In West Virginia, the names of Hatfields and McCoys are the well known families involved in one of the most famous feuds. The biggest misconception of this famous feud is that the factor of why these two families do not get along, it is not family rivalry but instead social and economic factors. In reality, many McCoys were on Hatfield’s side and vice versa or some family members did not even participate in the events concerning the feud. “Apparently, family solidarity is not a sufficient explanation for feud alliances.” For example, “Although less than half of an identifiable thirty-one supporters were related to Devil Anse, twenty six---or a striking 84 percent--- were tied to our dependent upon him through land purchases or timbering.” These points tie in to the question on what determined what side of the feud someone would be on. As it is known, the Feud started ten years after the Civil War was over, stopped and then was ignited again with the death count of twelve. From the first part of the Feud to the second part, changes were happening in the Tug Valley, socially and economically. In terms of socially, the society went from a local community to having social elite and in terms of economically, it went from small businessmen such as Devil Anse to big time companies wanting to build railroads to dive into the coal and timber business. With these changes, also came the transformation of the legal system, state politics, and industrialization fueled the frustration of the families and heightened the violence of the Feud ultimately. In the Tug Valley, the social and economic aspects changed from the first part and the second part in the circumstances of the families running the local government and the economy also going... ... middle of paper ... ...ints of views in the first part, “what was being challenged by the McCoys was a set of competitive economic activities carried out by one particular group of people centered on Devil Anse Hatfield. Yet, despite the evidence the Hatfield group was defending rational economic interests.” As the second part of the Feud began, it was revived by Perry Cline under the terms of his resentment towards Devil for the taking of his land in the earlier years of the Feud. As it came to be known that West Virginia and back country of Kentucky were filled with profitable resources, state governors were now a part of the Feud. Hatfield in the second half of the Feud were only trying to protect themselves and economic status. Works Cited Atlina Waller, Feud Hatfields, McCoys, and Social Change in Appalachia, 1860-1900, (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina, 1988), 78.
I am from a small town called Bristol Borough, Pennsylvania. It is along the Delaware River, about 25 miles northeast of Philadelphia. Bristol Borough was founded in 1681. This is the states third oldest borough, that was once a busy river port with important shipbuilding activities (Cohen 438). It is predominately residential, with the exception of Mill Street, the community's traditional commercial street. It includes fine examples of many major styles and idioms, reflecting the community's long history and its importance as a transportation and commercial center (Owen 133). The 28-acre Bristol Industrial Historic District includes the original town of Bristol and the residential area that extends northeast along the bank of the Delaware River (Owen 132). The Bristol Industrial Historic District is a significant collection of the factory and mill complexes containing elements dating from 1875-1937 (Owen 133). Among the mills is the Grundy Mill Complex. It is a visual representation of industrial growth of Bristol Borough. This mill was run by Joseph R. Grundy. The dramatic scale of later buildings stand as the source and monument to the wealth and power of Joseph Grundy (Owen 145). Joseph Grundy was the proprietor of the Bristol Worsted Mills, and one of the most prominent manufacturers and businessmen of Bucks County (Green 252). The Bristol Worsted Mills no longer run but the building is still standing. Bristol owes a lot to Joseph R. Grundy for his contributions to the people and the town itself.
In Our savage neighbors written by Peter Silver, violence and terror characterized the relationship between the Indians and the Pennsylvanian colonists. The conspectus of Silver’s book resides on the notion that fear was the prime motivator that led to the rebirth
Breen, T. H., and Stephen Innes. Myne Owne Ground: Race and Freedom on Virginia 's Eastern Shore, 1640-1676. 25th anniversary ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. 142 pages (kindle edition).
The book starts out with a chapter called “Over the Mountains”, which in my opinion for this chapter the author wanted the reader to understand what it was like to live on the other side of the Appalachian Mountains. This is where he brings out one of the main characters in this book, which is Henry Brackenridge. Mr. Brackenridge is a cultivated man in Pittsburgh. He was wealthy and he was there to ratify the Constitution. He was a Realist. He was a college friend of James Madison at College of New Jersey. He was also in George Washington’s post as a chaplain for the Revolutionary War. He believed that Indians needed to be assimilated into the American culture. “… ever to be converted into civilized ways, their legal rights were to be protected” (Hogeland 19). He will become one of the leaders of the Whiskey Rebellion.
In the introduction, Hämäläinen introduces how Plains Indians horse culture is so often romanticized in the image of the “mounted warrior,” and how this romanticized image is frequently juxtaposed with the hardships of disease, death, and destruction brought on by the Europeans. It is also mentioned that many historians depict Plains Indians equestrianism as a typical success story, usually because such a depiction is an appealing story to use in textbooks. However, Plains Indians equestrianism is far from a basic story of success. Plains equestrianism was a double-edged sword: it both helped tribes complete their quotidian tasks more efficiently, but also gave rise to social issues, weakened the customary political system, created problems between other tribes, and was detrimental to the environment.
