In an early chapter of Hillbilly Elegy, Vance links his family's predilection for fighting to his grandfather's ancestor, Jim Vance, who contributed to the famous feud between the Hatfields and the McCoys. But who were the Hatfields and the McCoys, and what started the feud between the most famous hillbilly families in American history?
The truth is, the cause of the feud is unclear. Some believe it all began when Floyd Hatfield allegedly stole a pig from Randolph McCoy. The men went to trial, with Hatfield winning the arbitration. However, the key witness for Hatfield was later shot by McCoy.
Far from being born enemies, the families lived nearby along the Tug Fork of the Big Sandy River that divided Kentucky from West Virginia. The families intermarried and socialized even once the feud had begun ("The Hatfield & McCoy Feud").
Others believe that an affair kicked off the feud. Johnse Hatfield's romance with Roseanna McCoy might have been all right with their parents from the beginning, but when Johnse impregnated Roseanna and moved in with the McCoys, the conflict intensified. Although their affair did not directly fuel any violence, Johnse's decision to cheat on Roseanna with her own cousin Nancy contributed to some bad blood between the clans.
Perhaps it was the election-day attack that ultimately kicked off the famous feud. In 1882, men from both clans clashed at the polls. In the scuffle, Ellison Hatfield was stabbed 26 times and then shot in the back. Devil Anse, Ellison's brother, vowed that if his brother died from his injuries, he would retaliate. Three days after being stabbed and shot, Ellison passed away, leaving Devil to make good on his promise ("The Real Reason the Hatfields and McCoys Started Feuding"). He found the three McCoy brothers who had injured Ellison, dragged them into the woods, and shot them, execution-style, over fifty times ("The Hatfield & McCoy Feud").
A whopping six years later, the Hatfields ambushed the McCoy home and lit in on fire. Today, this is known as the "New Year's Day Massacre." Two McCoys were killed in the fire, including a young daughter of the McCoys. For this, Ellison Mounts, a Hatfield family member, was hanged.
While the violence between the Hatfields and the McCoys continued piecemeal over the years that followed, it was these incidents that defined the famous feud between the two families. Some speculate that the real heart of the feud was the difference in political beliefs between the two families—the Hatfields were staunch Confederates, while the McCoys were Unionists.
In 2007, a team of doctors and geneticists published a study based on their tests of dozens of descendants of the McCoy family. They found an abnormally high rate of Von Hippel-Lindau disease, which produces high blood pressure, a racing heartbeat, and more "fight or flight" stress hormones than usually present in people. Some believe this is the genetic reason behind the feud.
The feud has also inspired numerous books, TV shows, and films, including the 2013 film Blue Ruin, Mark Twain's legendary book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and even Hatfield and McCoy-themed episodes of TV shows like Looney Toons and Abbot and Costello ("7 Things You Didn't Know").
