Since there is an influx of new folks I thought I'd share this!
Dueling in the United States, the Falling Demise by 1900’s.
As the American spirit rose and the rugged dream of masculinity adapted with it, so too did the American ideas revolved around dueling. A system not restricted to men, but a system idolized by men as a way to resolve disputes of honor at its core held a masculine ideology. With the ideas of what made someone masculine changed, so too did the ideology around dueling till its eventual removal from both law and society.
Dueling as a form of legal resolution in the United States has its roots in English law and the rest of Europe. This system has made many requirements of who could issue the duel, on what grounds, weapons, ect. The system of dueling was as complex as the humans who declared them. The first recorded duel in the united states took place in 1621 in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Edward Doty and Edward Kester fought each other with swords. This duel is made only more American in its ideology as it was a duel between servants and not between gentlemen as it had been in ages past. This started the trend in the colonies and played into the manly ideology that dueling would be a way to settle disputes in this new and untamed frontier, by the common man and not just the gentry. As America’s colonies started to go west and the frontier and the population grew, so did the American concept of firearms, combat, and a marriage of these two concepts as a legal basis. By the 1750’s men commonly owned a pair of dueling weapons, more often a single shot pistols, smooth bore, flint lock, weapons.
The dueling process itself often was steeped in unwritten tradition but was commonly held between two disputing men to be a way to resolve the dispute. This not to say women did not duel, as we even see in Europe and the US women renowned for the dueling. Even dueling clubs that were dedicated to being topless while dueling. However, regardless the gander the chance of dying in a duel was relatively slim early on. Flintlocks often would not function properly, either it be a misfire or due to the actual design not even fire accurately. Due to the nature of humankind, most did not even wish to truly harm the other man in the duel, wishing the duel to be more a formality to see if the other would save face and show or be officially known as a dishonorable coward by not appearing. Often both men closing their eyes and firing either above, below, or to the side of their opponent. Men would often appoint a second man to communicate with the other duelist’s second man to arrange terms or even act in their stead should it be required. These duels were more a ceremony, a show of masculinity than a way to kill one another. Duels were even recorded to show men would in a grand display fire their pistol in the air just to prove a point they were not cowards and would show up to the appointment. Showing up and being "ready" to "Defend your honor" was the main point and less of the actual duel itself.
One famous duel, the DeWitt Clinton, and John Swartwout Duel in 1802, saw the men exchange 5 rounds of fire at each other before their seconds were called to make terms. Terms were never met, but the men did live on. Some duels did end in death, even high-ranking gentlemen saw their deaths via this route, such as Button Gwinnet and Commodore Stephen Decatur. Two public figures of their times killed in public duels. At one point even Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr dueled to the death on the morning of July 11, 1804. This duel lead to the death of Alexander Hamilton, a founding father of the Untied States. In all of these cases, these duels were serious affairs, based purely off a masculine idea of honor. This idea would have its roots more strongly associated with the American South, than in any other part of the country.[1]In the American south, a flare for following the tradition of England and France became the norm, where pistol dueling was the "Gentlemen's argument." Even if, as stated, they rarely were to the death as often the fiery speech of the men would lend one to believe. In Central Europe and Eastern Europe, one saw the sword remain the main weapon for dueling, with the Prussian aristocrats Mencer Fencing became the art taught even in schools. Dueling meant to get a single cut against the enemies face to be called a victor.
Andrew Jackson is often a hotly debated figure, but often one of great pride for many who side with Southern Honor and masculinity. He earned part of his reputation with a duel with Charles Dickinson over a horse bet. The two men agreed to a duel, Jackson taunted and demanded Dickinson fire first. This would lead to Jackson being shot in the chest, a wound Jackson would survive. Jackson would attempt to return fire, but his pistol would misfire, resulting in him addressing the weapon and firing again.[2] This second “shot” as it was viewed, was a hotly debated topic at the time as many would say the duel should have ended when his pistol misfired. Many believed that should have been the end of the gentlemen's argument, to see no more violence or bloodshed, as the public began to truly detests duels.
By this point in the 1806, the day of the duel many of the country’s states had ordinances on dueling or even outright banned it. Most of these states were Northern States that had the strictest Anti-dueling laws, leaving a breeding ground of men defending their honor in the south.
In the American South it was a great shame and dishonor to refuse a duel. A stranger contrary opinion to many Northern States where dueling was starting to be viewed as barbaric. Many Western and Southern states often saw their population posting posters all around towns with the words that someone refused a duel and were a coward.[3]
This would eventually snowball into what the public saw in the American Civil War. The American Civil War was the beginning of the end of the practice of dueling. Many officers in the American Civil War were killed in duels or because of wounds gained from dueling. Nearly 620,000 men died from dueling alone in the American Civil War.[4] The Navy lost two-thirds as many officers to dueling as it did to more than 60 years of combat at sea. [5]Coupled with the bloodshed of the War and with the system, the American mind began to shy away from the dueling practice in the late 1860’s. Southern Honor had hit such a peek it had literally killed itself with dueling. Public opinion saw to the courts to settle issues and the average person viewed dueling as the same as murder.
Dueling was an outdated system, often viewed the same as vigilantism at the time, it became an idea of the past.[6] The last legal duel being in 1859 (Just a few short years leading up to the before mentioned US Civil War). The duels mentioned even in the Civil War were illegal matters by State law and Military Law. The ways of fighting out west, Fast Draw Duels were classified as acts of self-defense or murder. Figures like Wild Bill Hickok and Doc Holliday or others had reputations that at the time would be that they either be murders, or relics of the past. Most of these fights would be far from civil, far from formal, and only share a shred of historic resemblance to the gentlemen duels of old. These would often just be arguments in which men had guns at the ready. The Country had fought a war, it had mended itself and it had changed its ideals. Masculinity was changed, dueling had changed. The death of the frontier meant the death of the old, rugged style of men, the death of dueling, the death of fighting being the legal way to handle things. The year 1900 brought change, a new way of life, and new forms of Government. The new century would not resemble the last, dueling would be on its last legs with the last on this Wild West frontier, living in the old ways.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dueling_in_the_Southern_United_States
[2] https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/andrew-jackson-kills-charles-dickinson-in-duel#:~:text=May 30-,Future president Andrew Jackson kills Charles Dickinson in a duel,then insulted his wife, Rachel.&text=Estimates of the number of,ranged from five to 100.
[3] https://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/feature/politics-and-pistols-dueling-in-america/
[4] http://ultimatehistoryproject.com/dueling.html
[5] https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/duel-104161025/
[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duel#:~:text=Dueling had become outdated in,start of the 20th century.
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