WEBVTT - Ep. 290: Blurred Lines - Good Guys vs. Bad Guys 0:00:05.360 --> 0:00:11.960 So they started getting the attention of national newspapers, Chart Observer, 0:00:12.160 --> 0:00:14.360 New York Times and all by these raids on the town, 0:00:14.720 --> 0:00:17.520 taking independent farmers out, flag and of course he had 0:00:17.560 --> 0:00:20.960 lynchings going on throughout South. But when they started raiding 0:00:20.960 --> 0:00:25.600 his towns, like what the headlines says, Kentucky town raided 0:00:25.680 --> 0:00:29.360 and burned by night riders. This is post Civil War 0:00:29.640 --> 0:00:33.120 and the Norse still kind of looked upon the South 0:00:33.159 --> 0:00:35.599 as being violent. Anyway, around that time, we had had 0:00:35.640 --> 0:00:40.920 Fields McCoy's and Kentucky especially, It's always had a reputation 0:00:41.400 --> 0:00:45.120 dark and bloody land. It's always be had of bloody history. 0:00:45.880 --> 0:00:49.519 On this finale episode, the tobacco wars of Kentucky and 0:00:49.560 --> 0:00:53.120 Tennessee are in full swing and the stage is set 0:00:53.159 --> 0:00:57.240 for a showdown between the Tobacco Planners Association for the 0:00:57.240 --> 0:01:01.440 poor farmers and the corporate giant known as the Duke Trust. 0:01:01.800 --> 0:01:05.960 And they're American Tobacco Company. The players are as old 0:01:06.000 --> 0:01:09.560 as time. It's the rich versus the poor, but the 0:01:09.560 --> 0:01:13.399 difference between the good guys and the bad guys remains blurred. 0:01:14.040 --> 0:01:17.160 The region known as the Black Patch grows the finest 0:01:17.240 --> 0:01:19.280 dark fired tobacco in the world. 0:01:19.720 --> 0:01:21.400 But the struggle is much bigger. 0:01:21.120 --> 0:01:26.280 Than tobacco, and the tools of terror are arson, beatings 0:01:26.680 --> 0:01:31.319 and sabotage meant to impact the national economy, but did 0:01:31.360 --> 0:01:35.199 it even really work. I really doubt that you're gonna 0:01:35.200 --> 0:01:36.000 want to miss this one. 0:01:37.319 --> 0:01:39.280 It reminded me we were going to one of these 0:01:39.319 --> 0:01:42.160 speeches somewhere years ago, and on the way there, Paul said, 0:01:42.160 --> 0:01:44.559 you're not gonna You're not gonna give them the whole 0:01:44.560 --> 0:01:47.319 ball of works, are you. I said, what do you 0:01:47.319 --> 0:01:48.920 mean I'm gonna give? I mean tell the whole You're 0:01:48.920 --> 0:01:50.680 not gonna tell the whole story again? And I said, 0:01:50.720 --> 0:01:54.200 well you don't. It's a little hard to just tell 0:01:54.280 --> 0:01:55.240 in sound bites. 0:02:04.440 --> 0:02:07.120 My name is Klay nukemb and this is the Bear 0:02:07.200 --> 0:02:12.160 Grease Podcast, where we'll explore things forgotten but relevant, search 0:02:12.240 --> 0:02:15.880 for insight and unlikely places, and where we'll tell the 0:02:15.919 --> 0:02:18.600 story of Americans who lived their. 0:02:18.440 --> 0:02:20.040 Lives close to the land. 0:02:20.720 --> 0:02:26.440 Presented by FHF Gear, American made purpose built hunting and 0:02:26.520 --> 0:02:29.960 fishing gear that's designed to be as rugged as the 0:02:30.000 --> 0:02:31.200 place as we explore. 0:02:39.560 --> 0:02:42.679 I spoke the Other Knight to a group in Princeton 0:02:42.720 --> 0:02:46.200 and Princeton Kentucky going up there talking to that group 0:02:46.240 --> 0:02:48.440 about the night Riders, or it's like going to the 0:02:48.520 --> 0:02:52.560 Vatican and talking about Catholicism. I mean they have the 0:02:52.639 --> 0:02:56.720 Black Patch Parade. Had David Amos lived there, his home 0:02:56.880 --> 0:03:00.639 was there. They have Tobica les engraved on the side 0:03:00.639 --> 0:03:03.399 of the courthouse, in the structure of it. I mean 0:03:04.280 --> 0:03:06.440 some of them, they can stand there and tell you 0:03:06.480 --> 0:03:09.880 about how their uncles was