The Hatfield's and McCoys - what does it mean in 2012, really!!

So we had noticed that the History Channel put together a three-part, six-hour mini-series about the Hatfields and McCoys.  Funny story, I knew one of the “real” McCoy’s from Kentucky, we served together on my last command – The USS Gettysburg.  Seemed funny that Randall McCoy and Anderson Hatfield’s relationship took the biggest turn during the Civil war, and the USS Gettysburg is named for arguably the most famous of battles during that war.  That was the point that the South went into decline - until their eventual loss.  I feel I have to state a blanket apology for some of my Southern friends who think the south should have won, and in some cases believe they did??

Anyway, I did not, and still do not, know much about what was really driving the feud.  Seems to me it is not very important really.  Seems to me what was driving it was hate, bitterness wrapped around some perverted view of religion and folks’ belief in God.  I have not spent much time looking up how accurate the program was to actual history but I suspect it most likely about 50-50.  Just because it’s touted as  “based on a true story” does not at all mean there are any facts in the program, not sure if that needed clarified or not but there it is.  The hardest part about researching this famous feud revolved around the fact that it was so sensationalistic for the journalists of the time.  Of course, there was no National Inquirer around then but the national media of the day descended upon the little sleepy hollows around the tug fork of the Big Sandy River like ants.  Much like journalist’s today, they wrote whatever they could get, from whomever might be willing to talk to them – facts be damned. 

That fact will keep most of the true reasons for the argument covered in an obscurity that we will not be able to penetrate and will only grow the more the feud is examined in later times.  It’s been 100 years or so now, I wonder what it will be viewed as in another 100 years.  Even his name, Devil Anse, might have been coined by the press.  The series starts with a civil war battle at someplace called Devil something, although they never said, it was implied that maybe he was named after that place.  The folks in the movie were portrayed much like the 1889 book “An American Vendetta” by Mary Murfree – backwoods, murdering barbarians who did nothing but fight with each other.  Truth is, only around 20 folks were killed in the 30+ years there was feuding going on.  Another truth is that old “Devil Anse” was not only a successful businessman in the timber harvesting industry, he also taught school and his children and grandchildren were businessmen, school teachers, farmers, lawyers and doctors - hardly the hillbilly’s portrayed in the show or in the recollections of the day. 

I also learned, I think, that the fued was not over a pig, as the show described, or a fiddle as some have said or even the underhanded attempt to steal timber rights from Anderson Hatfield.  Seems it might have gone as far back as the civil war.  It appears Randall McCoy blamed Anderson Hatfield for the murder of his friend after Anderson deserted.  I suspect this incident laid the groundwork for animosity between the two but the real deal got going when a greedy lawyer cashed in on Randall McCoy's animosity towards "Devil Anse".  Seems lawyers haven’t changed much.   Even the famous 1897 picture of the Hatfield family was staged, some say.  Looks like they were asked to go back inside and bring out some guns.  That would explain why most of the firearms in the portrait tended to be 20 years out of date.  I suspect they were family heirlooms that hung above the fireplace. 

I found it interesting after Bride and I completed watching it that we both kind of felt wow, they did not realize the impact the feud had on them or their families during the time it was going on.  Maybe what this was really, when you strip away the drama and glamour of the story is this – mean spirited hatred based on religious beliefs coupled with ignorance (or blind faith) with regards to the impact on themselves and those around them.  Even in the show there was a point, after Randall’s wife was sent away and he fell into a bottle and after so many had lost their lives, where Devil Anse asked, (paraphrased) who will stop this, Randall can’t, it has to be me.  That was the point that I think he realized, what the hell are we doing here??  I don’t suspect Randall ever “got it” even though in the show at the very end it showed him burning a box that was filled with what looked like newspaper clippings and other written items related to the feud.  I suspect the producer wanted to wrap the story up with a nice clean ending.   Anse went on to be baptized in 1911 and lived out the rest of his life (1921) peacefully in the hills along the Kentucky border where he had spent his whole life. 

So, as you think about this story it REALLY could be used to show the insanity of war and fighting with someone over something that grew into something it was not - with the aid and complicity of the news media.  Our lives are bombarded with stories and opinions about this thing or that situation and it seems to do nothing but stir the pot and keep the world at a low boil.   Like back in the McCoy – Hatfield days, we too are anxiously awaiting the next bit of sensationalistic bullshit to come from someone who has a vested interest in keeping the drama high.  Like the good lawyer Perry Cline on the McCoy side, he had a vested interest in the timber rights.  He alone, or at least with the media of the day, drove this feud to what it turned into (my opinion). 

It makes me look around at all the hatred and bitterness in our world (from Presidential politics to outright war in Afghanistan) and wonder – what is keeping the divisiveness alive?  Who is driving to keep it in our faces, and better yet,  why?   And why is the media, in general, complicit in that in your face, dramatic, selective, GREATLY biased and very carefully orchestrated (pick a channel for your particular views) message delivery.  Sometimes what they are saying is complete BULLSHIT and it only takes a few minutes to prove it.  So why do they knowingly disseminate this propaganda.  Like the four minute negative campaign ad against President Obama created by and aired by Fox News - how could they at the same time claim to be unbiased?? It seems crazy but no one is finding the answer to the most important question – why?  Those are the questions we should ask ourselves, just like Randall McCoy and Anderson Hatfield should have asked back in their day!  We should be looking at ourselves (individually and as a Nation) and asking those hard questions, taking the long look.  What is the impact of hatred and bitterness on ourselves, on those around us, on the world and on those we harbor those feelings toward?    

I will say this for the History Channel, when they want to do a topic, they are all in.  For example, leading up to the miniseries, Mike and Frank from American Pickers are in the area and are able to pick some items that belonged to the Hatfield’s.  The Pawn Star guys had some items from the feud in their shop and American Restoration restored some items from the period.  VERY nicely done History Channel in a cross program promotion of the miniseries!!