where it was originally held, a dramatic re-creation of the 1911 trial of Dr. David Amoss.