so and so. 0:03:09.960 --> 0:03:13.959 That was Bill Cunningham, a former Kentucky Supreme Court justice 0:03:14.200 --> 0:03:17.560 and the author of the book On Bended Knees about 0:03:17.560 --> 0:03:20.840 the night Rider Tobacco Wars between nineteen oh four and 0:03:20.919 --> 0:03:24.080 nineteen oh nine. He painted a clear picture of the 0:03:24.120 --> 0:03:27.800 significance of tobacco and how it's long been etched into 0:03:27.840 --> 0:03:31.160 the culture of Kentucky. And when things are that important, 0:03:31.520 --> 0:03:35.600 they become culturally heightened because of the potential gain or 0:03:35.760 --> 0:03:39.160 ruin in their wake. But the high stakes also make 0:03:39.240 --> 0:03:44.000 them a potential tinder box of chaos, unrest, and even violence. 0:03:45.000 --> 0:03:50.200 But a gauge of something's cultural importance often is found 0:03:50.200 --> 0:03:54.200 in music, and tobacco often shows up in the music 0:03:54.320 --> 0:03:59.040 about Kentucky. I can't vouch for the character of outlaw 0:03:59.120 --> 0:04:02.800 country musicians David allen Coe, not even a little bit. 0:04:03.480 --> 0:04:05.760 But I've respected him as a songwriter since I was 0:04:05.800 --> 0:04:07.840 a teenager, and I want to listen to one of 0:04:07.840 --> 0:04:14.360 his songs. And if why Harlan County is in Kentucky. 0:04:14.200 --> 0:04:16.800 If folks in Harlan County. 0:04:16.440 --> 0:04:21.320 Lord, they knew we were born Still It's called my Daddy, 0:04:21.440 --> 0:04:26.080 Preacher Dan, But Daddy weren't no preacher. 0:04:26.320 --> 0:04:27.200 The sweet I. 0:04:27.080 --> 0:04:32.279 Don't recollect ever, Heir of Popaul talk of nothing but 0:04:32.520 --> 0:04:36.159 the land, and Daddy was here. 0:04:37.720 --> 0:04:40.440 Was read Lord. 0:04:43.320 --> 0:04:46.359 That song is called Daddy was a god fearing man. 0:04:47.279 --> 0:04:51.359 The pastoral imagery of an uneducated but godfear and farmer 0:04:51.560 --> 0:04:54.520 is strong in the lore of rural America, and it 0:04:54.560 --> 0:04:58.960 paints the picture of poverty, purity, naivity, and the righteous 0:04:58.960 --> 0:05:01.600 work ethic of some one whose hands are calloused by 0:05:01.680 --> 0:05:05.880 rocks and dirt. What's not overtly said, but is implied, 0:05:06.600 --> 0:05:09.240 is that this song is being listened to with the 0:05:09.279 --> 0:05:15.880 contextual backdrop of a rapidly urbanizing and industrialized America, and 0:05:15.920 --> 0:05:19.680 by leaning into this romantic idea of the farmer, tapping 0:05:19.720 --> 0:05:23.880 into its nostalgia, which Americans love to do. In a way, 0:05:24.480 --> 0:05:27.880 it's pitting the agrarian way of life against the urban 0:05:28.160 --> 0:05:33.880 industrial America, which clearly dominates the national hegemon. But listen 0:05:33.920 --> 0:05:37.200 to the next verse and listen for the mention of 0:05:37.279 --> 0:05:42.080 America's old smoky friend. 0:05:40.839 --> 0:05:45.640 Saint really always screw tobag of the old heat and 0:05:45.760 --> 0:05:52.440 not smoke yourself, and the bag drum around, and he 0:05:52.600 --> 0:05:56.280 never touched to drop the flicker that I can't recall 0:05:57.200 --> 0:05:59.880 combam is living on the ground. 0:06:01.600 --> 0:06:05.200 Yes, tobacco, you heard it. 0:06:06.000 --> 0:06:07.720 And I've got to admit that this is one of 0:06:07.800 --> 0:06:10.560 my favorite songs of all time. And it wouldn't be 0:06:10.760 --> 0:06:14.080 until I understood the significance of tobacco farming in this 0:06:14.200 --> 0:06:16.520 region that I really got it. 0:06:16.520 --> 0:06:20.200 It was Lord Heaven. 