Moises Abouganem Abouganem 1 Mrs. Laura Houston English 9 October 30, 2012 Feud Research – Hatfield and McCoys The Hatfield and McCoys feud is one of the most famous and well-known feuds in history. It was a fight between two neighboring families in the Tug Valley, which took place around the 1880s. The Hatfield family lived in the Logan County, meaning mostly West Virginia and the McCoy family lived in the Pike County, meaning mostly Kentucky (Sanders).
These two families hated each other to death, similar to the Montegues and the Capulets from “ Romeo and Juliet”. Both of these families had a leader. William Anderson Hatfield, also known as “ Devil Anse”, was the patriarch, or leader of the Hatfield family. In the other side of the feud, we have and Randolph, also known as “ Old Ranell”, who was the leader of the McCoy family. The first brutal event that occurred between these two families was the murder of Asa Harmon McCoy, who was the brother of Randolph.
A small military group that was part of the Hatfield family known as the Logan Wildcats, named after the Logan County, which is were the Hatfields lived as mentioned before, murdered Asa Harmon McCoy (Tanner). This rivalry between the two families didn’t get any better after this event. They killed each other because of silly stuff like fighting for pigs. The real turning point of this feud, in other words, the most brutal event between these two families was in August of 1882 (Anderson). Three of Randolph McCoy’s sons ended up in a bloody violent fight against two brothers of Anderson Hatfield.
One of Randolph’s sons stabbed several times the members of the Hatfield family and also shot them multiple times, but it was absolutely not over in that moment. When the Hatfield family received the news of what had happened, they were raged and fired more than 50 shots and killed all three of Randolph’s sons (Woodson). Abouganem 2 The Hatfield and McCoy feud was so intense that they couldn’t give the rage a little break every once upon a time (Mayers). They spent 24 hours every day of every year thinking how much they hated each other.
After the Hatfield family had killed 3 of Randolph sons, the McCoy family was putting prices on the heads of the Hatfields. When the Hatfields notices that they wanted to kill them they decided to ambush Randolph and his family in New Year’s Day in 1888. Fortunately for the McCoy family, Randolph ran away from this ambush but his daughter and son were killed. This event was given the name of New Year’s Massacre. For a couple more of years these families kept fighting and killing each other back and forth.
Since there had been so much killing in both sides of the feud, the Hatfields and the McCoys finally unofficially agreed to stop fighting each other in 1891 and basically called it a draw. Until toady, this feud is considered and will always be considered to be one of the most brutal and famous feuds in the history of America. Abouganem 3
Works Cited Anderson, Joel. “ Hatfield and McCoy Feud | Hatfield McCoy Country. ” Hatfield and McCoy Feud | Hatfield McCoy Country. N. p. , n. d. Web. 29 Oct. 2012. < http://hatfieldmccoycountry. com/feud/>. Mayers, Charles. “ Hatfield and McCoy Families (American Family Feud). Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n. d. Web. 29 Oct. 2012. < http://www. britannica. com/EBchecked/topic/1574444/Hatfield-and-McCoy-Families>. Sanders, William. “ Hatfield-McCoy Feud. ” Hatfield-McCoy Feud. N. p. , n. d. Web. 29 Oct. 2012. < http://www. wvculture. org/history/crime/hatfieldmccoy01. html>. Tanner, Jason. “ Hatfield-McCoy Feud. ” Hatfield-McCoy Feud. N. p. , n. d. Web. 29 Oct. 2012. < http://niterunner. tripod. com/rose. html>. Woodson, Jesper. “ Hatfields & McCoys. ” History. com. A& E Television Networks, n. d. Web. 29 Oct. 2012.
