Who are/were the hartfields and the McCoys??

Question

Who are/were the hartfields and the McCoys??

Answer 1

I think Ann Rinaldi wrote a fiction book about them. In her author's note she always explains the history behind her books and whats fact and what's fiction.

Answer 2

Feuding families from Virginia and West Virginia.  The original problem started with the families having different sympathies in the Civil War, although the shooting didn't start until after.  There were dozens of "reasons" and "accusations" by either side as to "why" it took place.  It didn't end until the 20th century and there were deaths on both sides.

EDIT: Sorry, correction: WV and Kentucky

Answer 3

They were feuding families in WV and KY.  I believe the feud started over the ownership of a cow, several hundred years ago.  The last of the Hatfields passed away sometime in 1990s.  I don't think Bobby Hatfield of the Righteous Brothers was related.

Answer 4

It's the Hatfields not the hartfields........

The Hatfield-McCoy feud (1878–1891) is an account of American lore that has become a metaphor for bitterly feuding rival parties in general. It involved two warring families of the West Virginia-Kentucky backcountry along the Tug Fork River, off the Big Sandy River. The Hatfields involved in the feud descended from Ephraim (born c1765), and the McCoys from William (born c1750).

Go to Wiki - it has a good article explaining the feud.

Answer 5

The families were from WV and KY (NOT Virginia) - Legend says the feud was started by the theft of a pig, but it was actually about land ownership.

Answer 6

The Southern highlands were settled largely by Scotch-Irish immigrants, where feuds had been common and persistent between clans and families. In that sense, the American version was another chapter in a long history of private war-making in the old sod.