Minorities & Changing Views: Combat Sports in Societies (1500-1880)

Contributor: Connor Dillon

(Note: This is a topic statement for my 300-level history course, which will wind up being a full 25 page paper or 25-minute video, which will be linked at a later date)

Well, for several weeks I knew I wanted to cover combat sports in some way or another. I wanted to look for cultural events that may have been considered a religious or social ritual on both sides of the Atlantic, and possibly tie the travel of people and the introductions of new ideas into the transformation of them. I was willing to include things like duels with swords (fencing) and trial by combat rituals, as they occurred in some form or another on both sides of the ocean. Then, I had a monumental breakthrough. Many of the sources I came across and chose to use discusses how the downtrodden individuals of certain times gained respect and even prestige in eras where racist and sexist notions prevailed. So what better topic than one regarding the great advancements made by fighters, be it from a racial, religious, or gender issue, in their time period or country.

The underlying argument is that by fighting, individuals have been placed in high esteem throughout history. Every culture values warriors: Japan has Samurais that led the country for several hundred years, the Aztecs had the Jaguar and Eagle warriors that brought back captives to sacrifice, and Rome had Gladiators that became heroes to be emulated across the empire, as well as the hundreds of other major cultures throughout history and the world. So during the 1400s when Spain kicked out the Jews and the Muslims that had been living there for centuries, any that stayed behind or migrated back a hundred years later into the very intolerant country, there was literally no respect for them. Further north, the British had dominated the Irish and the Scottish, invading both countries and forcing them into the growing British Empire. The Irish in particular were treated as beasts, lesser than the “red men”, the Native Americans, that the British had recently encountered.

Across the Atlantic, people showed more disregard for Natives and “immigrants”. The Native Americans, from South America, the Caribbean, to North America, were all second-class citizens. The Africans that had been captured in West Africa and transported all across the Atlantic constantly faced oppression as enslaved people, with beatings and whippings a common occurrence on most plantations. In several cases, there have been reports of slaves forced to fight each other, though the validity of these claims are under constant scrutiny. Personally, as a combat sports enthusiast, I would not be the least bit surprised if it happen, as individuals and small groups fighting each other are found as rituals across history and the world. Then to top off these two injustices, of mistreating both the Natives and the enslaved Africans, the immigrants from Ireland and other parts of Europe were handled in a belligerent way.

With abuses manifesting up and down the coasts of the Atlantic, I was surprised that it took several wars and economic struggles for some of the more interesting happenings to crop up. They began in Europe with Daniel Mendoza, a Sephardic Jew who lived in England, and transformed the English perception on Jews from being weak, defenseless individuals, to someone worthy of respect for fighting prowess. A compatriot of his is Tom Molineaux, a former slave who purchased his freedom from winning bets on boxing matches he was a part of for entertaining the plantation owners. Molineaux fought in England and Ireland mostly, and was one of the first freedmen to earn championship fights, notably against Tom Cribb. The time period was around the late 1700s through the early 1800s. In both cases, these men fought and earned respect for their religion (Judaism) and their race (African). Around the same time, women in Europe (particularly Ireland and England) learned he art of boxing, fighting each other in brutal matches that brought much attention and money to them. Several women had famous male boxers as their seconds to the matches. The most famous, Elizabeth Wilkinson, became the “championess” of her city, inviting all female comers to a match. Later, when virtually all slaves in Europe and the Americas had been freed and there was greater movement of the freedmen and women, several notable African fighters like Jack Johnson, fought for and won world titles. During those same times there was a women’s suffrage movement in England whose leaders were constantly under threat of arrest. The preferred method of confrontation was by twenty-five women to learn jiu-jitsu (Judo with more newaza) and become the bodyguards for the top leaders of the movement. It was quite efficient.

In all of these cases, men and women, regardless of standing at birth, or color of their skin, or religion they believed, overcame the dug in beliefs of the time, that men of color were not equal to whites, that Jews and other minorities were weaklings, and that women could fight just as well as the men. These are all things I’ve learned, and I look forward to explaining them in greater detail further in the semester.

-Connor can be reached @connorhavok