Justice Bill Cunningham (standing), William Turner (left) and Rick Gregory (right)
Experts on the history of the tobacco wars of the early 1900’s in western Kentucky and middle Tennessee spoke for over an hour Saturday afternoon at Guthrie’s Heritage Days.
Rick Gregory is a historian from Adams, Tennessee and laid out the circumstances led to unrest among area tobacco farmers who were seeing tobacco prices plummet.
In response, local historian William Turner says some of those farmers united and formed the Night Riders.
The Night Riders didn’t take kindly to farmers who didn’t join their ranks and sold their tobacco to Duke’s monopoly at higher prices than the Night Riders could receive. They conducted raids and burned barns of tobacco—such as the case was in Hopkinsville on December 7, 1907.
Kentucky Supreme Court Justice Bill Cunningham, author of “On Bended Knee,” says the Tobacco Wars began to cool down in about 1911 and 1912 as the Night Riders lost federal lawsuits and as the federal government broke up James Duke’s monopoly.
You can hear all three historians discuss the history of the Tobacco Wars and Night Riders the next two Sundays at 9 a.m. on Lite Rock 98.7 and online at lite987whop.com.