People Families Feud Hatfield Mccoy Mccoy Hatfields Friendly Rivalry

One of the most famous American "rivalries" (when two people or groups of people try to be better than the other) is the Hatfield-McCoy "feud" (a very long argument between two people or groups of people).

The Hatfield and McCoy families were early "pioneers" (the first people to begin living in an unfamiliar place) on opposite sides of a river dividing West Virginia and Kentucky in the United States. Both families owned a lot of land, but the Hatfields were richer than the McCoys.

The feud began because the Hatfields were angry that one of the McCoys had joined the "Union Army" (the northern army in the U.S. Civil War). McCoy was murdered on January 7, 1865, a few days after he had returned from the army.

Then, in 1873, the two families started arguing about a pig. They couldn't decide which family owned the pig, because they couldn't agree on the families' "property lines" (where one family's land ended and another family's land began). The McCoys lost the argument in court. The man who had "testified" (spoken the truth in the court) was killed by the McCoys.

The feud "escalated" (got bigger) when a McCoy woman decided to live with her Hatfield lover. From then on, McCoys and Hatfields begin to attack and kill each other more frequently.

The Hatfield-McCoy feud became a national news story and the state "governors," or political leaders, used the state soldiers to try to end the feud. Eventually, the "U.S. Supreme Court," the most important court in the country, became involved. In 1891, the families agreed to stop fighting.

The Hatfield-McCoy feud became very well known and even became the subject of jokes, books, and movies. Today the "Hatfield-McCoy feud" is used to refer to family rivalries in general.