Kentucky was a small town in the Appalachian Mountains, where two warring families fought each other to the death during the early 19th century. Harlan wasn’t the only town in the Appalachian Mountains that grew restless, but several others as well were erupting in bloodshed. The explanation for this behavior is tied back to something called “the culture of honor”. It was in their culture, that if a person kills one person from the family, the member of this family must kill the killer of their family member. Their culture legacy affects them negatively, and they are retaliating up to now, and killing each other. All this bad situation is the cause of their negative cultural legacies. Imagine how tough culture, it was, that a mother told for his injured son “go fight and die like a man like your brother did”. They were able to change their negative culture in a positive one, to have a save society, but they didn’t do that, and That’s how lots of people lost and losing their life cause of a negative culture in Harlan
"Chapter 2 Western Settlement and the Frontier." Major Problems in American History: Documents and Essays. Ed. Elizabeth Cobbs Hoffman, Edward J. Blum, and Jon Gjerde. 3rd ed. Vol. II: Since 1865. Boston, MA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2012. 37-68. Print.
While the western frontier was still new and untamed, the western hero often took on the role of a vigilante. The vigilante’s role in the frontier was that of extralegal verve which was used to restrain criminal threats to the civil peace and opulence of a local community. Vigilantism was typical to the settler-state societies of the western frontier where the structures and powers of government were at first very feeble and weak. The typical cowboy hero had a willingness to use this extralegal verve. The Virginian demonstrated this throughout with his interactions with Trampas, most notably in the interactions leading up to the shoot out and during the shoot-out itself. “Others struggled with Trampas, and his bullet smashed the ceiling before they could drag the pistol from him… Yet the Virginian stood quiet by the...
When one thinks of the United States of America, they probably consider our history, our culture, our media, our impressive cities and the extremely wide variety of beautiful wildernesses that we are lucky enough to still enjoy. We are lucky enough to have a melting pot of cultures in this country, and many different kinds of people. However, when thinking of an original, all-American figure, cowboys come to mind for many people. Our history and the settlement of the U.S. was unlike any other country, and the development of the country in the more western states came with the unique and fascinating time period referred to now as “The Old West”. The Old West was a crucial time in American history, and though it was a simpler time it also came with its share of excitement. Some of the most memorable details about the Old West were the characters that came with it, and some extremely interesting ones were the least conforming- the outlaws. Jesse Woodson James was one of the most notorious outlaws in American history. His name would go down in history as one belonging to a tough as nails and fearless bank robber who led a group of outlaws across the mid-west robbing banks and trains, and even murdering people. When we look at the big picture of what the U.S. has become today, The Old West certainly has had a large impact on our culture, and Jesse James certainly had a large impact on the Old West. Though most would argue that he was not a decent or moral person, one cannot argue that he was still a very interesting and unique icon of the west. So how did Jesse Woodson James change and leave his mark on the United St...
Cherokee Indians “Memorial of Protest of the Cherokee Nation, June 22, 1836” in The Cherokee Removal: A Brief History with Documents, ed. Theda Perdue and Michael D. Green (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2005), 87
(Lewis, 2006) (cite in text) Tar Heel Junior Historian 45, no. 2 (Spring 2006) copyright North Carolina Museum of History.
Over the years, the idea of the western frontier of American history has been unjustly and falsely romanticized by the movie, novel, and television industries. People now believe the west to have been populated by gun-slinging cowboys wearing ten gallon hats who rode off on capricious, idealistic adventures. Not only is this perception of the west far from the truth, but no mention of the atrocities of Indian massacre, avarice, and ill-advised, often deceptive, government programs is even present in the average citizen’s understanding of the frontier. This misunderstanding of the west is epitomized by the statement, “Frederick Jackson Turner’s frontier thesis was as real as the myth of the west. The development of the west was, in fact, A Century of Dishonor.” The frontier thesis, which Turner proposed in 1893 at the World’s Columbian Exposition, viewed the frontier as the sole preserver of the American psyche of democracy and republicanism by compelling Americans to conquer and to settle new areas. This thesis gives a somewhat quixotic explanation of expansion, as opposed to Helen Hunt Jackson’s book, A Century of Dishonor, which truly portrays the settlement of the west as a pattern of cruelty and conceit. Thus, the frontier thesis, offered first in The Significance of the Frontier in American History, is, in fact, false, like the myth of the west. Many historians, however, have attempted to debunk the mythology of the west. Specifically, these historians have refuted the common beliefs that cattle ranging was accepted as legal by the government, that the said business was profitable, that cattle herders were completely independent from any outside influence, and that anyone could become a cattle herder.
The West has always held the promise of opportunity for countless Americans. While many African Americans struggled to find the equality promised to them after the Civil War, in the West black cowboys appeared to have created some small measure of it on the range. Despite this, their absence from early historical volumes has shown that tolerance on the range did not translate into just treatment in society for them or their families.
The struggle for hegemony over Butte’s copper industry was defined by the wars of the copper kings in Montana as well as the personal animus and conflict between William A. Clark and Marcus Daly. Mining and political unscrupulousness defined this era of corporate profligacy. Not to mention that this personal, political, and economic struggle, between Daly and Clark, greatly denigrated Montana, and assisted in reducing the state into the status of an eastern corporate colony; which caused extreme detriment to both the environment and Montana’s citizens. This strife between the corporate barons was driven primarily by economic and political reasons; however the backgrounds and personal dispositions of Clark and Daly helped widen the chasm between
of the book. Eds. James N. N. Pickering and Jeffery D. Hoeper. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice, O. 1700-57. The 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary'.