Smilin' Sid Hatfield is a story that mostly takes place in the Southern West Virginia coal fields in the 1920's. It's true American history that few people have heard about. It happened almost exactly where the famous Hatfield & McCoy feud took place. The story follows Sid Hatfield's rise from a common coal miner to the Matewan Chief of Police. It doesn't end with his murder on August 1, 1921. It's a story about how one person can have a profound effect on the working conditions of all Americans.
Sid Hatfield was but one example of the oppressive Lochner Era of labor in the early 20th century. The difference was he had the guts to stand up to an overwhelming force. He worked in an industry that was very much life or death at the time. Like many laborers in 1920, miners were at the mercy of their employer. In Matewan, miners couldn't even get paid with real dollars. The company created their own script. The people were desperate to follow someone who would simply say "no" to the injustice. They were mostly white, black, Italian, Irish, Polish, and Germain. All of them mined coal. Sid united them. At least for a while.