I just finished creating a presentation on the Hatfields and McCoys for my English class. I was given that topic for my project and was so excited and interested that I researched and wrote it all today. I won't send it for a few days though, so I can go back and re-read it. But, just in case you're not on top of your hillbilly history, here are a few things I found interesting.
1. The Hatfields and McCoys were peaceful neighbors for years. They socialized and intermarried.
2. The most vicious part of the feud was over ownership of a hog. Ole Randall McCoy said it was his. Floyd Hatfield said it was his. A jury of 6 Hatfields and 6 McCoys gave it to Floyd. (One of the McCoys was mad at his family making the verdict 7-5.)
3. Roseanna McCoy and Johnse Hatfield were the Romeo and Juliet of the Appalachian Mountains. Only Johnse wasn't a very good Romeo. He left a pregnant Roseanna after her brothers tried to kill him. (And then married Roseanna's cousin, Nancy.)
4. Dozens of bounty hunters who were sent in to calm the hostility between the two families disappeared without a trace. The National Guard was then called in by the governors of Kentucky and West Virginia.
5. 13 people from the two families died during the feud, but the patriarchs of the families lived to be 80 and 88.
6. In 2003, descendants from the two families gathered and signed a truce. (Just in case any of their pigs escaped the pen, I guess.)
2 comments:
That they intermarried is no surprise, they probably intermarried within their own families!
Welcome to Kentucky! I can say that because I'm a native Kentuckian ;)
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