Nick and Viola

Download or read book Nick and Viola written by Laura Muntz Derr and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2013-06-06 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A family story that illuminates a neglected period of Kentucky history and traces it's impact on three generations of the Muntz family. In 1899, Nick and Viola Muntz, Kentucky landowners and tobacco farmers, had a bright future. By 1904 the American Tobacco Company monopolized the market for tobacco and dropped prices below the cost of production. Populist groups formed to "pool" or hold tobacco off the market to force higher prices. Because pooling was voluntary, tensions arose between neighbors who pooled and those who didn't. Vigilante groups, known as "Night Riders", attacked barns and crops, and sometimes even theor neighbors who refused to pool. Nick and Viola and their relatives dod not join the pool and suffered the consequences. A tobacco barn burned, a gunshot killed an innocent man, and a family fell apart. Nick and Viola transcends one family's story and becomes a symbol of the world of tobacco and the enduring spirit of a family.