The Coffin Quilt
Page 16
I made Fanny, the youngest, the protagonist, because she was just the right age to tell the story in 1889, and her recollections, which go back to a child of seven and, in one instance, earlier, are viewed and processed as a child would see things. Obviously, with her siblings being all ages, the story would vary and the interpretation be different if told from the eyes of any of them.
I have followed religiously the chronology of events—the stealing of Ranel McCoy's hogs, the trial that followed, the meeting of Johnse and Roseanna at the elections of 1880, the killing under the pawpaw trees, and everything else that is rooted in history. But, as with all my books, the when and where means little if you don't have the why of it. And the why of it is not supplied in history. We can only guess at the emotions that compel people to do what they do. But the why of it is what makes up historical fiction.
So, as with all my books, I have supplied the why. For instance, there is nothing in my research that tells me that Alifair and Fanny didn't get on, but there is Fanny, the youngest in the family. And there is Alifair, twenty-nine and still living at home when she is shot on New Year's Eve in 1887. Why is she still single and living at home when most young girls in these hills were wed at sixteen? Well, she must have had a distinctive character. Perhaps she was too strong willed. Or perhaps she was intent on pursuing some interest that meant more to her than marriage. So I made her a "healer." Yet, not having wed, she would be wanting to see to the household in the ways of a woman, and with her mother sickly, she would want to take over the McCoy kitchen. And pan of that would be bossing around little Fanny, maybe even picking on her and taking out all her frustrations on her. So I have the tension between Fanny and Alifair.
The characters of all the others in the family pretty much follow where history leads me. Big brother Jim was a sheriff's deputy. I gave Floyd the occupation of running the still and making toys and the others duties of raising bees and hunting because in a family of this size everyone would have had their own chores based on their talents or specialties.
Therefore, as with every historical novel, the interaction of the characters is my own invention. The characters are mine, after history gives me what it knows about them. Yet I made up little. I did not have to. The story is enough in itself. Sarah McCoy, the mother, was over religious and did hold back her husband from running raids against the Hatfields many times. She did beg Devil Anse Hatfield for the lives of her boys at the schoolhouse and promise not to send for her husband, based on his promise to her, which he did not keep.
Ambrose Cuzlin, Fanny's teacher, is just about the only character of my own invention, although he is a composite of teachers of the time and place. Yeller Thing is a mythical creature of my own invention also, although ghosts, boogers, witches, and haints were very much a part of the culture of this time and place. Tales of eerie encounters were told and retold around the old stove or fireside at night. In these heavily wooded mountains, where actual panther cats, snakes, and bears waited to harm humans and Bible reading was a regular daily activity, superstition seems to have reigned. Death affected the whole community because people needed the support of their neighbors in those days. They supported each other in bad times and celebrated together in good times. The enemy could be nature, the weather, bad crops, a black bear, a wild hog, fire, or a scream in the woods at night that could be a panther cat or a witch on a rampage.
People knew evil when they saw it. They planted by signs; some were healed by faith, others by natural remedies. If you feared something you made a cross in the dirt with your toe, spit in it, and made a good wish before you left the house. This is only one of many superstitions that got people through a time when there might be no doctor, there were no medicines, sometimes no schools, and little information filtering into their lives from the outside world.
According to my research there really was a Belle Beaver in the area at the time, a "fallen woman" who was driven out. Her role in the story is of my own making.
In history, the feud just quietly came to an end one day. I have Fanny in the possession of a note from Johnse to be given to her sister Roseanna when she is dying. Roseanna, in actuality, just seems to have withered away, as if she willed herself to die. As did brother Bill, after Bud was killed.
