The Night Riders - Cause of The Conflict

Cause of The Conflict

The main cause of the Dark Patch Wars was the significant decrease in the price farmers were offered for their crop. In the last ten years of the Nineteenth Century, farmers would receive a profit of eight to twelve cents per pound, which was more than enough for a comfortable lifestyle. However, in the Twentieth Century, because of the creation of monopoly power among tobacco purchasers as well as the joining of domestic monopoly American Tobacco Company and foreign purchasing territories (Or “Regie”) it caused fixed low prices for tobacco. With little competition in bidding among tobacco buyers the prices dropped to an average of four cents a pound from 1901 to 1903, which was two cents per pound under the actual cost of producing tobacco. That was not enough for a farmer to support himself and his family. In some regions the prices fell as low as three, two or one cent(s) per pound. Originally the farmers had joined the Planters' Protective Association, under the wealthy planter, Felix Ewing (a convincing and knowledgeable man) to go to against the monopoly buyers and producers. Under Ewing's plan, however, farmers would continue to grow tobacco, storing it in Ewing's association warehouses. Ewing and his followers stressed that their plan would require the cooperation of all tobacco growers; no "strike- breakers" would be tolerated. A farmer's "duties of a citizen" required that he join Ewing's organization.