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WHEN President Lyndon B. Johnson proposed his Appalachia Program––the war on poverty––his intent was to alleviate the plight of inhabitants of such stricken areas as encompassed in this fictional work. West Virginia and its once-rich hills lie in the very heart of Appalachia. Nature was bountiful in storing great fields of coal, oil and gas beneath the soil. West Virginians should have profited therefrom. Instead, the folk of these hills are among the most desperately poor in the nation. How that state of affairs came about is the subject of this timely, thought-provoking novel. Rebecca Boggs, who knows the hill country intimately, tells us: “I gathered the material for this book little by little from tales and stories told to me by those who claimed they had been swindled, and by passing travelers during my thirty-four years as a fourth-class postmaster and operator of a small general store in the heart of the gas and oil fields of West Virginia. “These accounts are about how people were tricked, bribed, swindled and scared by wealthy oil, gas and coal interests from within the state and from outside the state into forfeiting their land royalties for trifles. “I hope the reader will better understand one of the reasons why our people of the West Virginia hills are classed among the underprivileged. I hope that I succeed in stimulating thought concerning the failing economy of our state.” Many truths take on added impact when presented in fictional form. So it is that the author––with deft handling of plot, fast-paced dialogue and thorough knowledge of her subject––brings on stage a group of imaginary, but entirely believable, characters who fall victim to the machinations of large interests which they are powerless to fight and which they barely understand. How one courageous woman does confront and do battle with the greedy overlords makes this a work of both significance and inspiration.
“Kirk’s marvelous tale of one of the bloodiest Appalachian feuds is a rip-roaring page-turner! . . . a good spirited read.” —Homer Hickam, #1 New York Times–bestselling author This riveting account is the first comprehensive examination of the Lincoln County feud, a quarrel so virulent it rivaled that of the infamous Hatfields and McCoys. The conflict began over personal grievances between Paris Brumfield, a local distiller and timber man, and Cain Adkins, a preacher, teacher, doctor, and justice of the peace. The dispute quickly overtook the small Appalachian community of Hart, West Virginia, leaving at least four dead and igniting a decade-long vendetta. Based on local and national newspaper articles and oral histories provided by descendants of the feudists, this powerful narrative features larger-than-life characters locked in deadly conflict. “Not only does Blood in West Virginia present a compelling narrative of a little known feud in southern West Virginia, it provides valuable insights into the local politics, economy, timber industry and family life in Lincoln County during the late 1800s.” —Dr. Robert Maslowski, President of Council for West Virginia Archaeology and graduate instructor at the Marshall University Graduate College “Tells a fascinating story that elevates the Lincoln County feud to its proper place in Appalachian and West Virginia History.” —Dr. Ivan Tribe, author of Mountaineer Jamboree “This book brings a deadly story to life. Author Brandon Kirk has done remarkable work in untangling the complex web of kinship connections linking both friends and foes, while detailing the social and economic strains of changing times in the mountains.” —Ken Sullivan, executive director, West Virginia Humanities Council, and editor of West Virginia Encyclopedia
“The most comprehensive and comprehendible history of the West Virginia Coal War I’ve ever read.” —John Sayles, writer and director of Matewan On September 1, 1912, the largest, most protracted, and deadliest working-class uprising in American history was waged in West Virginia. On one side were powerful corporations whose millions bought armed guards and political influence. On the other side were fifty thousand mine workers, the nation’s largest labor union, and the legendary “miners’ angel,” Mother Jones. The fight for unionization and civil rights sparked a political crisis that verged on civil war, stretching from the creeks and hollows of the Appalachians to the US Senate. Attempts to unionize were met with stiff resistance. Fundamental rights were bent—then broken. The violence evolved from bloody skirmishes to open armed conflict, as an army of more than fifty thousand miners finally marched to an explosive showdown. Extensively researched and vividly told, this definitive book about an often-overlooked chapter of American history, “gives this backwoods struggle between capital and labor the due it deserves. [Green] tells a dark, often despairing story from a century ago that rings true today” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette).
