Black Patch Tobacco Wars

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In the early years of the twentieth century, American tobacco planters formed a protectionist Dark Tobacco District Planters' Protective Association of Kentucky and Tennessee. This was in opposition to a corporate monopoly: the American Tobacco Company (ATC) trust, owned and operated by James B. Duke.

Many farmers found that they could no longer sell their tobacco crop at a profit and that the ATC was the region's only buyer, now that the many tobacco companies had formed the trust using that agency to purchase all tobacco from any farmer at a fixed price. Upon establishing the protective association and rivaling the monopoly by practicing boycotts of tobacco sales, some farmers formed the Silent Brigade in an effort to apply social pressure for the purpose of terrorizing farmers into joining the Association against the Trust and holding to its boycott of raising no tobacco or selling no tobacco.

By 1906 producers were sufficiently organized to threaten control of the "Trust." In the "Black Patch" or "dark fired" tobacco area, which embraced counties in southwestern Kentucky and adjoining districts in Tennessee, aggressive methods imposed by association members, and retaliation by non-members, resulted in much violence. The Silent Brigade was later to be infamous as the Night Riders, assembled and regulated by suspected leader Dr. David A. Amoss. The Night Riders, as they were called, were regarded as heroes by many farmers whom they helped although they were often known for violence by some members within their ranks and their organized fight against the changing tobacco industry [1].

During 1907 and 1908 "night riding" by the "Silent Brigade" was prevalent. Speculation in warehouse receipts, increased production in unrestricted areas, adverse court decisions and general friction, hostility and suspicion doomed the movement to deterioration. Ultimately they were able to destroy James B. Duke's tobacco cartel and force him into another investment-electricity. The farmers immediately began to profit from their endeavors in tobacco farming. Dr. Amoss then accompanied his son, also a physician, to New York where he attained employment in a prestigious medical Institution where he was able to enjoy the fruits of his education until his death.