0:06:23.000 --> 0:06:36.400 Far grown out. 0:06:40.160 --> 0:06:43.039 Being the best tobacco farmer around was a thing of 0:06:43.200 --> 0:06:47.680 rural prestige, where families passed on generational knowledge about this 0:06:47.839 --> 0:06:51.240 crop that became a source of pride. But not far 0:06:51.279 --> 0:06:55.320 from the surface, its foundation was in the financial uplift 0:06:55.480 --> 0:06:59.560 it brought to families. Like most things in society, it 0:06:59.600 --> 0:07:02.880 all went back to money. But I think there's some 0:07:02.960 --> 0:07:08.080 potential inherent philosophical flaws in this song. It's idealistic to 0:07:08.160 --> 0:07:10.840 believe that simply by being a farmer that you have 0:07:10.960 --> 0:07:15.120 some inherent righteousness or pure lifestyle. And don't get me wrong, 0:07:15.560 --> 0:07:19.520 I'm prone to buy into the nostalgic stereotype myself. I 0:07:19.560 --> 0:07:23.080 love farmers. But why this story of these tobacco farming 0:07:23.280 --> 0:07:27.160 night writers is so interesting? Because these good hearted farmers 0:07:27.200 --> 0:07:30.280 did some pretty dark stuff when empowered under the cover 0:07:30.400 --> 0:07:34.760 of darkness, black masks, and a righteous mission against a 0:07:34.800 --> 0:07:39.480 corporate criminal. I'm here to decide if they were justified, 0:07:40.040 --> 0:07:42.840 and even think about where I would have stood if 0:07:42.880 --> 0:07:46.520 I lived during that time. To rehash the high points 0:07:46.520 --> 0:07:51.280 of this story, The Dark Fired Tobacco Planters Protection Association 0:07:51.440 --> 0:07:54.480 was formed in nineteen oh four to protect the interest 0:07:54.600 --> 0:07:58.240 of the tobacco farmers as prices plummeted because of the 0:07:58.320 --> 0:08:03.400 monopoly of the Duke True American Tobacco. The trust monopolized 0:08:03.440 --> 0:08:07.600 the buying of tobacco, forcing farmers to sell at a deficit, 0:08:08.200 --> 0:08:11.600 wrecking the economies of the regions built around tobacco. So 0:08:11.720 --> 0:08:17.160 the Tobacco Association formed to monopolize the selling. In nineteen 0:08:17.200 --> 0:08:20.200 oh four, they had five thousand members, but by nineteen 0:08:20.240 --> 0:08:23.920 oh six they had twenty five thousand. The Night Riders 0:08:23.960 --> 0:08:28.120 formed as the unofficial clandestine strong arm of the Association, 0:08:28.760 --> 0:08:32.200 whose first mission was to get all the tobacco farmers 0:08:32.200 --> 0:08:35.559 of the region to join the association, but the mission 0:08:35.679 --> 0:08:42.320 gradually shifted to beatings, sabotaging non association members crops, and 0:08:42.440 --> 0:08:43.600 large scale arson. 0:08:45.800 --> 0:08:48.720 But there were violence that broke out, and other places 0:08:48.840 --> 0:08:51.840 could took it to sea. Maybe I'd say all the 0:08:51.880 --> 0:08:55.000 states that grew Tovaica, but they were just kind of sporadic. 0:08:55.360 --> 0:09:01.960 You had this well all well structured military type organization 0:09:02.440 --> 0:09:05.160 only here in West Kentucky. That's one of the things 0:09:05.200 --> 0:09:07.400 that makes it fascinate. 0:09:10.080 --> 0:09:12.760 In the last episode, Bill told us how this was 0:09:12.800 --> 0:09:15.840 the time period when America was sorting out the issues 0:09:15.880 --> 0:09:17.960 between labor and capital. 0:09:18.040 --> 0:09:20.480 The workers versus corporate interests. 0:09:21.040 --> 0:09:24.200 The struggle was happening everywhere and in things outside of 0:09:24.240 --> 0:09:27.600 tobacco farming. But according to Bill's book, this was the 0:09:27.640 --> 0:09:31.480 most sustained violence and unrest in America between the Civil 0:09:31.520 --> 0:09:34.640 War and the race rights of the nineteen sixties. But 0:09:35.080 --> 0:09:39.839 the tobacco War wasn't just instigated by farmers, but by 0:09:39.880 --> 0:09:42.000 other people that didn't even grow tobacco. 