To many antebellum Americans, Appalachia was a frightening wilderness of lawlessness, peril, robbers, and hidden dangers. The extensive media coverage of horse stealing and scalping raids profiled the regionÕs residents as intrinsically violent. After the Civil War, this characterization continued to permeate perceptions of the area and news of the conflict between the Hatfields and the McCoys, as well as the bloodshed associated with the coal labor strikes, cemented AppalachiaÕs violent reputation. Blood in the Hills: A History of Violence in Appalachia provides an in-depth historical analysis of hostility in the region from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth century. Editor Bruce E. Stewart discusses aspects of the Appalachian violence culture, examining skirmishes with the native population, conflicts resulting from the regionÕs rapid modernization, and violence as a function of social control. The contributors also address geographical isolation and ethnicity, kinship, gender, class, and race with the purpose of shedding light on an often-stereotyped regional past. Blood in the Hills does not attempt to apologize for the region but uses detailed research and analysis to explain it, delving into the social and political factors that have defined Appalachia throughout its violent history.
Written in response to the Hawk's Nest Tunnel disaster of 1931 in Gauley Bridge, West Virginia, The Book of the Dead is an important part of West Virginia's cultural heritage and a powerful account of one of the worst industrial catastrophes in American history. The poems collected here investigate the roots of a tragedy that killed hundreds of workers, most of them African American. They are a rare engagement with the overlap between race and environment in Appalachia. Published for the first time alongside photographs by Nancy Naumburg, who accompanied Rukeyser to Gauley Bridge in 1936, this edition of The Book of the Dead includes an introduction by Catherine Venable Moore, whose writing on the topic has been anthologized in Best American Essays.
The Hatfield-McCoy feud of the 1880s and some time thereafter is one of the noted stories of folklore in America. Today the causes of that family and friends war between the Hatfields and the McCoys will be consideredthe events which led up to the tragedy. There were many causes, an accumulation of things, which finally touched off the feud, or private war, which it actually was, between two determined families. First cause I think can be attributed to the very natures of those concerned. Both families were people of nerve because blood of British origin pulsed in their veins. That blood bespoke stubborn resistance and unflinching determination, an unwavering set. Came the Civil War of 186165 and neighbor lined up against neighbor. In the Union corner was Randolph McCoy, leader of the McCoy clan. In the Confederate corner, six feet of devil and 180 pounds of hell, according to Randolph McCoy, was Anderson (Devil Anse) Hatfield, head of the Hatfield horde. When the war ended in 1865, the internecine feelings of these two neighboring familiesonly the narrow Tug River separated themdid not make for friendly relations. Indeed it had been rumored that Devil Anse Hatfield, in the course of his warfare sometime before the Civil War ended, had slain Harmon McCoy, a brother of Randolph McCoy. This rumor was never proven. In fact, some stated that Jim Vance, later to die in the feud as a friend of the Hatfields, was the one who murdered Harmon McCoy. Whoever killed Harmon McCoy is unknown for sure even to this day, but one thing is sure, his death created ill feeling between the McCoys and the Hatfields, from the McCoy corner, of course. A third cause of the feud was a family quarrel, which wound up in the court of a justice of the peace. That was eight years after the Civil War had ended. In those days in the rugged regions of the Tug, the people let their hogs run loose and fatten on the mast of nut-bearing trees, chestnut, acorn, hazel, and other trees.
" West Virginia boasts an unusually rich heritage of ghost tales. Originally West Virginians told these hundred stories not for idle amusement but to report supernatural experiences that defied ordinary human explanation. From jealous rivals and ghostly children to murdered kinsmen and omens of death, these tales reflect the inner lives—the hopes, beliefs, and fears—of a people. Like all folklore, these tales reveal much of the history of the region: its isolation and violence, the passions and bloodshed of the Civil War era, the hardships of miners and railroad laborers, and the lingering vitality of Old World traditions.
Written in Blood features the work of Appalachia’s leading scholars and activists making available an accurate, ungilded, and uncensored understanding of our history. Combining new revelations from the past with sketches of a sane path forward, this is a deliberate collection looking at our past, present, and future. Sociologist Wess Harris (When Miners March) further documents the infamous Esau scrip system for women, suggesting an institutionalized practice of forced sexual servitude that was part of coal company policy. In a conversation with award-winning oral historian Michael Kline, federal mine inspector Larry Layne explains corporate complicity in the 1968 Farmington Mine disaster which killed seventy-eight men and became the catalyst for the passage of major changes in U.S. mine safety laws. Mine safety expert and whistleblower Jack Spadaro speaks candidly of years of attempts to silence his courageous voice and recalls government and university collaboration in covering up details of the 1972 Buffalo Creek flooding disaster, which killed over a hundred people and left four thousand homeless. Moving to the next generation of thinkers and activists, attorney Nathan Fetty examines current events in Appalachia and musician Carrie Kline suggests paths forward for people wishing to set their own course rather than depend on the kindness of corporations.