As for the Coffin quilt—it was a unique quilt made by women in these parts. Women made quilts to satisfy artistic as well as practical needs. A pioneer girl learned to use the spinning wheel, loom, and needle wheel young. It was part and parcel of her education, along with keeping house, cooking, caring for livestock, and planting a kitchen garden. Girls started making "kiverlids" or coverlets at a young age. In my book, Roseanna didn't have one when she met Johnse. She was too busy being popular and attending social events. So when she stayed at the Hatfields she took up the Coffin quilt, which has meaning on several levels. It is not only to serve as a warm bed comforter for her and Johnse, it is the symbol of her hoped-for marriage, and of the death and destruction that her relationship with Johnse comes to represent. Indeed, of all the mountain crafts practiced by these very inventive and talented people of Kentucky and West Virginia, the Coffin quilt, which to them served as a kind of record of family births and deaths, stood out for me as unique and representative of this feud, which in scope, individual foibles, passions, and strengths rivals anything in classical Greek tragedy.
Bibliography
Donnelly, Clarence Shirley. The Hatfield-McCoy Feud Reader, by Shirley Donnelly. Parsons, W. Va.: McClain Printing Company, 1972.
Eastman, Mary, and Mary Bolte. Dark and Bloodied Ground. Riverside, Conn.: Chatham Press, 1973.
Federal Writers' Project of the Work Projects Administration for the State of Kentucky. Kentucky, a Guide to the Bluegrass State. New York, N.Y.: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1939.
Gillespie, Paul E, ed. Foxfire 7: Ministers, Church Members, Revivals, Baptisms, Shaped-note and Gospel Singing, Faith Healing, Camp Meetings, Foot Washing, Snake Handling, and Other Traditions of Mountain Religious Heritage. New York, N.Y.: Anchor Books/Doubleday, 1982.
McCoy, Truda Williams. The McCoys: Their Story as Told to the Author by Eye Witnesses and Descendants. Pikeville, Ky.: Preservation Council Press of the Preservation Council of Pike County, 1976.
Stuart, Jesse. Men of the Mountains, 1941. Reprint, with a foreword by H. Edward Richardson, Lexington, Ky.: The University Press of Kentucky, 1979.
Waller, Altina L. Feud: Hatfields, McCoys, and Social Change in Appalachia, 1860–1900. Chapel Hill, N.C.: The University of North Carolina Press, 1988.
Wigginton, Eliot, ed. The Foxfire Book: Hog Dressing, Log Cabin Building, Mountain Crafts and Foods, Planting by the Signs, Snake Lore, Hunting Tales, Faith Healing, Moonshining and Other Affairs of Plain Living. New York, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1972.
———. Foxfire 2: Ghost Stories, Spring Wild Plant Foods, Spinning and Weaving, Midwifing, Burial Customs, Com Shuckin's, Wagon Making and More Affairs of Plain Living. New York, N.Y.: Anchor Books/Doubleday, 1973.
———. Foxfire 3: Animal Care, Banjos and Dulcimers, Hide Tanning, Summer and Fall Wild Plant Foods, Butter Chums, Ginseng, and Still More Affairs of Plain Living. New York, N.Y.: Anchor Books, 1975.
———. Foxfire 4: Water Systems, Fiddle Making, Logging, Gardening, Sassasfras Tea, Wood Carving, and Further Affairs of Plain Living. New York, N.Y.: Anchor Books, 1977.
———. Foxfire 6: Shoemaking, Gourd Banjos and Song Bows, One Hundred Toys and Games, Wooden Locks, a Water-powered Sawmill, and Other Affairs of Just Plain Living. New York, N.Y.: Anchor Books/Doubleday, 1980.
Wiggingon, Eliot, and Margie Bennett, eds. Foxfire 9: General Stores, the Jud Nelson Wagon, a Praying Rock, a Catawban Indian Potter, and Haint Tales, Quilting, Home Cures, and the Log Cabin Revisited. New York, N.Y.: Anchor Books/Doubleday, 1986.
About the Author
Ann Rinaldi is an avid researcher and history buff as well as the author of many novels for teens. Best known for her skill in bringing history vividly to life, she
has received numerous starred reviews and awards. Her most recent novels for Harcourt are Cast Two Shadows (1998), an IRA Notable Book for a Global Society, and An Acquaintance with Darkness (1997), an ALA Best Book for Young Adults.
Ms. Rinaldi has two grown children and lives with her husband in central New Jersey.