Interview with Martha P. Comer, February 18, 1988
Project: Family Farms of Kentucky: Burley Tobacco Oral History Project
Interview Summary
Newspaper reporter/editorial consultant, personal background, Night Riders, Maysville's early role in tobacco and early warehouses, Roaring Twenties, Roll-Your-Own cigarettes, tobacco companies and Maysville's industrial growth and community expansion, effect of the 1937 Flood, cultural addiction to smoking, old-fashioned landlord/tenant relationship, "hired hand" concept, Irish-Catholic tenants and roots of animosity between them and blacks, black farm families, PIC Program, buy-up by wealthy individuals for tax write-offs, importance of soil conservation, criticism of auction system, farmers' loyalty to particular warehousesInterview Accession
Interviewee Name
Interviewer Name
Interview Date
Interview Keyword
Heritage farmsInterview LC Subject
Agricultural laborers Agriculture--Kentucky Agriculture. American Tobacco Company Burley tobacco Cigarettes Family farms Farm life. International trade Landlord and tenant Night Riders (Group) Public housing--Maysville (Ky.) R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company Rural African Americans. Sharecropping Tobacco farmers Tobacco industry Tobacco workers Tobacco--Government policy Tobacco--Kentucky Women in agricultureInterview Rights
All rights to the interviews, including but not restricted to legal title, copyrights and literary property rights, are held by the Kentucky Historical Society.Interview Usage
Interviews may be reproduced with permission from the Kentucky Historical Society.Restriction
Interviews may be reproduced with permission from the Kentucky Historical Society.
All rights to the interviews, including but not restricted to legal title, copyrights and literary property rights, are held by the Kentucky Historical Society.
Add this interview to your cart in order to begin the process of requesting access to a copy of and/or permission to reproduce interview(s).
Comer, Martha P. Interview by John Klee. 18 Feb. 1988. Lexington, KY: Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries.
Comer, M.P. (1988, February 18). Interview by J. Klee. Family Farms of Kentucky: Burley Tobacco Oral History Project. Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries, Lexington.
Comer, Martha P., interview by John Klee. February 18, 1988, Family Farms of Kentucky: Burley Tobacco Oral History Project, Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries.
You may come across language in UK Libraries Special Collections Research Center collections and online resources that you find harmful or offensive. SCRC collects materials from different cultures and time periods to preserve and make available the historical record. These materials document the time period when they were created and the view of their creator. As a result, some may demonstrate racist and offensive views that do not reflect the values of UK Libraries.
If you find description with problematic language that you think SCRC should review, please contact us at SCRC@uky.edu.
Persistent Link for this Record: https://kentuckyoralhistory.org/ark:/16417/xt7c862bc71p