Editing Hopkinsville, Kentucky (section)

===Black Patch tobacco===
{{main|Black Patch Tobacco Wars}}
The [[Evansville, Henderson, and Nashville Railroad]] was the first to connect Hopkinsville to surrounding cities in 1868. In 1879, it was purchased by the [[Louisville and Nashville Railroad|L&N]]. The [[Ohio Valley Railroad]] (later purchased by the [[Illinois Southern Railroad|Illinois Southern]]) reached the city in 1892, as did the [[Tennessee Central Railway|Tennessee Central]] in 1903.<ref name=kenky/>

The [[tobacco]] from the [[Black Patch Tobacco Wars|Black Patch region]] was highly desired in Europe.{{Citation needed|date=November 2022}} In 1904, tobacco planters formed the [[Dark Tobacco District Planters' Protective Association of Kentucky and Tennessee]] in opposition to a corporate monopoly by the [[American Tobacco Company]] (ATC) owned by [[James B. Duke]].<ref name=Gregory>{{cite web| last=Gregory| first=Rick| title=The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture| url=http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entry.php?rec=352}}</ref> The ATC used their monopoly power to reduce the prices they paid to farmers; the planters' association aimed to organize a [[boycott]] of sales to drive the price back up. Many farmers continued to sell independently or secretly, however, prompting the association to form a "Silent Brigade" to pressure such farmers into compliance. With societal pressure seeming to fail, the Silent Brigade (probably under Dr. [[David A. Amoss]]) organized [[the Night Riders]] (not to be confused with the [[Ku Klux Klan]]) to terrorize farmers into submission.{{Citation needed|date=November 2022}}

On December 7, 1907, 250 masked Night Riders seized Hopkinsville's police station and cut off all outside contact. They pursued tobacco executives who bought tobacco from farmers who were not members of the Dark Tobacco District Planters' Protective Association and city officials who aided them. Three warehouses were burned, one of whose sites became Peace Park.{{Citation needed|date=September 2013}}<!-- Empty link <ref name="Ky"/>--> In April of the next year, a tobacco broker in [[Paducah, Kentucky|Paducah]] named W.B. Kennedy wrote to associates in [[Rotterdam]] that "Out of all the mischief that has been done the law has not been able to convict and punish the night-riders. They do their mischief in the night, and wear masks, and they have taken a pledge to never tell anybody anything they know, and for this reason it is impossible to get sufficient evidence to convict them. They have gone on with their mischief making, until they have almost ruined the country."{{citation needed|date=July 2013}}