The Appalachian Culture of Honor: Origins and Manifestations

Key Insight

Harlan, Kentucky, a remote and sparsely populated area in the Cumberland Plateau, was founded in 1819 by eight immigrant families from the British Isles. This mountainous region, with its five-hundred to one-thousand-foot high mountain walls and narrow valleys, was covered in dense primeval forest, including giant tulip poplars with seven to eight-foot diameter trunks. For its first century, Harlan rarely numbered more than ten thousand people, with settlers primarily engaged in herding sheep, raising pigs, making whiskey, and felling trees. Its isolation was profound, requiring a two-day wagon trip to the nearest train station and a nine-mile steep ascent up Pine Mountain. This remote setting became the backdrop for the violent Howard-Turner feud, which began with a cow shooting and escalated through numerous killings, including a poker game dispute, an ambush killing three Cawoods, and a mother's refusal of a truce, stating, 'You can't wipe out that blood' over her dead son.

The Harlan feud was not an isolated event but part of a broader pattern of violence seen across the Appalachian Mountains. Examples include the Hatfield-McCoy feud, which claimed dozens of lives over twenty years; the French-Eversole feud, where twelve people died, six at the hands of 'Bad Tom' Smith; and the Martin-Tolliver feud, culminating in a two-hour battle involving one hundred armed men. The prevalence of such similar conflicts led to the identification of a 'culture of honor.' This cultural trait tends to develop in highlands and marginally fertile areas where herding is the dominant livelihood. Unlike farmers, who rely on community cooperation and have less risk of their crops being stolen, herdsmen face constant threats to their animals and, consequently, their livelihood. To protect their assets and reputation, they must project an aggressive demeanor, responding with force to even the slightest challenge or insult.

The Appalachian culture of honor has deep historical roots, originating from the 'Scotch-Irish' immigrants who settled the region. These individuals came from the 'borderlands' of Scotland, northern England, and Ulster in Northern Ireland—territories historically characterized by remoteness, lawlessness, and frequent conflict. As herdsmen on rocky, infertile land, they developed clannish societies with strong family bonds and an unwavering loyalty to blood relatives. Upon their migration to North America, they sought out similar remote, lawless, and marginally fertile interior regions like Harlan, allowing them to reproduce their Old World culture of honor. This cultural legacy explains the distinctive pattern of criminality in the American South, where murder rates are higher but property and 'stranger' crimes are lower. Homicides are typically personal, between acquaintances, driven by issues of honor rather than economic gain, as evidenced by a jury's acquittal of a man who shot his tormentors for insults, with one juror remarking, 'He wouldn't of been much of a man if he hadn't shot them fellows.'