Kentucky Blood Feud - The Murder of Daniel Bates | 1

American History Tellers

Wondery

Society & Culture, Kids & Family, History, Education For Kids

4.7 • 18.3K Ratings

🗓️ 11 December 2019

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The longest and bloodiest feud in American history erupted in the 1840s in Clay County, Kentucky — where it raged for nearly a century and ultimately claimed more than 150 lives. The Clay County War, also known as the Baker-Howard Feud, pitted four families against each other: the powerful Garrads and Whites, who assembled vast wealth mining salt, and the less influential Bakers and Howards. In time, the Garrards would align with the Bakers, and the Whites with the Howards.

At first, the families got along, cooperating in the back-breaking work involved with extracting salt in the Appalachian region. But as the economy collapsed and new technologies led to new competition from the outside, the families would find themselves increasingly competing for survival — and a single act of violence would be enough to spark a conflict that spanned generations.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, prime members, you can listen to American History Tellers add free on Amazon Music, download the app today.
0:19.0	Imagine it's 9 o'clock in the morning on October 3rd, 1845.
0:24.0	It's still chilly in this small building next to the Clay County Courthouse in eastern Kentucky.
0:30.0	As you step outside the county jail, you take deep breaths of fresh mountain air and it's a welcome relief.
0:36.0	You've been visiting a prisoner. Man's scheduled to hang in a matter of hours.
0:41.0	Your host, the sheriff, turns to you. Sorry about the stink inside, Reverend. He refuses to keep clean. It's okay, son.
0:48.0	It's obvious the man is not right in the head. And given that, I don't understand why the execution is taking place.
0:55.0	There has to be a way to stop this. You know I can't do anything about that, Reverend. He still won't denounce what he did.
1:01.0	Avner Baker must die, according to Judge and Jerry. The man hears voices share. The devil made him do it.
1:08.0	Plots against his life by his own mother and father. Surely the lunatic asylum in Lexington is a much better solution than taking a man's life.
1:15.0	He suffers from delusions.
1:18.0	Delusions. Surely, Reverend, you don't believe that hogwash. He's putting it on. Baker was a doctor.
1:23.0	He knows right from wrong. He shot his brother-in-law in the back in cold blood. But you know as well as I do that Avner didn't get a fair trial.
1:31.0	At least half of that jury were of the victim's family. You're even a cousin.
1:37.0	I'll do respect, Reverend. Daniel Bates did not deserve to get shot in the back. And his wife did not deserve to become a widow at such a young age.
1:45.0	No matter how you look at it, Avner Baker is a bad man. And Clay Canny would be better off without him.
1:51.0	And within an hour, we will be.
1:55.0	You and the sheriff get on your horses and trot out to the road towards the outskirts of town.
2:00.0	This is the path that leads to the gallows and certain death for Baker. You feel discouraged.
2:05.0	But determine to make one last plea until you're distracted by something on the horizon.
2:10.0	Looking up toward the path in front of you, you see row upon row of men on horseback carrying guns.
2:17.0	You feel a dread in the pit of your stomach. We turn to the sheriff.
	...

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