Who is watching The Hatfields and The McCoy's Part 3? I didn't realize how violent it was. Being I

[fishwax]

19. It's true that the Hatfields were more affluent, but that doesn't really tell the whole story

Anse Hatfield was more successful in timber than Randolph McCoy (who also had made an attempt at making money logging, but without as much success), but the McCoys were not exactly poor, and were allied with outside interest seeking to develop (and profit from) the region's resources. The McCoy side was backed by wealthy interests in Pikeville who were interested in bringing further development into the area and saw Hatfield as an obstacle to that.

Particularly important for the McCoy side in this regard was Perry Cline, who (as the miniseries showed) had had a personal/legal dispute with Hatfield over the ownership of a large parcel of land. Cline financial and political connections and was connected to the McCoys through his sister, who married the McCoy brother who fought for the union and was killed by Confederate guerillas. In 1887, Cline promised to deliver the McCoy vote to gubernatorial candidate Simon Bolivar Buckner in exchange for state help in crushing the Hatfields.

Hatfield descendants remained active in West Virginia politics for a while. One of Anse's nephews was governor and U.S. senator--he was a Republican, but of course those were different times and so being a republican in the south meant something very different than it does now. His administration was big on organized labor and worker's rights. Another of Anse's nephews (grand nephews) was the police chief of Matewan, Kentucky, and gave his life after fighting for the rights of the UMWA in the unrest that town is famous for. He was killed by industry hired thugs. If you've seen the John Sayles film Matewan, David Strathairn played Sid Hatfield. (If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it.)