> Gorn, Elliott J. 1985. "'Gouge and Bite, Pull Hair, and Scratch'" The
> Social Significance of Fighting in Southern Backcountry." American
> Historical Review, 90: 1 (February): pp. 18-52,
> > Have you got a cite on the Gorn article? I know he wrote a whole book
on
> > prize-fighting, _The Manly Art_ was it?
Thanks. I notice that the article is about fighting and violence in "the southern backcountry." I think that in the early US there were profound regional differences in attitudes about violence and a lot of other things, which remain with us today.
In this I follow David Hackett Fischer, _Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America_ (Oxford UP, 1989). An excerpt (pp. 6-7):
"During the very long period from 1629 to 1775, the present area of the United States was settled by at least four large waves of English-speaking immigrants. The first was an exodus of Puritans from the east of England to Massachusetts during a period of eleven year from 1629 to 1640. The second was the migration of a small royalist elite and large numbers of indentured servants from the south of England to Virginia (ca. 1642-75). The third was a movement from the North Midlands of England and Wales to the Delaware Valley (ca. 1675-1725). The fourth was a flow of English-speaking people from the borders of North Britain and norther Ireland to the Appalachian backcountry from 1718 to 1775."
"By the year 1775 these four cultures were fully established in British America. The spoke distinctive dialects of English, built their houses in diverse ways, and had different methods of doing much of the ordinary business of life. Most important for the political history of the United States, they also had ... different conceptions of order, power, and freedom..."
"Today less than 20 percent of the American population have any British ancestors at all. But in a cultural sense most Americans are Albion's seed, no matter who their own forebears may have been. Strong echoes of four British folkways may still be heard in the major dialects of American speech, in the regional patterns of American life, in the complex dynamics of American politics, and in the continuing conflict between ... different ideas of freedom in the United States... the legacy of four British folkways in early America remains the most powerful determinant of a voluntary society in the United States."
Jacob Conrad