Black Patch War
The Black Patch War was a violent conflict that occurred in the early 1900s, primarily in western Kentucky and Tennessee, revolving around tobacco farming. This period was marked by economic challenges for tobacco growers, who faced declining prices and the monopolistic practices of the American Tobacco Company. In response, farmers organized the Planters' Protective Association (PPA) in 1904, aiming to unite growers and raise prices for dark tobacco. However, the PPA struggled to gain widespread support and resorted to increasingly authoritarian measures, including the formation of vigilante groups known as "night riders." These night riders engaged in violent acts against noncompliant farmers, leading to state intervention, including martial law declared by the governor. The conflict saw a temporary resolution with a 1908 agreement between growers and the American Tobacco Company, but violence persisted among dissenting groups. Ultimately, the PPA collapsed by 1914, while the federal government’s breakup of the American Tobacco Company in 1911 paved the way for a more competitive tobacco market. The Black Patch War illustrates the tensions between small farmers and corporate interests during a transformative time in American agriculture.
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Subject Terms
Black Patch War
At issue: Low tobacco prices and monopolistic marketing practices
Date: 1904–1909
Location: Western Kentucky and western and central Tennessee
Combatants: Radical members of the Planters’ Protective Association vs. tobacco buyers and noncooperative tobacco planters
Result: Social disorder, though the violence called attention to the devastating effects of monopolies
Background
Three related economic trends of the late nineteenth century made tobacco farming in western Kentucky and Tennessee a precarious occupation. As prices for tobacco steadily declined in the wake of the U.S. return to the gold standard in 1873 and as tobacco companies acted on a growing preference for light tobacco, the American Tobacco Company drove virtually all competing tobacco buyers out of the market. Attempts at concerted action on the part of tobacco growers failed in the 1880’s and 1890’s. In 1904, the Planters’ Protective Association (PPA) was formed, with a clear strategy for raising prices, especially for dark tobacco.
Action
In 1904, John M. Foster and Felix G. Ewing organized tobacco growers of the “Black Patch”—the region of western Kentucky and western and central Tennessee where dark tobacco was grown. The first meeting of the new PPA, based on the Tobacco Growers Association of Robertson County, Tennessee, drew 5,000 farmers to Guthrie, Kentucky, on September 24, 1904. During the first year, the organization sought to promote social and economic solidarity but managed to enlist only about a third of tobacco growers in the region. The American Tobacco Company responded by boycotting PPA tobacco and paying higher prices to planters who refused to join.
Frustrated by their inability to control tobacco sales in the Black Patch, leaders of the PPA became more authoritarian. In 1904, armed and hooded vigilantes, known as night riders, burned tobacco warehouses, destroyed plant beds and machinery of noncooperative farmers, and beat and occasionally murdered opponents. Although the PPA denied association with the night riders, most were sympathetic to their methods. In 1907, Kentucky governor A. E. Willson declared martial law in twenty-three counties and called out the state militia to combat the violence. An agreement, partially undermining the buying monopoly, was reached in 1908 between growers and the American Tobacco Company. Many growers who were dissatisfied with the agreement continued organized violence, which finally ended in 1909.
Aftermath
A combination of the 1908 agreement and successful lawsuits against various farmers’ associations led to a dramatic decline in membership after 1909 and to the collapse of the PPA in 1914. The federal government broke up the monopolistic American Tobacco Company in 1911, spawning the major tobacco companies of the twentieth century and leading to more competitive buying practices.
Bibliography
Marshall, Suzanne. Violence in the Black Patch of Kentucky and Tennessee. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1994.
Miller, John G. The Black Patch War. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1936.
Nall, James O. The Tobacco Night Riders of Kentucky and Tennessee: 1904–1909. Kuttawa, Ky.: McClanahan, 1991.
On Bended Knees: The Story of the Night Riders and the Black Patch War. Documentary. Bay Horse Productions, 1994.
Waldrep, Christopher. Night Riders: Defending Community in the Black Patch, 1890–1915. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1993.