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The citizens of Kentucky, a state already known as the Dark and Bloody Ground, did much to substantiate the state's reputation, judging from accounts of the region's violent feuds reported in the nation's newspapers of the late 1800s and early 1900s. The New York Times of July 26, 1885 stated, "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." This book details some of the feuds that led to Kentucky's dubious reputation.
A murder case with all the elements of melodrama -- including seduction and betrayal, political intrigue, honor, and greed -- the Kentucky Tragedy of 1825 riveted the attention of the nation. For decades afterward, its themes resonated in American writing. With unprecedented objectivity, Dickson Bruce recounts the events of the case and offers an innovative analysis of the poems, novels, dramas, and commentary it inspired. He uncovers an intricate connection between public fascination with the Kentucky Tragedy and changing ideas about gender roles, social identity, human motivation, and freedom in the years leading up to the Civil War.Bruce provides a masterly narration of the Tragedy. Around 1819, Colonel Solomon P. Sharp, one of Kentucky's leading politicians, allegedly seduced Ann Cooke, who subsequently delivered a stillborn child she claimed was fathered by Sharp. During the summer of 1825, rumors of the scandal circulated, incensing both Cooke and her husband, Jereboam Beauchamp, who decided, with the support of his wife, that honor compelled him to kill Sharp. He did so, admitted to the act, and was tried, found guilty, and sentenced to die. On the morning of the execution, the couple attempted suicide by stabbing in Beauchamp's jail cell. Cooke died, but Beauchamp was merely wounded and met his date with the hangman later that day.The lurid story appeared widely in the popular press and captured the imaginations of many antebellum writers, including William Gilmore Simms and Edgar Allan Poe. Bruce reveals that the Kentucky Tragedy elicited more literary works than did any other episode of the period. By exploring the transformation of the Tragedy into literature, he illuminates the shifting social, political, and intellectual forces that revolutionized American life in this era.
Did you know that William Goebel of Kentucky remains the only state governor to be assassinated while in office? Or that Abraham Lincoln, now a favorite son of the Bluegrass State, garnered less than 1 percent of the state's vote in 1860? How about Matthew Lyon, the congressman who won reelection from a jail cell and once bit off the thumb of a voter during a brawl on the House floor? These are but three of the fascinating and little-known stories from Kentucky's political past found in True Tales of Old-Time Kentucky Politics. Join longtime columnist Berry Craig as he shares tales of a time when votes could be bought with a drink and political differences were resolved with ten paces and a pistol.
When attorney John Jay Cornelison severely beat Kentucky Superior Court judge Richard Reid in public on April 16, 1884, for allegedly injuring his honor, the event became front-page news. Would Reid react as a Christian gentleman, a man of the law, and let the legal system take its course, or would he follow the manly dictates of the code of honor and challenge his assailant? James C. Klotter crafts a detective story, using historical, medical, legal, and psychological clues to piece together answers to the tragedy that followed. “This book is a gem. . . . Klotter’s astute organization and gripping narrative add to the book’s appeal. . . . [He] has written a fascinating book that will be of interest to a wide audience.” —American Historical Review “A moving story well told, it does force the reader to reflect on our own era and consider whether we value leaders who respect the rule of law or those who believe that honor demands swift and bloody vengeance no matter the costs.” —Ohio Valley History “A rich and compelling work that offers fresh insights into the tense interplay among religion, law, and honor in the American South.” —Register of the Kentucky Historical Society
The Hatfield-McCoy feud has long been the most famous vendetta of the southern Appalachians. Over the years it has become encrusted with myth and error. Scores of writers have produced accounts of it, but few have made any real effort to separate fact from fiction. Novelists, motion picture producers, television script writers, and others have sensationalized events that needed no embellishment. Using court records, public documents, official correspondence, and other documentary evident, Otis K. Rice presents an account that frees, as much as possible, fact from fiction, event from legend. He weighs the evidence carefully, avoiding the partisanship and the attitude of condescension and condemnation that have characterized many of the writings concerning the feud. He sets the feud in the social, political, economic, and cultural context of eastern Kentucky and southwestern West Virginia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. By examining the legacy of the Civil War, the weakness of institutions such as the church and education system, the exaggerated importance of family, the impotence of the law, and the isolation of the mountain folk, Rice gives new meaning to the origins and progress of the feud. These conditions help explain why the Hatfield and McCoy families, which have produced so many fine citizens, could engage in such a bitter and prolonged vendetta
Appalachia first entered the American consciousness as a distinct region in the decades following the Civil War. The place and its people have long been seen as backwards and 'other' because of their perceived geographical, social, and economic isolation. These essays, by fourteen eminent historians and social scientists, illuminate important dimensions of early social life in diverse sections of the Appalachian mountains. The contributors seek to place the study of Appalachia within the context of comparative regional studies of the United States, maintaining that processes and patterns thought to make the region exceptional were not necessarily unique to the mountain South. The contributors are Mary K. Anglin, Alan Banks, Dwight B. Billings, Kathleen M. Blee, Wilma A. Dunaway, John R. Finger, John C. Inscoe, Ronald L. Lewis, Ralph Mann, Gordon B. McKinney, Mary Beth Pudup, Paul Salstrom, Altina L. Waller, and John Alexander Williams