I grew up with the story of The Hatfields & The McCoys. Every year or two starting when I was about 8, we would go see a musical based on the feud at nearby Grandview Park at an outside amphitheater. The production was a kind of summer stock thing performed mostly by college students studying drama and dance. One of the reasons I loved it was because even as a little boy, I sensed that many of the attractive young men on stage were kindred spirits. I never saw so many boys like that in one place. But the story the actors and dancers told was a grim one.
I just finished watching the miniseries based on the story, and it covered all the major plot points that are familiar to me—the dispute about the hog, the love triangle between a Hatfield boy and two McCoy girls, the violent assault on Devil Anse’s brother by three McCoy boys and their summery execution by the Hatfield clan when the old man succumbed to his injuries, as well as the bloody New Year’s Day raid on the McCoy cabin.
These events took place in the latter half of the 19th century, and southern West Virginia and eastern Kentucky were wild places where civilization had not yet taken hold. This wasn’t the west, but it may as well have been. People didn’t necessarily rely on the law to protect them or their families. Many didn’t even trust the law. And in this culture where vigilante justice often prevailed, two families began to look at one another with suspicion. That grew into hate and a desire for revenge. Neither side would back down or admit any wrongdoing. Both sides stubbornly insisted that everything they did was justifiable.
The miniseries is a good retelling of the story and an excellent cautionary tell about the darker impulses of human nature.
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