The Hatfields and McCoys

1
The Hatfields and McCoys

• The Original Family Feud

2
Grangerfords and Shepherdsons

• All of a sudden, bang! bang! bang! go three or
  four guns.... The boys jumped for the river -
  both of them hurt - and as they swum down the
  current the men run along the bank shooting at
  them and signing out, Kill them, kill them! It
  made me sick.... I wished I hadnt come ashore
  that night to see such things.
• - The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
• Chapter XIX

3
Family Feud

• Long before the television game show, real
  families were involved in bloody family feuds.
• Aside from the Shephersons and Grangerfords,
  other fictional feuding families include the
  Capulets and the Montagues.

4
The Hatfields and the McCoys

• From 1878 to 1896, two Appalachian families, the
  Hatfields and the McCoys, were embroiled in the
  most famous historical family feud.
• More than a dozen lives were lost.
• Was this feud the inspiration for the
  Shepherson-Grangerford feud? Possibly YOU be
  the judge.

5
Why did it happen?

• The Civil War
• The stolen pig
• Romeo and Juliet of the Appalachians

Devil Anse Hatfield
6
The Civil War

• In the Civil War, the two families were on
  opposite sides of the war. The Hatfields fought
  for the Confederacy, while the McCoys fought for
  the Union.
• During the war, Anderson Devil Anse Hatfield
  supposedly killed Harmon McCoy in battle.
• Devil Anse came home a Confederate captain.

Harmon McCoy Brother of Ranl McCoy
7
The Stolen Pig

• In 1878, there was a dispute over ownership of a
  razor-backed hog in a Hatfield pigsty.
• The judge in the court dispute, a Hatfield, sided
  with his kin.
• After the court decision, a group of McCoys
  ambushed Hatfields while hunting.

Floyd Hatfield Accused Pig Thief
8
Romeo and Juliet of the Appalachians

• In 1880, Johnse Hatfield, son of Devil Anse, ran
  off with Roseanna McCoy at an Election Day picnic
• This outraged Randolph Ranl McCoy, Roseannas
  father.
• The feud escalated.

9
1881

• In 1881 Roseanna and Johnse split up after she
  lived, unwed, with Johnse and the Hatfields for
  several months. She was pregnant. She caught
  measles while pregnant and the baby died.
• Roseanna rode all the way back to Devil Anses
  home to warn Johnse of an ambush set up by her
  brothers.
• Johnse married Roseannas cousin Nancy later that
  year.

10
1882

• On August 9, Bud, Tolbert, and Pharmer McCoy
  killed Ellison Hatfield.
• The three McCoys were tied to bushes and executed
  by the Hatfields.
• Jeff McCoy was later killed on the banks of the
  Tug Fork River.

11
1888

• Alifair and Calvin McCoy are brutally murdered in
  a Hatfield raid on the McCoy cabin.
• The McCoy cabin is burned to the ground.
• Roseanna McCoy died later that year.

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Map of the Feud
13
Lessons Learned

• When the dust settled, the two families
  eventually put the feud behind them.
• The families intermarried.
• Today, they hold an annual reunion, and the only
  feuding they do is on the baseball field.

14
Learn More

• Read The Coffin Quilt by Ann Rinaldi
• Visit http//www.libby-genealogy.com/hatfield-mcco
  y.htm
• Visit http//www.blueridgecountry.com/hatmac/hatma
  c.html
• Visit http//userwww.service.emory.edu/dmcco01/Mc
  Coy/diversion.html