0:09:43.679 --> 0:09:46.920 So I've kind of come around to think well economically 0:09:47.600 --> 0:09:50.559 was one of the problems was then being the only 0:09:50.559 --> 0:09:54.200 in carriage crop. Your banker depended on it, the grocery 0:09:54.200 --> 0:09:57.480 store guy who you bought money on credit. So the 0:09:57.520 --> 0:10:01.720 business is small. Business had an economy dependency on the 0:10:01.800 --> 0:10:05.760 success of darkfire tobacco, and when it wasn't successful, they 0:10:05.800 --> 0:10:08.520 didn't get paid, So they had an economic interest in 0:10:09.160 --> 0:10:14.000 But I think that probably maybe half the people approved 0:10:14.080 --> 0:10:18.480 of what they were trying to get done and but 0:10:18.720 --> 0:10:19.800 disagree with the method. 0:10:21.080 --> 0:10:24.160 Where tobacco grew. It was a cash crop that people 0:10:24.280 --> 0:10:28.480 used to live above subsistence, which is important. And as 0:10:28.520 --> 0:10:32.600 they say, a rising tide lifts all boats. You probably 0:10:32.640 --> 0:10:36.440 remember clips from the historic interview from the mid nineteen 0:10:36.480 --> 0:10:41.319 eighties where our guy right here, Bill Cunningham interviewed the then 0:10:41.800 --> 0:10:45.360 ninety seven year old Joe Scott. So in the nineteen eighties, 0:10:45.400 --> 0:10:47.840 this guy was ninety seven years old who at the 0:10:47.920 --> 0:10:53.160 time was the last living night writer. Here's Joe Scott 0:10:53.320 --> 0:10:57.559 responding to a pivotal question of why tobacco prices fell, 0:10:57.720 --> 0:11:01.200 This was the reason for the war. The audio isn't 0:11:01.200 --> 0:11:04.840 perfect with old Joe, but it's worth it. So hanging there. 0:11:06.559 --> 0:11:07.680 Firel prices down. 0:11:07.760 --> 0:11:08.320 What happened? 0:11:08.320 --> 0:11:09.880 What caused the prices to go down? 0:11:10.520 --> 0:11:14.080 Well, but the way I look at it, these tobacco 0:11:14.200 --> 0:11:18.480 companies they would get about four times as much. Say 0:11:18.559 --> 0:11:20.920 we got it, we got three and a half four dollars, 0:11:21.040 --> 0:11:23.600 and they get about twenty twenty twenty five trus They 0:11:23.600 --> 0:11:26.200 didn't make it about four and five times as much 0:11:26.440 --> 0:11:29.560 as what you get it. They get all the four 0:11:29.600 --> 0:11:32.280 dollars there. We wouldn't getting nothing. They would getting it 0:11:32.320 --> 0:11:34.480 all though. She wasn't no way, wasn't no way of 0:11:34.600 --> 0:11:37.120 changing them, and they had in their head they wasn't 0:11:37.120 --> 0:11:39.240 going to change. You see, the government wouldn't do a 0:11:39.280 --> 0:11:42.640 thing about it. Don't see these lawyers wouldn't do nothing. Bucks, 0:11:42.679 --> 0:11:43.720 they wouldn't do nothing. 0:11:43.559 --> 0:11:48.160 Buts the tobacco companies were making four and five times 0:11:48.200 --> 0:11:51.319 as much as the farmer. Does that sound familiar today? 0:11:51.960 --> 0:11:54.679 He said, the government wasn't helping and there was no 0:11:54.760 --> 0:11:57.760 way of changing them. You can hear the frustration in 0:11:57.800 --> 0:12:02.760 his voice even eighty years later. The Tobacco Association felt 0:12:02.960 --> 0:12:07.800 justified at whatever means they needed, so their unofficial strong arm, 0:12:07.880 --> 0:12:12.600 called the night Riders, took charge. But who were these guys. 0:12:12.880 --> 0:12:17.720 They were masked, they were clandestine. This is Bill referencing 0:12:17.800 --> 0:12:21.280 why Joe Scott was talking late in his life. 0:12:23.000 --> 0:12:25.120 Well, he says, the only reason he's talking now because 0:12:25.480 --> 0:12:28.800 they're all dead. Nobody put him in his grave. And 0:12:28.920 --> 0:12:31.720 I think, you know, you get old, I get like, 0:12:31.840 --> 0:12:33.959 I'm like this kind of now. You hear him talking 0:12:33.960 --> 0:12:37.319 about all this story, wasting your time, Joe Scott. If 0:12:37.360 --> 0:12:40.959 you watched this interview with him, you see what kind 0:12:41.000 --> 0:12:44.120 of man he was at one