Interview with Martha P. Comer, February 18, 1988

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 warehouses

Interview Keyword

Heritage farms

Interview 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 agriculture

Interview 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.