
          Feud
          Reviewed by Hall, Suzanne M.Suzanne M. Hall
          Vol. 12, No. 4, 1990, pp. 18-19
          
          A local, essentially family-based dispute arose after Ranel McCoy
accused Floyd Hatfield, who was "Devil" Anse Hatfield's cousin, of
stealing a hog. The two families, however, did not resort at once to
the bloody vengeance for which they are famed. Like other good
citizens of the Tug Valley community in nineteenth century Appalachia,

they took their grievances to county court. When the jury reached a
decision, both Hatfields and McCoys obeyed. The violence popularly
associated with the Hatfield-McCoy feud legend did later occur, but
the reasons for the violence stem from deeper economic and social
changes in the region than the myth suggests.
          People often prefer myths to historical explanations. Myths do many
things. They obscure contradictions and disturbing aspects of the
past, and depict events as people wish they had happened. After the
passage of time and the telling and re-telling of the myths, recall of
the "real" events of the past becomes almost
impossible. Can the historian determine what is historical fact or
truth and what is myth? Moreover, are not myths as well as histories
to be understood as strategies people devise to comprehend and survive
the past?
          Altina L. Waller does a fine job of extracting the history and
meaning from the notorious late nineteenth century Hatfield-McCoy feud
myth. The story compellingly reveals the complexities of Appalachian
life at a time of great change from what Waller calls a pre-modern
traditional culture to a modern class society tied to national and
world economies. Her analysis is not a mere simplified description of
poor, backward mountain folk railing against the forces of modern,
industrial exploiters. Rather, it is a careful explanation that shows
the varied facets of change in the Tug Valley of adjoining Kentucky
and West Virginia.
          The Hatfield-McCoy conflict was not one interminable, violent
exchange between two families but a feud with two major, and
contrasting, phases. The first phase, 1878-1882, began before
industrial capitalism exerted its power in the region and involved a
conflict between local citizens. The second phase, 1887-1891, was
within the context of and characterized by the encroachment of the
timber and railroad industries. Waller's second level of analysis
focuses on the traditional community and its relation to the state,
nation, and world. Besides the gracefully written narrative, Waller
provides a photographic essay which adds another dimension,
dramatically showing the growing contrasts between the rural
traditional culture of the Tug Valley dwellers and the rising middle
class town people.
          Waller challenges the view that mountaineers were inherently prone
to violence. She shows that the feudists did not have an ancient
heritage of violent behavior. Instead, she argues that economic and
social exploitation by both industrialists and townspeople initiated
cultural disruptions that forced the feudists to violent action as a
last resort during the second phase of the feud. Previously, in the
first phase, both sides had used the court system to adjudicate their
disputes. They had also respected the court decisions and abided by
them. The mountaineers, such as "Devil" Anse Hatfield, turned to
violence only when the legal system, as they understood it, changed to
support the interests of the industrialists and their town
boosters.
          The South has a strong violent tradition, one which includes
numerous manifestations from dueling to Iynching to wife-beating to
capital punishment. These varied forms of violence undoubtedly require
different analyses and explanations. It seems probable that a violent
South must be so from some cultural underpinnings that historians can
discover. From where, then, does the Southern--and not only
Southern mountain people's--proclivity for violent behavior stem?
Does it arise solely from the upheavals of cultural transformation or
does it come from a deeper source?
          Waller exposes the social conflicts within the Tug Valley. For
instance, she finds that Anderson Hatfield, former Confederate and
leader of the Tug Valley home guard, began to threaten traditional
ways when he entered the timber business. People considered that
enterprise "risky, speculative, and conducive to dishonesty,"
and a challenge to the value system and way of life. "Devil" Anse
forged an economic niche for himself and his family while he alienated
many of his neighbors. He used the legal system to acquire timber
land, thus making enemies of such men as Perry Cline from whom he won
thousands of acres in a law suit. Later, in the second phase of the
feud, the cantankerous Ranel McCoy no longer led the attack on the
Hatfields. The vengeful foe was none other than Cline and his new
powerful allies.
          Cline's personal vendetta against Hatfield could only be
successfully waged during the second phase of the feud when he could
ally with Pikeville merchants, who sought outside investors and
catered to the timber and coal interests, and the governor of Kentucky
who planned to attract capitalists to the eastern mountain country. In
fact, Waller argues, "Cline and the governor literally recreated
the feud in order to suppress it." By doing so, Kentucky would be
seen as a strong law and order state that could suppress the violent
tendencies of its inhabitants and thereby attract capitalists.
          Hatfield, ironically, becomes a symbol as preserver of the
independent mountain culture, even though he had been a pioneer of
industry himself. Cline and the Pikeville townspeople represented the
Republican, pro-industrial order with their middle class values
buttressed with evangelical religion. Ranel McCoy hung onto the old
feud with its themes of honor and revenge. Waller tells a complex
story in a captivating style which satisfies the needs of scholars and
the general reading public. Her account of the feud is vastly more
thought-provoking and entertaining than the Hatfield-McCoy myth. K
          
            Suzanne Hall is a
member of the History faculty at Kennesaw State College in Marietta,
Georgia.
          
        