Society in the 1800s

Society in the 1800s

Gladwell describes a feud that occurred between two Appalachian families in the late 1800s in Kentucky. The Howard and Turner families fought a bitter feud in which many people ended up dying. At the same time in other locations in the Appalachians, similar family feuds were breaking out. There was an epidemic of Appalachian family feuds, some lasting for decades. The area became infamous for the feuding, and outside help was often brought in to stop the chaos. Harlan, Kentucky by Malcolm Gladwell could most commonly be referred to as the “Wild West,” where they shoot first and ask questions later. Harlan was a remote town out in the middle of nowhere, unknown by the larger surrounding societies. Malcolm Gladwell uses the Culture of Honor to describe how men acted back in the mid to late 1800s. Malcolm Gladwell is a Canadian journalist based in New York. Malcolm was on the New York Times best seller list four times.

Harlan County was founded in 1819 by eight immigrant families. The county was never wealthy. The first one hundred years of the county’s existence the population never got above ten thousand people. The first settlers in the town either herded sheep, kept pigs, or farmed. Everybody in the town made their own whiskey in backyard stills. The closest train station is a two-day wagon ride and the only way out is up a steep rocky mountain trail. Two families started fights with each other often, the Howard’s and the Turner’s. Howard’s were a little hot tempered because every time they had a confrontation with the Turner’s it would end in a shootout. Samuel Howard built the town courthouse and the jail. William Turner owned a tavern and two general stores in town. Whenever a competitor would try to move into town, the Turner’s would go over and have a “friendly” talk with them. By the next day the competitor was gone and moved his business somewhere else. One of the Turners neighbor’s cows wandered onto their property and one of the Turners sons, “Devil Jim,” shot the cow dead. The neighbor was so scared that he did not press charges, and he even fled the country. That was the kind of fear the Turners gave people. Just to show how violently things were settled back in the 1800s Wix Howard and “Little Bob” Turner were playing a friendly game of poker until they both accused each other of cheating. They got into a fight, and the next day they met in the middle of the town and after an exchanging of gun fire “Little Bob” Turner laid dead in the middle of the street. The Howard family killed several family members of the Turners.

Harlan was not the only place that had families arguing with each other. There were instances along the border of West Virginia and Kentucky, the families involved were the Hatfield’s and the McCoy’s. In this feud there were several dozen people killed over the span of twenty