Tobacco company sparked renewal of Black Patch violence

(gleaner) The Black Patch War a century ago was giving Henderson County a black eye.
And local folks were none too happy about it because it affected what was then the region’s economic lifeblood.
I wrote about the Black Patch War back at the end of March, explaining how it was one of the country’s worst outbreaks of civic unrest since the Civil War. It essentially was an attempt by farmers to break the monopolies held by the American Tobacco Co, which dominated the U.S. market, and the Imperial Tobacco Co., which dominated the British market. At its peak in 1906-08 it saw armed men invading cities such as Hopkinsville and Princeton, burning tobacco warehouses and other facilities in attempts to break the stranglehold of the trusts. Continued