hundred. I can imagine 0:12:44.160 --> 0:12:47.680 what he was like at eighteen and what you would 0:12:47.679 --> 0:12:49.719 have been at eighteen nine. And I think a lot 0:12:49.720 --> 0:12:53.280 of them just teenage boys. This is as good as it gets. 0:12:55.760 --> 0:12:58.720 Sometimes you look back in history and wonder why people 0:12:58.760 --> 0:13:02.240 did what they did. I think Bill's assessment of these 0:13:02.240 --> 0:13:05.680 were young boys saying and thinking this is as good 0:13:05.720 --> 0:13:09.160 as it gets is a good assessment because that can 0:13:09.200 --> 0:13:12.440 be a license to be reckless, and people still do 0:13:12.520 --> 0:13:15.679 that today. The first couple of years, the Night Rid's 0:13:15.800 --> 0:13:19.240 primary job was to convince tobacco farmers to join the 0:13:19.320 --> 0:13:22.680 association and not sell to the Duke Trust. It was 0:13:22.720 --> 0:13:26.679 simple because some joined and other tobacco farmers just wouldn't 0:13:27.360 --> 0:13:29.440 and when they went on these outings, they called it 0:13:29.480 --> 0:13:33.480 going on a visit, which varied from a cordial conversation 0:13:33.640 --> 0:13:38.680 if a person was cooperative to a nighttime front yard beaten. 0:13:39.720 --> 0:13:43.079 Here's Joe Scott on why he went on these visits 0:13:43.120 --> 0:13:46.760 and later on these raids. It's a little hard to understand, 0:13:46.840 --> 0:13:53.000 but it's such an incredible interview it's worth it. Yeah, 0:13:53.760 --> 0:13:55.320 they kind of left it ap to you on whether 0:13:55.360 --> 0:13:57.640 or not to go, though they didn't order you too well. 0:13:57.679 --> 0:13:59.800 I said it when you look right down in borland 0:14:00.240 --> 0:14:02.880 him short of not say nothing, said he go make 0:14:02.920 --> 0:14:05.240 you have a different feelings, you know it. That's where 0:14:05.280 --> 0:14:07.320 you now said I might be a token too much. 0:14:07.400 --> 0:14:10.200 I looked down and go and thorough take a little 0:14:10.280 --> 0:14:12.200 not to tell this thing that I've told it now. 0:14:12.400 --> 0:14:14.880 So Joe getting in troubled. 0:14:16.480 --> 0:14:19.320 Left nobody there, nobody left. 0:14:20.200 --> 0:14:22.320 You're the last well, I know, but there some some 0:14:22.560 --> 0:14:24.520 gun might be just a little smaller than you are. 0:14:24.960 --> 0:14:26.640 He might pick up something longer. 0:14:27.200 --> 0:14:29.800 Huh, yeah, we take care of you that I might 0:14:30.120 --> 0:14:33.880 pick up something more. Are there any are you probably 0:14:34.120 --> 0:14:35.120 the last one left? 0:14:36.840 --> 0:14:37.600 Word don't know it? 0:14:37.760 --> 0:14:41.440 No, no, no, he moves, I said, I not that 0:14:41.480 --> 0:14:41.880 I know of. 0:14:42.920 --> 0:14:44.000 Thank you the last one. 0:14:44.920 --> 0:14:48.520 It's interesting to hear the old man still hesitant to 0:14:48.640 --> 0:14:53.960 talk about the night Riders. But he was the last one. Remember, 0:14:54.360 --> 0:14:58.680 Joe didn't view anything he did personally as criminal. He 0:14:58.840 --> 0:15:03.040 was fighting a criminal, the Duke Trust. Do you think 0:15:03.080 --> 0:15:06.360 any of the people that that you might have been 0:15:06.360 --> 0:15:08.600 in on taking out to whip do you think any 0:15:08.640 --> 0:15:09.600 of them are still around? 0:15:10.200 --> 0:15:11.920 No? No them around either. 0:15:12.720 --> 0:15:16.320 When you when you did take somebody out, tell me about, 0:15:16.440 --> 0:15:19.480 tell me about what would happen? Well, you you'd ride 0:15:19.560 --> 0:15:21.480 toward them, and how would all that happen? 