Beyond the Hatfields and McCoys

Only the Hatfield-McCoy feud is really remembered nationally today but it was by no means the only Southern Appalachian feud, nor was it even the bloodiest or the most famous at the time.

For an overview: Click Here.

To read about the Toliver-Martin feud: Click Here.

To read about the French-Eversole feud: Click Here. (Adobe Acrobat Reader Required)

To read about the Hargis-Callahan feud: Click Here.

To read about the Hill-Evans feud: Click Here.

To read about the Baker-White feud: Click Here.

To read about the Turner-Howard feud: Click Here.

To read about even more feuds: Click Here.

The list seems almost endless, and if all this appears somewhat amusing in retrospect, we must remember that for the participants it was quite serious and quite deadly.

Feuds

"It is a poor, weak-spirited county in eastern Kentucky now that has not its feud and its band of thugs protected by the courts. … The savages who inhabit this region are not manly enough to fight fairly, face to face. They lie in wait and shoot their enemies in the back. … One can hardly believe that any part of the United States is cursed with people so lawless and degraded." New York Times, July 26, 1885

"My research reveals that there was indeed an outbreak of unusual violence in Appalachia in the mid-1880s. However, it was not caused by a Civil War legacy, ancient hatreds, or family vengeance but, rather, by the advent of economic and political modernization, whether fostered by local elites or by outsiders." Feuding in Appalachia, Evolution of a Cultural Stereotype by Altina L. Waller

For an academic look at the feuding phenomenon: Click Here.

To read about the famous Hatfield-McCoy feud in Blue Ridge County: Click Here.

To read about in in Time Magazine: Click Here.

For a more comprehensive look: Click Here.

Tomorrow: Some feuds you may never have heard of.

The Guineas of West Virginia

"Almost White"

"There is a clan of partly-colored people in Barbour County often called Guineas, under the erroneous presumption that they are Guinea negroes [sic]," observed WV historian Hugh Maxwell in the 1890s. "They vary in color from white to black, often have blue eyes and straight hair, and they are generally industrious. Their number in Barbour is estimated at one thousand.

"They have been a puzzle to the investigator; for their origin is not generally known. They are among the earliest settlers of Barbour. Prof. W.W. Male of Grafton, West Virginia, belongs to this clan, and after a thorough investigation, says 'They originated from an Englishman named Male who came to America at the outbreak of the Revolution. From that one man have sprung about 700 of the same name, not to speak of the half-breeds.' Thus it would seem that the family was only half-black at the beginning, and by the inter-mixtures since, many are now almost white."

To read more about the Guineas: Click Here.

Note: While this article, quite correctly, nowhere links the Guineas of West Virginia to the Melungeons, it cites a presentation on the Guineas given at a 1997 Melungeon gathering as though it were a gathering of Guinea descendants, and the blog entry is tagged as Melungeon. There is, in fact, no evidence linking the Guineas to the Melungeons genealogically, despite the efforts of some authors to do so without evidence; however, they are similar to the Melungeons in that they are another mixed-race group alleged to have mysterious origins, and as a result they have had cultural and legal experiences similar to the Melungeons. Such mixed-race groups were spread up and down the eastern seaboard, as documented in mid 20th century by Price and Beale, et al.

Tennessee Constitution of 1834

The 1834 Constitution disenfranchised free persons of color, resulting in a number of court cases involving attempts to deny Melungeons the vote. The operative section reads as follows:

Article 4.

Sec 1. Every free white man of the age of twenty-one years, being a citizen of the United States, and a citizen of the county wherein he may offer his vote, six months next preceding the day of election, shall be entitled to vote for Members of the general Assembly, and other civil officers, for the county or district in which he resides: provided, that no person shall be disqualified from voting in any election on account of color, who is now by the laws of this State, a competent witness in a court of Justice against a white man. All free men of color, shall be exempt from military duty in time of peace, and also from paying a free poll tax.

This was surprisingly controversial and only passed the constitutional convention by a narrow vote after much debate. The competent witness clause appears to have been intended as something of a grandfather clause and was probably required in order to get the necessary votes for passage.

Tennessee is known for having one of the longest state constitutions, a distinction on which they made a good start in 1834. The 1834 Tennessee constitution (sometimes called the 1835 constitution because it did not go into effect until it was ratified in 1835) has a number of interesting features, including barring atheists from holding public office, prohibiting the legislature from abolishing slavery and feeling the need to explicitly outlaw dueling.

To read it in its entirely: Click Here.

To see the current Tennessee state constitution: Click Here. (Acrobat Reader Required)

The Appalachian Regional Commission

The Appalachian Regional Commission is a federal-state partnership that works with the people of Appalachia to create opportunities for self-sustaining economic development and improved quality of life.

Its Area Development Program and Highway Program address the four goals identified in the Commission's strategic plan:

1. Increase job opportunities and per capita income in Appalachia to reach parity with the nation.

2. Strengthen the capacity of the people of Appalachia to compete in the global economy.

3. Develop and improve Appalachia's infrastructure to make the Region economically competitive.

4. Build the Appalachian Development Highway System to reduce Appalachia's isolation.

Each year ARC provides funding for several hundred projects throughout the Appalachian Region in support of these goals. These projects create thousands of new jobs, improve local water and sewer systems, increase school readiness, expand access to health care, assist local communities with strategic planning, and provide technical, managerial, and marketing assistance to emerging new businesses.

To visit the Appalachian Regional Commission online: Click Here.

Articles from its journal, Appalachia Magazine, are available online.

To reach them directly: Click Here.

Africans and Indians: Only in America

"If you believe people have no history worth mentioning
it is easy to believe they have no humanity worth defending"

There in the misty dawn of the Americas two peoples of color began to meet in slave huts, on tobacco and cotton plantations, and as workers in dank mines. For two centuries Indians and Africans remained enslaved together, and Native Americans were not exempted from the system until after the Revolution. Scholar C. Vann Woodward has concluded "If the black-red inter-breeding was anywhere as extensive as suggested by the testimony of ex-slaves, then the monoracial concept of slavery in America requires revision."

To read this article by historian William Loren Katz: Click Here.

The phenomenon of Indian and black intermixing in early America is undoubtedly important to Melungeon studies. Note that the transcriber of this article made a glaring typo in the first paragraph where "geological detectives" should have read "genealogical detectives" instead.

West Virginia Historical and Genealogical Resources

The West Virginia Historical Society has online articles taken from its journal, The West Virginia Quarterly, going to back to 1996.

To visit: Click Here.

To search an online database of West Virginia birth, death and marriage records: Click Here.

More online West Virginia resources can be found at the West Virginia Division of Culture and History; to visit: Click Here.