Conflict in the Black Patch

SMOKE is the story of the conflict that arose from an effort to create an association of  tobacco farmers designed to force companies to pay higher prices for their crop. During the early 1900’s, the struggle affected every family in the region known as the Black Patch.  The conflict gave birth to the infamous "Night Riders", masked vigilantes who terrorized farmers that refused to join the movement through intimidation, vandalism, destruction of property, and eventually, violence. At its height, the Night Riders organized night-time demolitions of numerous tobacco warehouses across the region. The effort was the largest military-style operation in the United States since the Civil War. Today, our area's prime agricultural product is still tobacco, and it remains a subject of great controversy. The story is just as relevant now as ever. Like SPIRIT, this new piece will be historically accurate, family-friendly "edu-tainment", bringing community members of all ages and experience levels together to stage a mostly forgotten part of our region's past. The music will be performed live with period instruments and will consist of original compositions and new settings of traditional folk music performed in acoustic bluegrass-style arrangements, further enhancing historical accuracy.
 

Books about the Tobacco Wars

On Bended Knee by Bill Cunningham

Night Rider by Robert Penn Warren