Hatfield–McCoy Feud

The feud associated with the Hatfield and McCoy families grew from Civil War divisions, land and timber disputes, kinship loyalties and cycles of retaliation along the Tug Fork. Later journalism simplified a complex regional conflict into a national story of two isolated mountain clans.

Violence intensified during the 1880s through contested elections, arrests, raids and revenge killings. State authorities and courts became increasingly involved, and the conflict gradually subsided after prosecutions and convictions near the end of the decade.

The Coffin Quilt retells the feud through Fanny McCoy and gives particular weight to the relationship between Roseanna McCoy and Johnse Hatfield, showing how family honour and public violence narrowed the choices available to younger people.