The Planters' Protective Association (1904–1908) was an agrarian organization formed in the Kentucky and Tennessee "Black Patch" dedicated to fair business and the protection of farmers' economic interests in light of the market dominance of the American Tobacco Company.
In September 1904, following the threat of economic ruin as tobacco prices fell below the cost of production, white farmers in the region formed the Planters’ Protective Association.[1] Representatives of the American Tobacco Company refused to negotiate with the leaders of the Association, asserting they lacked any feasible legal authority. Between 1906 and 1908, then, masked bands of Night Riders adopted a policy of vandalism and terrorism. These riders dynamited factories, set fire to trust warehouses, and destroyed thousands of dollars of property belonging to the tobacco monopoly in what would be later referred to as the "Great Tobacco Strike of the Century."[2]