0:15:21.920 --> 0:15:24.640 Well, and most of them, most of them come out 0:15:24.720 --> 0:15:26.480 telling you they wouldn't go to do so, And so 0:15:27.040 --> 0:15:29.480 they tell them what you've been talking to us. 0:15:30.160 --> 0:15:30.600 He said, you. 0:15:30.560 --> 0:15:32.680 Wouldn't go to visit there's none of our business. You 0:15:32.680 --> 0:15:35.560 wouldn't go to the Barker. I'm still going to stay 0:15:35.600 --> 0:15:38.520 with with a company, you know, and so on, and 0:15:38.680 --> 0:15:40.600 we we think you were it, and give you all 0:15:40.680 --> 0:15:44.400 the invitation in the worlds quick enough by the buck, 0:15:44.480 --> 0:15:46.760 and you're going ahead, blue Hiddings and we're going to work. 0:15:47.280 --> 0:15:49.640 I'm not afraid, not any of this that time. They 0:15:49.800 --> 0:15:52.000 just so they didn't take much word about. 0:15:52.080 --> 0:15:53.080 They just take your whip. 0:15:54.280 --> 0:15:56.240 They go to WHOOPI wasn't I'm about full five for 0:15:56.400 --> 0:15:59.360 we get older two and old each home. You know 0:15:59.400 --> 0:16:01.680 what it is trailed around us and some of the 0:16:01.720 --> 0:16:04.440 observer three two thousand for fuels. 0:16:04.480 --> 0:16:09.320 Son, he said, they'd take you out and whip you over. Son. 0:16:10.160 --> 0:16:12.640 That's if you were bullheaded and kept selling to the 0:16:12.680 --> 0:16:16.360 Duke Trust. In American tobacco, the night Riders had three 0:16:16.440 --> 0:16:20.080 intimidation tools in their belt and a personal visit and 0:16:20.160 --> 0:16:25.200 whooping was option one. Option two was sabotaging or scraping 0:16:25.480 --> 0:16:27.560 a non association. 0:16:27.000 --> 0:16:28.480 Member's tobacco beds. 0:16:28.920 --> 0:16:31.680 And this meant while your entire year's crop was just 0:16:31.720 --> 0:16:34.080 starting to come up, they'd go out at night and 0:16:34.120 --> 0:16:36.720 destroy it and it would be too late to start over. 0:16:37.280 --> 0:16:41.120 They called the people that did this hoe totors as 0:16:41.160 --> 0:16:44.120 they were doing this work with a whole at night. Thirdly, 0:16:44.240 --> 0:16:46.880 and what would be the most destructive task of the 0:16:46.960 --> 0:16:51.200 Night Writers were these military style raids into cities where 0:16:51.200 --> 0:16:54.160 they'd take over a whole city and burn down the 0:16:54.160 --> 0:16:58.320 tobacco barns of the Duke Trust, causing enormous physical and 0:16:58.400 --> 0:17:07.720 financial damage because the private beatings just weren't working. 0:17:23.320 --> 0:17:26.399 Nineteen oh five and October nineteen oh five, then you 0:17:26.440 --> 0:17:30.919 move it now. That's when I think these individuals flags 0:17:30.960 --> 0:17:35.400 and everything happened fairday click because by the summer nineteen 0:17:35.440 --> 0:17:39.480 oh six, David Amos, probably in the conference with Youing 0:17:39.720 --> 0:17:42.159 was saying, look, these boys are having a lot of 0:17:42.200 --> 0:17:46.359 fun with this, but we're not changing the prices. Nothing's happening. 0:17:46.359 --> 0:17:49.280 We've got to attack the Duke Trust where it hurts, 0:17:49.280 --> 0:17:51.800 and that's in the pocket Book. That's when they kind 0:17:51.800 --> 0:17:55.760 of shifted away from the infliction of punishment upon the 0:17:55.840 --> 0:18:01.919 Independence to destroying the Tobaica owned by the American Tobacco Company, 0:18:01.920 --> 0:18:07.600 and that was their raids on Princeton, Russellville, Hopkinsville, Eddieville. 0:18:08.520 --> 0:18:10.440 You know this book. I wrote this book at the 0:18:10.480 --> 0:18:13.400 perfect time because up the time I wrote, nobody talked 0:18:13.400 --> 0:18:15.520 about it. So I had an opportunity. Don't only talked 0:18:15.560 --> 0:18:19.440 to Joe Scott, also had opportunity to talk to another sententarium, 0:18:19.760 --> 0:18:21.760 one hundred year old S. M. Martin, who was a 0:18:21.760 --> 0:18:25.240 former marshall. He was the marshall of Eddyville the night 0:18:25.359 --> 0:18:28.400 that the Night Writers rated Eddyville. And if you read 0:18:28.400 --> 0:18:30.480 the