Rough and tumble fighting (Rough-and-tumble) was a form of fighting in rural portions of the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, primarily in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It was often characterized by the objective of gouging but also included other brutally disfiguring techniques, including biting, and typically took place in order to settle disputes.

Popularity

Though gouging was common by the 1730s in southern colonies, the practice was waning by the 1840s, by which time the

Bowie knife A Bowie knife ( ) is a pattern of fixed-blade fighting knives created by Rezin Bowie in the early 19th century for his brother James Bowie, who had become famous for his use of a large knife at a duel known as the Sandbar Fight. Since its fir ...

and

revolver A revolver is a repeating handgun with at least one barrel and a revolving cylinder containing multiple chambers (each holding a single cartridge) for firing. Because most revolver models hold six cartridges before needing to be reloaded, ...

had made frontier disputes more lethal. Though it was never an organized sport, participants would sometimes schedule their fights (as one could schedule a

duel A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two people with matched weapons. During the 17th and 18th centuries (and earlier), duels were mostly single combats fought with swords (the rapier and later the small sword), but beginning in ...

), and victors were treated as local heroes. Gouging was essentially a type of duel to defend one's honor that was most common among the poor, and was especially common in southern states in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

Practice

When a dispute arose, fighters could either agree to fight "fair", meaning according to Broughton rules, or "rough and tumble". According to Elliott Gorn: Ears, noses, lips, fingers and genitals could be disfigured in these fights, but Gorn notes: The practice spread at least as far west as rural Missouri, where "a particularly dextrous fellow could pluck his opponent's eyeballs from their sockets with one good thrust of the thumbs." This disfigurement may have been subsequently construed as a visible sign of dishonor. Though the practice was widespread, it was "best suited to the backwoods", according to Gorn. Though legend sometimes amplifies the brutality of these fights, Gorn emphasizes the historical reality of these events:

Legislation

An act passed by the

Virginia Assembly The Virginia General Assembly is the legislative body of the Commonwealth of Virginia, the oldest continuous law-making body in the Western Hemisphere, and the first elected legislative assembly in the New World. It was established on July 30, ...

in 1752 begins by remarking that "many mischievous and ill disposed persons have of late, in a malicious and barbarous manner, maimed, wounded, and defaced, many of his majesty's subjects", then very specifically makes it a

felony A felony is traditionally considered a crime of high seriousness, whereas a misdemeanor is regarded as less serious. The term "felony" originated from English common law (from the French medieval word "''félonie''") to describe an offense that r ...

to "put out an eye, slit the nose, bite or cut off a nose, or lip", among other offenses. The Assembly went on to amend the act in 1772 to make it clear that this included "gouging, plucking or putting out an eye." Court cases and legal rulings in Tennessee, South Carolina, and Arkansas provide ample evidence of the history of this type of fighting.

References

{{martial arts North American martial arts Hybrid martial arts Human eye Violence in sports Blood sports

Popularity

Practice

Legislation

See also

References