Uneasy Waters: The Night Riders at Reelfoot Lake, Tennessee, 1908

<p>On October 19, 1908, night riders at Reelfoot Lake, Tennessee kidnapped and murdered Captain Quentin Rankin, an attorney and shareholder in the West Tennessee Land Company. The murder made national news, with coverage emphasizing the night riders' demand for fishing rights. In response, Governor Malcolm Patterson called out the militia to suppress the uprising and advocated for state acquisition of the lake as a means to prevent further violence. In the accepted historical narrative, the uprising at Reelfoot Lake represents an example of rural resistance to the threat that modernization posed to traditional access rights but ignores much of the violence that proceeded Rankin's murder. When contextualized within local conditions and Tennessee's political climate, the night riders' crimes reveal a targeted attack on the exploding cotton economy in which the lake became the arena where farmers contested the agricultural, social, and political changes that accompanied this new economic system.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

MA (Master of Arts)

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis - unrestricted

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

History

Year dc:date.issued

2012

Author dc:creator

• Grove, Jama McMurtery

• night riders
• Reelfoot Lake
• Tennessee
• Progressivism
• agriculture
• Arts and Humanities
• History
• Political History

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright by the authors.

Repository record dc:identifier

https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/1496

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dc.etsu.edu:etd-2689