book, you know, I quote some in there from 0:18:30.840 --> 0:18:40.159 sem Martin. On December first, nineteen o six, they rated 0:18:40.440 --> 0:18:45.400 Princeton Nightriares three hundred strong, burned the warehouses and made 0:18:45.440 --> 0:18:48.840 their way out highly successful, about three hundred of them. 0:18:48.920 --> 0:18:52.720 They came into town past midnight. They took the fire 0:18:52.760 --> 0:18:56.800 brigade hostage. They took the police department hostage. They took 0:18:56.840 --> 0:19:00.440 the telephone ladies at the switchboard and held them based 0:19:00.440 --> 0:19:02.879 so they couldn't call out for help. They came in 0:19:02.920 --> 0:19:07.240 and burned two warehouses, caused a lot of damage, and 0:19:07.280 --> 0:19:10.639 then the congregated in the court Ell Square and they 0:19:10.680 --> 0:19:13.159 rode out of town together singing to the tune of 0:19:13.440 --> 0:19:18.520 Old Kentucky Home. The burn the fires burned bright from 0:19:18.560 --> 0:19:25.639 my old Kentucky home. Highly succession, The fires burn bright 0:19:25.920 --> 0:19:27.040 right on my. 0:19:27.119 --> 0:19:28.719 Old Kentucky home. 0:19:29.640 --> 0:19:34.080 It's some and everyone's gay. 0:19:35.040 --> 0:19:37.840 The corn tops rap and. 0:19:37.760 --> 0:19:41.040 The medals are emblem while the burns. 0:19:41.400 --> 0:19:45.920 They make music all day. 0:19:45.359 --> 0:19:46.560 In Princeton, Kentucky. 0:19:46.760 --> 0:19:49.320 Under the instruction of the country doctor and the leader 0:19:49.400 --> 0:19:53.480 of the night Riders, this medical doctor David Amos, He 0:19:53.560 --> 0:19:57.200 led three hundred masked armed men on horseback and the 0:19:57.240 --> 0:19:59.399 military formation into town. 0:20:00.080 --> 0:20:00.800 Took the whole place. 0:20:00.840 --> 0:20:05.200 Hostage men soaked the two Duke Trust in American tobacco 0:20:05.359 --> 0:20:08.919 barns with kerosene and dynamite and lit them on fire, 0:20:09.400 --> 0:20:12.280 and within minutes there was a giant explosion and raging 0:20:12.359 --> 0:20:17.120 inferno as four hundred thousand pounds of Trust tobacco went 0:20:17.200 --> 0:20:20.680 up in flames and the barns of the Tobacco Planners 0:20:20.720 --> 0:20:24.920 Association were untouched. You can start to see the logic. 0:20:25.400 --> 0:20:29.119 If the association is the only one with tobacco to sell, 0:20:29.480 --> 0:20:32.280 the Trust will have to subject themselves to the prices 0:20:32.280 --> 0:20:35.920 demanded by the association. It seems like a fell proof plan. 0:20:36.760 --> 0:20:40.119 Insurance companies started to drop the policies on Duke Trust 0:20:40.200 --> 0:20:44.000 barns all across the region. People lived in terror, and 0:20:44.040 --> 0:20:46.399 many people even moved out of the Black Patch to 0:20:46.440 --> 0:20:49.680 get away from the chaos. People could only guess where 0:20:49.680 --> 0:20:52.399 it would happen next, because there were tobacco barns all 0:20:52.440 --> 0:20:55.240 across the South and this was going on in other 0:20:55.280 --> 0:20:57.959 parts of the South. Just the Black Patch was the 0:20:57.960 --> 0:21:00.920 main place, and it was partly because there was only 0:21:01.040 --> 0:21:05.960 one country. Doctor slash military mastermind slash defender of the 0:21:06.000 --> 0:21:11.160 poor farmers, Doctor David Amos. You'll get to decide if 0:21:11.160 --> 0:21:13.440 he was a villain or if he was a hero. 0:21:14.400 --> 0:21:17.960 But his operations were the apex of the tobacco. 0:21:17.560 --> 0:21:23.320 Wars, so buddy, and then they had raids here on Eddyville, 0:21:23.960 --> 0:21:27.200 basically a similar thing. He is raded on Eddyville that 0:21:27.600 --> 0:21:33.280 there were some pretty severe beatings and they destroyed some warehouses. 