The Hatfields and McCoys: The Feud That Made Hillbillies Famous
The Hatfield and McCoy feud is one of the most famous incidents in popular culture, and brought hillbilly culture to mainstream attention. It moved beyond an inter-family dispute to popular culture phenomenon. It has been retold, often to comic effect, in movies and television, music, and even features in a dinner show in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. But the reality of the Hatfield and McCoy conflict was much more bleak. The families lived in the poverty-stricken Tug Valley region. The river served as border between West Virginia and Kentucky. The Hatfields, headed by William “Devil Anse” Hatfield lived on the West Virginia side of the river. The McCoys, under patriarch Randolph “Ol’ Ran’l” McCoy, lived on the Kentucky side. While tensions between the families had been brewing for a while, it blew up in the 1860s.