Degree Name
MA (Master of Arts)
Program
History
Date of Award
12-2012
Committee Chair or Co-Chairs
Tommy D. Lee II
Committee Members
Steven Nash, Emmett M. Essin III
Abstract
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.
Document Type
Thesis - unrestricted
Recommended Citation
Grove, Jama McMurtery, "Uneasy Waters: The Night Riders at Reelfoot Lake, Tennessee, 1908" (2012). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 1496. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/1496
Copyright
Copyright by the authors.