User Reviews

This documentary is well researched and documented about life before the Hatfields and McCoys feud during and after. Finally all the myths that sold newspapers, books and bad made for TV versions can die. The truth is both sides were right and wrong at different times.

The Hatfield-McCoy feud, also described by journalists as the Hatfield-McCoy war, involved two rural families of the West Virginia-Kentucky area along the Tug Fork of the Big Sandy River in the years 1863-1891. The Hatfields of West Virginia were led by William Anderson "Devil Anse" Hatfield while the McCoys of Kentucky were under the leadership of Randolph "Ole Ran'l" McCoy. Those involved in the feud were descended from Joseph Hatfield and William McCoy (born c. 1750). The feud has entered the American folklore lexicon as a metonym for any bitterly feuding rival parties. And this modern documentary shows how the facts got blown out of proportion and need to be set straight. It is a shame people of this area have been made fun of for years.

William McCoy, the patriarch of the McCoys, was born in Ireland around 1750 and many of his ancestors hailed from Scotland. The family, led by grandson Randolph McCoy, lived mostly on the Kentucky side of Tug Fork (a tributary of the Big Sandy River). The Hatfields, led by William Anderson "Devil Anse" Hatfield, son of Ephraim and Nancy (Vance) Hatfield, lived mostly on the West Virginia side. The majority of the Hatfields, although living in Mingo County (then part of Logan County), West Virginia, fought on the Confederate side in the American Civil War; most McCoys, living in Pike County, Kentucky, also fought for the Confederates; with the exception of Asa Harmon McCoy, who fought for the Union. The first real violence in the feud was the death of Asa Harmon McCoy as he returned from the war, murdered by a group of Confederate Home Guards called the Logan Wildcats. Devil Anse Hatfield was a suspect at first, but was later confirmed to have been sick at home at the time of the murder. It was widely believed that his uncle, Jim Vance, a member of the Wildcats, committed the murder.

The Hatfields were more affluent than the McCoys and were well-connected politically. Devil Anse Hatfield's timbering operation was a source of wealth for his family, while the McCoys were more of a lower-middle-class family. Ole Ran'l owned a 300-acre farm. Both families had also been involved in the manufacturing and selling of illegal moonshine, a popular commodity at the time.

While I enjoy the series for the most part, this particular episode was very disappointing. The Hatfield-McCoy feud was referred to for about 50% of the episode. The rest of the episode talked about how capitalism ruined the way of life of the people in Appalachia. While that may be true, they did not relate it to the feud at all. I felt like the episode was primarily focused on a socialist agenda rather than what the title indicated.

As I was watching this episode of what normally is a series of great documentaries I wondered if it was going to be 2 parts but unfortunately it wasn't. After about 30 minutes of this 1 hour episode very little of the feud had been talked about. Most of this episode was about land grabbing which went on during that time and while that was informative I was much more interested in what this was advertised to be, the story of the feud. The feud itself seems to be a very minor backstory here and not the central one, in fact the McCoys were hardly mentioned at all.

What's so ironic is at the beginning someone says that what he knew about the Harfield and McCoy feud he learned from a Bugs Bunny cartoon which was not at all accurate but watching this documentary sheds no more light on the subject than the cartoon did. This was a very poorly done documentary focusing much more on the development of Appalachia than with the infamous decades long feud. They made a point of saying the people weren't the stereotypical toothless violent hillbillies but never went into detail. While I usually enjoy The American Experience thoroughly this was the only episode I've seen which was not at all enjoyable. There are plenty of myths about the feud and the families but this doesn't do anything to dispel any of them.