0:21:33.920 --> 0:21:38.680 That was later on in nacke O seventh they raided Russellville, 0:21:38.760 --> 0:21:42.320 Kentucky did the same thing. But then in December, December 0:21:42.400 --> 0:21:46.040 the seventh, they planned the big raid on Hopkinsville. 0:21:47.280 --> 0:21:50.680 Hopkinsville would be the big raid. That was the straw 0:21:50.920 --> 0:21:55.040 that broke the mules back. Here's Joe Scott. I wonder 0:21:55.080 --> 0:21:56.240 which raids he went to. 0:21:58.200 --> 0:21:59.880 How many raids did you go? 0:22:00.040 --> 0:22:00.280 Walk? 0:22:00.840 --> 0:22:04.440 And I guess well, I went to hopkins Ville red 0:22:04.480 --> 0:22:06.480 and he went to his raids and took the view. 0:22:06.920 --> 0:22:10.560 Then I went to Bennett's raid. Then I went around. 0:22:11.280 --> 0:22:13.400 We went to free HUDs that's night because they didn't 0:22:13.440 --> 0:22:13.920 do nothing. 0:22:14.320 --> 0:22:17.159 We just at the locators. I was about for full raids, 0:22:17.480 --> 0:22:18.320 three fool rates. 0:22:19.520 --> 0:22:23.639 Joe said he went to Eddieville, Hopkinsville and Bennett's raids. 0:22:24.400 --> 0:22:27.520 This is an interesting section where Joe talks more about 0:22:27.520 --> 0:22:31.399 doctor David Amos and something that happened at Hopkinsville. 0:22:33.200 --> 0:22:37.000 The first one was he described him to us oh 0:22:37.160 --> 0:22:43.159 Amas Tall. I always called him psychoge the old eggs. 0:22:43.200 --> 0:22:46.400 You know it was a pretty good speaker. 0:22:46.920 --> 0:22:50.080 Yeah, yeah, he didn't talk very loud, but he he 0:22:50.080 --> 0:22:52.199 he made business on his words. He know, you know, 0:22:52.280 --> 0:22:54.000 he placed them all where he wanted him to go. 0:22:54.240 --> 0:22:55.840 You know, you well. 0:22:55.920 --> 0:22:58.600 Like I said, he had the sound goal, lead off 0:22:58.600 --> 0:22:59.000 and more. 0:23:00.200 --> 0:23:00.880 I guess, I guess. 0:23:01.119 --> 0:23:04.280 I guess he had every man the name ever talked 0:23:04.280 --> 0:23:07.200 to him. He didn't, he didn't. He didn't talk too much. 0:23:07.320 --> 0:23:12.000 He didn't talk, he didn't talk too much, but he 0:23:12.080 --> 0:23:14.919 said he meant it though he was that away. He 0:23:14.960 --> 0:23:16.879 said he read he was at hopkins Jim says, I 0:23:17.080 --> 0:23:19.840 know Hawkins will was just like i'd the way he 0:23:19.960 --> 0:23:22.560 sees and I guess he did. He knew where the 0:23:22.600 --> 0:23:26.920 police over man and another room man got shot apparent 0:23:26.960 --> 0:23:28.720 of that night. I don't know. I don't remember who 0:23:28.760 --> 0:23:29.119 he was. 0:23:30.480 --> 0:23:33.399 I find it interesting that this leader Amos wasn't a 0:23:33.440 --> 0:23:37.320 flashy speaker. He just meant what he said. That's probably 0:23:37.320 --> 0:23:41.520 good leadership advice. Joe mentioned that only one guy got 0:23:41.600 --> 0:23:44.840 shot that night. Well, I'll let you take a guess 0:23:44.920 --> 0:23:45.720 who that was. 0:23:47.600 --> 0:23:50.600 And David Amos wrote, riding in a bug and he 0:23:50.720 --> 0:23:55.320 was leading. They gathered from all different areas and about 0:23:55.359 --> 0:23:59.920 three hundred went into Pompkinsville and they took over the streets, 0:24:00.200 --> 0:24:04.200 took over the fire department brigade and put them their custody, 0:24:04.960 --> 0:24:08.400 and they destroyed two or three of the Tobico warehouses 0:24:08.440 --> 0:24:11.200 there and as they were leaving. Before they were leaving, 0:24:11.359 --> 0:24:16.440 David Amlos was wounded by one of his own proofs accident. 0:24:17.880 --> 0:24:22.200 The Hopkinsville raid took place on November seventh, nineteen oh seven, 0:24:22.400 --> 0:24:25.240 and over four hundred mass riders taken over the town 0:24:25.720 --> 0:24:28.399 and just like in Princeton, it took over the police station, 0:24:28.560 --> 0:24:31.040 the fire station, cut the phone lines, and took over 0:24:31.080 --> 0:24:34.400